Now we leave for a while Tang Sanzang and his companions sheltering miserably through the rainy night in the ruined Shrine of Huaguang. In the county town of Diling in the Prefecture of Tongtai there was a gang of ruffians who, through whoring, drinking, and gambling, had squandered all their family property and had no way to make a living. They had joined together, a dozen or more of them, as thieves, and were reckoning which household in the city was the richest and which the second richest, to rob them of gold and silver for their spending.
Among them one said: "We needn't scout it out and needn't scheme at all. There's only the house of Elder Kou, who saw off those monks of Tang today—he's rich beyond measure. Since tonight is rainy and dark, the people in the streets won't be on their guard, and the watchmen won't be making their rounds. Let's strike now and rob him of some capital, and then we can go whoring and gambling again. Wouldn't that be fine!" The thieves were delighted, and with one mind they all took short knives, caltrops, cudgels, bludgeons, hempen ropes, and torches, and came through the rain, burst open the great gate of the Kou house, and with a great shout charged in, murder in their hearts.
The whole household, old and young, male and female, was thrown into such a panic that every one of them hid clean out of the way. The old lady hid under the bed; the old master dodged behind the door; Kou Liang and Kou Dong, with the children of their kin, all fled in terror, scattering in every direction to save their lives. The gang of thieves, knives in hand and torches blazing, smashed open the trunks and boxes of the house and ransacked gold, silver, jewels, ornaments, clothes, vessels, and furniture to their hearts' content. The elder Kou could not bear to part with his goods. Risking his life, he went out the door and pleaded with the ruffians: "Gentlemen kings, when you have enough for your use, be content! Leave a few pieces of clothing for this old man to see him to his grave!"
The ruffians would not listen to a word. They rushed up and kicked Elder Kou in the groin, toppling him to the ground. Alas, his three souls drifted off, faint and far, to the underworld, and his seven spirits wandered away, parting forever from the world of men. Having got what they wanted, the thieves left the Kou house, made a rope ladder against the city wall, lowered themselves down over the ramparts one by one, and fled west through the night in the rain.
Only when the thieves had retreated did the servants of the Kou house venture out. And when they looked, the old master was lying dead on the ground. They burst into loud weeping: "Heavens! Our master has been beaten to death!" They all wept over the corpse, wailing and sobbing.
At about the fourth watch, the old lady, remembering how the monks of Tang had refused to accept her hospitality, and how the flamboyant, magnificent send-off had brought this calamity upon them, conceived a jealous, murderous thought, wishing to frame the four pilgrims. Leaning on Kou Liang, she said: "My child, stop crying. Your father fed monks one day and fed monks the next—who would have thought that on the day the vow was fulfilled he should be feeding that gang of death-bringing monks!"
"How are they death-bringing monks, mother?" asked the two brothers.
"The thieves came in fierce and violent," said the old lady, "and I hid under the bed, trembling, but I watched carefully in the firelight. And whom do you think I saw? The one lighting the fire was Tang Sanzang; the one holding the knife was Zhu Bajie; the one carrying off the gold and silver was the Sha Monk; the one who beat your father to death was Sun Wukong!"
Hearing this, the two sons took it for the truth: "Since mother saw so clearly, it must be so. The four of them stayed in our house half a month and got to know every door, wall, window, and passage of ours. Wealth moves a man's heart, and so, taking advantage of the rainy night, they came back to our house. Not only did they rob us of our goods, they killed our father as well. What venom! When it is daylight, we'll go to the prefectural office, file a complaint of loss, and sue them by name."
"How shall we write the complaint of loss?" asked Kou Dong.
"Just as mother said," answered Kou Liang. And they wrote: "Tang Sanzang lit the fire; Bajie shouted the killing. The Sha Monk carried off the gold and silver; Sun Wukong beat our father to death."
The whole family wrangled and argued, and before they knew it the day had dawned. On the one hand they sent for their relatives and prepared the coffin; on the other, the brothers Kou Liang and Kou Dong went to the prefectural office to file their complaint.
