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31 The Kingdom of Biqiu

The Tang Monk thought it very strange. Bajie said with a laugh, "It must be a lucky day. Every family is busy with a wedding!" Wukong said, "Silly fellow, talk no nonsense. Let old Sun have a look." At once he turned into a bee, spread his wings and slipped under the silk. Inside the cage was a little boy, weeping bitterly. He looked into eight or nine cages, one after another, and every one held a boy of a few years old. Then Wukong took his own shape again and told the Tang Monk, who was sorely perplexed. They walked on and came to the Golden Pavilion Post House. The postmaster came out to greet them, and when he heard they came from the Great Tang in the east, he warmly found them rooms. After the vegetarian meal the Tang Monk asked the postmaster, "This poor monk is puzzled by one thing: how do the people here bring children into the world?" The postmaster answered, "You jest, holy father. Why, from the seed of the father and the blood of the mother: ten months in the womb, three years at the breast, and so the child grows." The Tang Monk pressed him again. "Then why are the children shut up in goose cages?" At this the postmaster's face darkened. He bent to the monk's ear and whispered, "Why ask so much, holy father? Rest easy for one night and be on your way at dawn." The Tang Monk caught him by the sleeve and insisted on the truth. The postmaster had no choice but to send the servants away, and he told the monk the secret of the goose cages. It seemed that three years before, an old Taoist had come to the kingdom and given his sixteen-year-old daughter to the king. The girl was bewitchingly fair, lovely as a heavenly maiden. The king was enslaved by her beauty and made her his royal consort. From that day he neglected his three queens and six concubines, and day and night thought only of pleasure at her side. In time the king grew weary in spirit and wasted in body, his life hanging by a thread. The court physicians wrote many prescriptions, but not one of them availed. After giving up his daughter, the old Taoist was made State Preceptor. He came before the king and claimed to hold a secret drug from beyond the sea that would grant a thousand years of youth. It would work, he said, only if the hearts and livers of 1,111 boys were used to brew it. The king was foolish and cruel, and he gave orders that boys be chosen and kept in goose cages. The parents dreaded the king's law and dared not even weep. Bit by bit the people's anger spread in whispers, and they began to call their land the City of Little Boys. Here the postmaster cautioned him. "When you appear at court tomorrow, holy father, exchange your passport and be done. Speak of this matter and you will bring the fire down upon yourself." Then he went out. But the Tang Monk could not be calm. He stood there stunned, and tears fell from his eyes. Bajie said, "Master, why must you always carry other men's coffins home to weep over? What is it to you if the king harms his own people? Sleep early, and be done with it." The Tang Monk scolded him, "You heartless creature! How can such a cruel thing not bring sorrow?"

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