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35 The Prefecture of Fengxian

With that the Jade Emperor ordered the Four Heavenly Masters to take Wukong to the hall and show him the three tasks. Wukong laughed inwardly at the Emperor's petty spite, and followed the four out of the Hall of Heavenly Mists. In the Hall of Fragrant Draperies they saw a mountain of rice a good hundred feet high, and beside it a chick no bigger than a fist, pecking at the grains now fast, now slow. On the right stood a mountain of flour twice that height, where a small golden-haired lapdog was licking up the flour, now with a long stroke of the tongue, now with a short one. To the left of the rice mountain stood an iron frame, from which hung a golden lock more than a foot long, its bar no thicker than a finger. Beneath it burned a lamp whose flame was even now licking at that bar. Wukong could make nothing of it, and the Four Heavenly Masters explained, "The Jade Emperor set these three tasks: the chick must peck away every grain of rice, the dog must lick up every morsel of flour, and the flame must burn through the lock-bar. Only then may rain be given to Fengxian." Wukong laughed and said, "And what is so hard in that?" At once he shook himself and grew into a giant, opening his great mouth to devour the rice and the flour. But no sooner had he eaten them clean than fresh heaps sprang up in their place. He laboured half the day, and the two mountains had not shrunk by the smallest morsel. Growing desperate, Wukong went to the golden lock, chanted a spell and breathed out raging fire upon the bar. Yet though he burned at it for a long while, the bar never stirred in the least. As he stood at his wits' end, the Four Heavenly Masters came and urged him, "This is the will of Heaven, and no magic can alter it. Go back, Great Sage, and persuade the prefect to mend his ways; that may yet lift the curse." Wukong nodded, took his leave of the Four Heavenly Masters and rode his cloud down to the world below. As he neared the ground he spied from afar the prefect waiting with the Tang Monk, Bajie, Sandy and all the officers, great and small, to welcome him. Wukong drew in his cloud, sprang to the ground and seized the prefect by the collar, shouting, "It was you who overthrew the offering laid before Heaven and so offended the Jade Emperor, and now the whole prefecture suffers for your sake!" The prefect dared not hide the truth, and said, "On the twenty-fifth of the twelfth month, three years ago, I was making offering to Heaven when my wife, in an unkind humour, quarrelled with me and spoke bitter words. In a fit of anger I shoved over the table beside me; the offerings fell to the ground and were eaten by dogs." Wukong said, "On that very day the Jade Emperor had come down to the world below. He saw the offerings given to the dogs, and so he set his three tasks and laid the curse upon you; until they are fulfilled, no rain can fall again on Fengxian." Then he told them all that he had seen in the hall: the mountain of rice, the mountain of flour and the golden lock. At this the prefect wept bitter tears and knelt upon the ground, knocking his head again and again as he pleaded, "If it is so, then every soul in this prefecture will starve to death. I beg you, Elder, in your great mercy, save my people!" Wukong said, "Turn your heart to good betimes, chant the Buddha's name and read the scriptures, and perhaps the harm may yet be mended." The prefect at once bowed in worship and vowed to take refuge in the Buddhist faith; he built an altar and gathered monks and Daoists in great numbers. Then he led his people in worship of Heaven and Earth, confessing his guilt and blaming himself, while the Tang Monk chanted scriptures and prayed on his behalf.

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