Now the prefect of the Prefecture of Tongtai was a man upright in all his life and virtuous in his very nature.
In youth he had bent over his books by the snowy window; In his early years he had answered the imperial questions in the golden hall. He ever cherished a loyal and righteous heart, And ever cherished thoughts of benevolence and mercy. His fame spread through the histories, to echo for a thousand years— Gong and Huang reborn; His name resounded through the prefect's hall, to endure for ten thousand ages— Zhuo and Lu come to life again.
When he took his seat in court and disposed of the day's business, he ordered the complaint-receiving board brought out. The brothers Kou Liang entered holding the board, knelt, and cried: "Honorable sir, we have come to accuse robbers of seizing goods and murdering a man—a grave matter!"
The prefect took the complaint, and seeing it set forth this and that, thus and so, asked: "Yesterday word went about that your family had completed the vow of feeding monks, and that the four eminent monks you fed were arhats from the Tang empire of the Eastern Land, sent off with drums and music filling the streets in great magnificence. How can there be such a business as this?"
Kou Liang and the others knocked their heads: "Honorable sir, my father Kou Hong fed monks for twenty-four years. Because these four monks had come from afar, just making up the full number of ten thousand, he fulfilled his vow and kept them half a month. They took note of all our lanes and doors and windows. That same day they were seen off, and that same night they came back, and under cover of the black rainy night, with blazing torches and weapons in hand, burst into the house, carried off gold, silver, treasure, clothes, and ornaments, and beat our father to death on the ground. We beg the honorable sir to do us justice!"
Hearing this, the prefect at once mustered the mounted and foot constables and the conscripted braves, a hundred and fifty men in all, each with sharp weapons, and sent them out the west gate in hot pursuit of the four monks of Tang.
Meanwhile, master and disciples had lingered in the ruined house of the Shrine of Huaguang until daybreak, and only then came out onto the road, heading west. As luck would have it, the robbers, having plundered the Kou house that same night and been lowered down over the city wall, had also taken the great western road, and at dawn, after passing some twenty li west of the Shrine of Huaguang, had hidden in a hollow of the hills to divide the gold and silver.
Before the division was finished, they suddenly saw the four monks of Tang coming along the road. The thieves' hearts were not yet satisfied, and pointing at Sanzang, they said: "Isn't that the monk who was seen off yesterday?"
"Just the thing! Just the thing!" laughed the thieves. "We're in this line of work precisely because there's no justice in Heaven. These monks have come along the road and stayed long at the Kou house besides—who knows how much they have about them! Let's simply cut them off, seize their traveling money, and grab the white horse to share among us. Wouldn't that be the height of satisfaction?" So the thieves took up their weapons, gave a great shout, ran out onto the road, spread themselves in a line, and called: "Monks, don't move! Quickly leave the toll money for the road, and we'll spare your lives! Grind out half a word of refusal, and it's one knife to each of you—no one left alive!"
Tang Sanzang trembled so in the saddle that he could hardly stay on, while the Sha Monk and Bajie were in a panic. They said to the Pilgrim: "What's to be done! What's to be done! We had to endure the rainy night, and now we run into highway robbers blocking the road—truly, misfortunes never come singly!"
The Pilgrim laughed: "Don't be afraid, master; brothers, don't worry. Let Old Sun go and ask them a question."
Brave Great Sage! He tightened his tigerskin kilt, shook out his brocade tunic, walked up close, folded his hands before his chest, and said: "Gentlemen, what are you about?"
"You wretch, with no idea of life or death, daring to come and question me!" shouted the thieves. "Have you no eyes in your forehead, that you don't know me for your grandfather the king? Quickly hand over the toll money, and I'll let you pass!"
Hearing this, the Pilgrim broke into a smile all over his face: "So you are highway robbers!"
