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37 Xuanying Cave

Leaving the city of Yuhua, the Tang Monk and his three disciples travelled on westward. After five or six days a walled city appeared ahead; its flagpoles stood bare of banners, and they could not tell what place it was. The four entered the city and found the streets crowded and gay. Shunning the crowds that gathered to stare, they made their way through the lanes until they came to a mountain gate inscribed "Temple of Compassionate Clouds". The Tang Monk bade them go in to rest the horse and ask for a meal. The gate stood open and the four went in; the halls were most splendid, and all within was hushed. As they were looking about, a monk-official came out from the corridor, bowed to the Tang Monk, and questioned him, and the Tang Monk told whence he came. Filled with reverence, the monk-official led the Tang Monk into the main hall to bow before the images of the Buddha. Then he took him to the monks' quarters and presented him to the brotherhood. The monks came crowding to pay their respects and swept him along to the abbot's room, and the official ordered tea and a meal to be served. From their talk they learned that this was an outer prefecture of the Kingdom of Tianzhu, called Jinping. Presently a vegetarian meal was set out, and the monks kept the four company at table. When it was done the Tang Monk thanked them and would have gone on, but the monks pressed him with one voice to stay; unable to refuse such kindness, he remained. On the night of the Lantern Festival the monks asked the Tang Monk to go into the city to see the golden lamps. There they found every street and market ablaze with countless lights: a night of bright lamps and clear moon, with flutes and drums sounding through the town. In high spirits the master and his disciples took in the sights along the way, and before they knew it had come to the Bridge of the Golden Lamps. On the bridge stood three golden lamps, each as big as a vat, canopied by two tiers of delicate openwork pavilions and lined within with thin sheets of glazed glass; their light outshone the moon and their oil breathed forth fragrance. "Why is this oil so strangely sweet in the nose?" asked the Tang Monk. "It is no common lamp oil," replied the monk-official. "It is suhe perfumed oil." "Each of the three vats holds five hundred catties of oil," the monk went on. "The three together cost more than fifty thousand taels of silver, and they burn for only three nights." "How can so much oil burn away in three nights?" asked Wukong. "Once tonight is past and the Buddhas have shown themselves," said the monk, "tomorrow the oil will be gone." "Do you mean the Buddhas take the oil away?" laughed Bajie. "So the story has run from old until now," said the monks. "When the oil dries up, it means the Buddha has taken the lamp, and that year the harvest is sure to be plentiful. If in any year it does not dry, the winds and rains go awry and famine follows. Costly as it is, therefore, the households of the city still offer it year after year." The monks urged the Tang Monk to keep out of the way, but he was overjoyed. "I am a man who thinks on the Buddha, remembers the Buddha and worships the Buddha," he said. "Now that the Buddhas have come down, it is right that I should pay them homage." Again and again the monks urged him; the Tang Monk would not listen. Presently, sure enough, three forms of Buddhas appeared in the wind and drifted towards the golden lamps on the bridge. The Tang Monk hurried up onto the crown of the bridge and threw himself down to worship. "Master, beware!" cried Wukong, stepping quickly forward. "This is some evil spirit at its tricks!" Before Wukong could raise his master up, the lamplight dimmed, a cloud of black mist rushed in, swathed the Tang Monk round, and carried him off upon the wind. Bajie and Sandy searched frantically for their master. "Those three who showed themselves as Buddhas in the wind were demons!" cried Wukong. "Our master's joy has turned to sorrow; the fiends have spirited him away. You two go back with the monks and guard the horse and the baggage. Old Sun will follow the wind and rescue him!" Wukong mounted his somersault cloud into the air, and following the fishy stench of the wind pursued it towards the north-east. He pressed on until daybreak, when he came to a towering and perilous mountain.

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