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19 The Kingdom of Chechi

Wukong left the cabinet and flew to the Tang Monk's ear. Tiger-Strength guessed, "There is a Daoist acolyte in it." The Tang Monk folded his hands and said, "I guess it is a monk." Tiger-Strength called to the acolyte, but there was no stir, and he broke out in a cold sweat. Bajie called, "Little monk, why don't you come out!" and at once the little monk pushed open the lid and climbed out, beating his wooden fish. The king urged the royal preceptors to let the Tang Monk go westward, but Tiger-Strength said, "Your Majesty, since we have met our match, let us simply wager with him on the utmost things: a head struck off and set back on, a belly cut open and the heart gouged out yet grown again, and a plunge into the boiling-oil cauldron as if into a bath." The king said in great alarm, "Why, these are all wagers of life and death!" Wukong said, "No matter; let them wager as they please." The king gave orders for an execution ground to be prepared, and three thousand imperial guards drew up before the palace gate. Wukong comforted his Master and strode with long steps onto the execution ground. At the cry of "Strike!", the executioner raised his blade and brought it down, and Wukong's head rolled to the ground like a melon. Though Wukong's head had fallen to the ground, no blood flowed from it; instead a voice called from his belly, "Head, come back!" Seeing this, Deer-Strength muttered a spell and put forth the great art of the Five Thunders, commanding the local earth god to hold Wukong's head fast so that it could not move. Wukong snapped the ropes that bound him and gave a great shout of "Grow!", and in an instant a new head grew out of his neck. The executioner and the imperial guards were terrified out of their wits. The officer who oversaw the execution reported to the king that the hairy-faced monk had grown another head after his was cut off, and the king at once ordered that the Tang Monk be allowed to go westward. But Wukong said, "Our contest is not finished; there is no hurry to go west. Now it is the royal preceptor's turn to lose his head!" The king had no choice but to send Tiger-Strength to the execution ground. The Tiger-Strength Immortal mounted the execution ground, and the executioner cut off his head with one stroke. Tiger-Strength too cried, "Head, come back!" At once Wukong plucked out a hair and turned it into a yellow dog, which seized Tiger-Strength's head in its jaws and ran without stopping to the bank of the imperial canal, where it flung the head into the water. Tiger-Strength called for his head and it did not answer, and he died upon the spot, his body turning into a headless yellow-haired tiger. Deer-Strength, overcome with grief and fury, petitioned, "My elder brother is dead, and that monk has turned him into a tiger besides! I swear I will wager with him now at cutting open the belly and gouging out the heart!" The king did not dare refuse. The king asked Wukong whether he was willing to wager, and Wukong said with a laugh, "Wager away, it makes no difference to me!" He came to the execution ground again, loosened his sash and leaned back against the great stake. The executioner drove his knife into Wukong's belly and opened a hole. Wukong drew out his entrails, cleaned them thoroughly, put them back inside his belly, breathed a breath of immortal air upon them, and the skin of his belly closed up as good as new. Seeing that Wukong was unharmed, the king told him to go westward at once, but Wukong would not hear of it: he was waiting for the second royal preceptor to have his belly cut open and his heart gouged out. The king had no way out of it, and had to send the Deer-Strength Immortal to the execution ground. The executioner bound Deer-Strength with ropes and slit open his belly with a short ox-ear knife. At once Wukong plucked out a hair and turned it into a hungry eagle, which seized the heart, the liver and all the entrails of Deer-Strength with all its might and flew away on spreading wings. Deer-Strength fell down dead, and his body proved to be a white-haired antlered deer. At this sight Goat-Strength was beside himself with rage, and insisted on wagering with Wukong once more on bathing in the boiling-oil cauldron, so as to avenge his brothers. The king had no choice but to order a great cauldron set up, filled with fragrant oil, with dry faggots heaped beneath it; and when the oil had been heated until it seethed and rolled red, the king asked, "Who will go first?" Wukong stepped forward and said, "Old Sun will go first!" Wukong came forward, took off his cloth shirt and slipped off his tigerskin skirt, gave a bound and leapt into the cauldron, where he tumbled about among the waves as much at his ease as if he were playing in water. Wukong caught sight of Bajie grinning, and thought to himself: that fool is laughing at me! Let me play a trick on him. Wukong splashed the oil and turned himself into a date-pit nail, then sank to the bottom of the cauldron. When the officer in charge saw that Wukong did not rise again, he hastily reported that the little monk had been boiled to death in the oil. The king ordered the bones to be fished out, and the executioner took up an iron strainer and dipped into the oil with it; but the meshes of the great strainer were wide apart, and how could they ever scoop up a date-pit nail? The king took it for granted that the little monk's bones had been burnt away, and ordered his attendants to seize the other three monks!

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