The thieves flew into a rage and shouted: "Kill him!" The Pilgrim pretended to be frightened: "Great king! Great king! I am a monk from the countryside who knows nothing of speaking properly. Pray forgive my offense, forgive it! If you want toll money, don't ask those three—ask me alone. I'm the bookkeeper. Whatever alms or offerings there are, whatever is collected in the begging or given in charity, it's all in the bundle, and it's I who keep the accounts of it coming in and going out. That one on horseback, though he is my master, knows only how to recite scriptures and bothers with nothing else; he has forgotten wealth and women alike and hasn't a penny to his name. That black-faced one I took on halfway along the road—he only knows how to tend the horse. That long-snouted one is a hired hand of mine, and he only knows how to carry the load. Let the three of them pass, and I'll give you all the traveling money, cassock and bowl and everything, with the best of goodwill."
Hearing this, the thieves said: "This monk is an honest fellow after all. Very well then, we'll spare your lives. Tell those three to drop the luggage, and let them pass." The Pilgrim turned his head and gave a wink, and the Sha Monk set down the luggage and the load, and with the master leading the horse, went off west with Bajie.
The Pilgrim bent down and opened the bundle, scooped up a handful of dust from the ground, and cast it upward, reciting a spell—it was the body-freezing magic. With a shout of "Hold!" that gang of thieves, thirty or more of them, stood stock-still, grinding their teeth and staring wide-eyed, their hands hanging loose, unable to speak a word or move a muscle.
The Pilgrim leapt out onto the road and called: "Master, come back! Come back!"
Bajie was alarmed: "No good, no good! Eldest Brother has given us all away! He has no money on him, and there's no gold or silver in the bundle—he must have called the master back to hand over the horse, and us to strip off our clothes!"
"Second Brother, stop your nonsense!" laughed the Sha Monk. "Eldest Brother is a fellow of no common powers. If he could subdue venomous demons and fierce monsters like those before, what are a few petty thieves to him? If he's calling us back, he must have something to say. Let's hurry back and see."
The elder, hearing this, cheerfully turned his horse and came back, calling: "Wukong, what is it that you call us back for?"
"Just look at these thieves and see how they are," said the Pilgrim. Bajie went up and pushed one of them: "Thief, why don't you move?"
The thief was utterly insensible, without word or sound. "He's gone dumb and silly!" said Bajie.
The Pilgrim laughed: "Old Sun has frozen them with the body-freezing magic."
"If their bodies are frozen but not their mouths, why don't they even make a sound?" asked Bajie.
"Master, pray dismount and sit down," said the Pilgrim. "As the saying goes: one may arrest by mistake, but never release by mistake. Brothers, turn the thieves over and tie them up, and make them give a statement. Let's see whether they're greenhorn thieves or practiced ones."
"We have no rope," said the Sha Monk.
The Pilgrim at once plucked out some hairs, blew on them with his immortal breath, and changed them into thirty ropes. All together they turned the thieves over and bound them like horses with their four legs trussed, and then recited the spell of release, and the gang gradually came to their senses.
The Pilgrim asked Tang Sanzang to sit in the place of honor, and the three of them stood about, weapons in hand, shouting: "Petty thieves! How many of you are there altogether? How many years have you been in this trade? How much have you robbed altogether? Have you ever wounded or killed anyone? Is this your first offense, or your second, or your third?"
"Spare our lives, honorable sirs!" cried the thieves.
"Stop your caterwauling!" said the Pilgrim. "Give a true confession!"
"Honored sirs," said the thieves, "we are not long-time thieves. We are all sons of respectable families. But we were unworthy: we drank, gambled, and whored, and squandered the whole estate our fathers and grandfathers left us. We had nothing to do and no money to spend. We learned that Elder Kou of the city of the Prefecture of Tongtai was rich beyond measure, and so yesterday we banded together, and that night, taking advantage of the dark rainy weather, went and robbed his house. We had carried off a good deal of gold, silver, clothing, and ornaments, and were right here in this hollow north of the road dividing the spoils when we saw you gentlemen coming. Among us there were those who recognized you as the monks Elder Kou had seen off, and thought you must certainly have valuables about you. And since your luggage looked heavy and the white horse was fast, and man's desires are never satisfied, we came to cut you off again. How were we to know you had great magic powers and could trap us all? We beg your mercy, honorable sirs! Take away the goods we robbed, and spare our lives!"
