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33 The Kingdom of Miefa

The king bowed low and asked, trembling, "What does the holy father want with me?" The hairy-faced monk said, "I am the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, come down to earth. You, king, have slaughtered monks, and it has troubled the heavens above, so that you are punished this night. I urge you to repent in time, lest a greater calamity follow." "How then should I repent?" asked the king. Wukong said, "Tomorrow four holy monks will pass by your palace. Treat them well, and they will show you the way you have lost." With that he turned about and was gone. The king woke, and heard the sound of weeping at his ear. He opened his eyes and saw the queen with her head shaved bald, sitting before her mirror with her face buried in her hands. "My dear," he asked in haste, "where has your hair gone?" The queen glanced at him and cried in shock, "Your Majesty, where has yours gone?" The king raised a hand and felt his own head, and was dumbfounded. In the midst of this uproar the ladies of the six courts and the eunuchs, high and low, came in weeping and knelt. "Your Majesty," they cried, "we have all become nuns and monks!" At the sight of them the king burst into tears. "Heaven is punishing me for the killing of monks," he sighed. At the hour of the morning audience the king ascended the hall, and all his ministers, civil and military, knelt as one. "Your Majesty," they said, "forgive your servants this breach of courtly dress." The king asked them why, and the ministers said, "We cannot tell how it happened, but this morning every head among us was shaved bare." The king was more astonished than ever. While king and ministers stood in dismay, the commander reported, "Last night upon the city patrol we seized a chest of stolen goods and one white horse. We await Your Majesty's judgement." The king ordered them to be brought into the hall. The commander went out and mustered soldiers to carry the chest. Inside it the Tang Monk was badly frightened. "Do not be afraid, Master," said Wukong. "All is arranged. Not only will the king not kill us, he will treat us royally." The chest was carried into the hall, and the moment it was opened Bajie could not wait to jump out. Seeing the commander holding the white dragon horse, he stepped up and snatched the rein from him, leaving the man agape. Then Wukong jumped out too. At the sight of him the king cried in astonishment, "Is this not the hairy-faced holy monk I met in my dream last night?" Wukong said with a laugh, "My master is here; he is the holy monk." He helped the Tang Monk out of the chest, and Sandy followed with the baggage on his shoulder. Seeing how noble the Tang Monk looked, the king stepped forward and asked, "Why did the holy father and his disciples sleep in a chest?" The Tang Monk bowed. "This poor monk comes from the Great Tang in the east, bound for the Western Heaven to worship the Buddha and seek the scriptures. Hearing that Your Majesty was wont to kill monks, we dressed as laymen and hid in the chest." The king prostrated himself and blamed himself bitterly. "Once certain monks slandered me, and so I slew every monk in the city. Little did I think that Heaven would lay its punishment upon us last night, and shave the heads of prince and ministers alike. I beg the holy father to show us the way we have lost."

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