Home > Journey to the West > 36-rake-feast

36 The Rake Feast

Wukong took up his rod. "It is cramped here," he said. "Let me go into the air and perform for you." With that he leapt up and hung in mid-air, and the whole company came out of the pavilion to watch. Wukong whirled the rod: first a canopy of scattered blossoms, then the turning of a yellow dragon, up and down, wheeling left and right, until at last no man could be seen at all, only a rolling ball of staff. Bajie's hands itched at the sight. "Old Pig will have a turn too!" he shouted. He mounted a cloud, rose into the sky, and swung his nine-toothed rake with all his art, till the wind whistled about him. "Master," said Sandy to the Tang Monk, "let me perform as well!" He too sprang up among the clouds and plied his staff with both hands: a crimson phoenix greeting the sun, quick parries and slow guards, whirling swift as flight. The soldiers and townsfolk all over the city saw the sight, and murmured the Buddha's name, kowtowed, and lit incense in worship. Up in the air the three brothers showed their power to the full and sported as they pleased; then they put away their weapons and came down to earth. The three princes were wild with joy. They ran back to the palace and said to their father, "Father, the three disciples of the scripture-seeking monk are mighty in arms. Your sons wish to take them as masters, learn their art, and so defend our land. What does Father think of it?" The prince nodded and came to the Tang Monk. "My three young sons delight in arms and long in earnest to become disciples of your three worthy followers. If you will teach them, I shall reward you richly." Wukong said with a laugh, "We are willing to take pupils, only let there be no talk of money." The prince was overjoyed, and straight away spread a feast to celebrate. Wukong, Bajie and Sandy, each in his turn, accepted one of the three princes as his disciple. After the ceremony Wukong made the three princes lie flat on the ground. He muttered a true spell and breathed immortal breath into their hearts and bellies. At once the princes grew brisk and eager, and their strength became prodigious; now they could wield the golden-hooped rod, the nine-toothed rake and the demon-quelling staff. The next day the three princes came to their masters, bowed, and said, "We thank you, Masters, for the strength you gave us, but our old weapons are too light. We would like new ones forged after the pattern of yours. May we?" Wukong and his brothers agreed at once. So the prince called for smiths and bought ten thousand catties of iron and steel. A shed was raised and a furnace built in the front court of the palace; the rod, the rake and the staff were set beside it as patterns, and the forging went on day and night without pause. These three weapons were treasures rare in all the world. Laid in the shed, they sent forth a thousand beams of good fortune and ten thousand shafts of ruddy light, and the stir of it reached the yellow lion demon of Tiger-Mouth Cave on Leopard Head Mountain. He came by night to look, and greed took hold of him. He raised a whirlwind of black air, gathered up the three weapons, and carried them back to his cave. Now the smiths in the courtyard, worn out by days of toil, had fallen into a heavy sleep. When they awoke, the three weapons were gone. In alarm they told the three princes, and all searched everywhere, but there was never a trace of them.

 3/8   Home Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next Last