When Sanzang heard that the goods were what had been robbed from the Kou house, he gave a startled jump, hastily rose, and said: "Wukong, Elder Kou was a man of great goodness—how could he have met with such a calamity?"
The Pilgrim laughed: "It was all because of the send-off he gave us, with those colored canopies and flowered screens and the drums and music in full blast, catching everyone's eye—and so this gang of ruffians went and worked on his house. And now it's our good luck to meet them and take back all this gold, silver, clothing, and ornaments."
"We troubled his house for half a month," said Sanzang, "and we are deeply grateful for his great kindness, with no way to repay it. Why not escort this plunder back to his house? Wouldn't that be a good deed?"
The Pilgrim agreed, and with Bajie and the Sha Monk went into the hollow, brought out all the stolen goods, packed them up, and loaded them onto the horse. He also made Bajie carry a load of the gold and silver, while the Sha Monk shouldered his own luggage. The Pilgrim would have liked to kill the whole gang of thieves with one sweep of his cudgel, but he was afraid Sanzang would blame him for taking life, so he had to shake his body and take back his hairs. The gang, freed of their bonds, scrambled to their feet and, every one of them, slipped away into the tall grass to save their lives. Then Tang Sanzang turned his steps around and set out to take the goods back to Elder Kou. This journey was like a moth flying into the flame—they were to reap the harm instead.
There is a poem in proof:
Repaying kindness with kindness is a rare thing in the world; Men turn the very grace they have received into a grudge. He who goes into the water to save a man may yet be lost— Think three times before you act, and you will have no cause for worry.
Sanzang and his disciples were carrying the gold, silver, clothing, and ornaments along, when suddenly they saw weapons and blades coming in a dense throng. Sanzang cried out in alarm: "Disciples, look at those weapons surging toward us—is it good or ill?"
"Trouble's coming! Trouble's coming!" said Bajie. "Those are the thieves we let go! They've picked up weapons, rallied more men, and turned around to fight us to the death!"
"Second Brother," said the Sha Monk, "that doesn't look like the thieves' rabble. Eldest Brother, look carefully."
The Pilgrim said quietly to the Sha Monk: "The master's star of calamity has risen again. This must be officers and soldiers out to catch thieves." Before the words were well out, the soldiers had come up to them, opened a ring formation, and surrounded master and disciples, saying: "Fine monks! You rob other people's goods, and then you come strutting about here!" They surged forward, first dragging Tang Sanzang down from his horse and tying him up with rope, and then binding the Pilgrim and his two companions as well. They ran poles through their bonds, two men carrying each one, took the horse, and seized the loads, and made straight back to the prefectural city.
And there one could see: Tang Sanzang, trembling, weeping, unable to speak a word; Zhu Bajie, grumbling and muttering, complaining in his heart; the Sha Monk, glowering and hesitating in his mind; and Sun Wukong, grinning, ready to try his arts.
The soldiers crowded and shouldered them along, and in a moment had them in the city and brought them straight before the prefect's hall, where they reported: "Honorable sir, the constables and the people's braves have captured the robbers."
The prefect sat upright in the hall, rewarded the constables and braves, examined the stolen goods, and ordered the Kou family to come and take them away. Then he had the four pilgrims brought before the dais and asked: "You monks claim to have come from afar, from the Eastern Land, to worship Buddha in the Western Heaven—but it turns out you are thieves who spy out the lie of the land and break into houses to rob!"
"Your honor, hear my plea," said Sanzang. "Your poor monk is no thief, and I would never dare deceive you—I have on me the travel permit to prove it. It was only because Elder Kou fed us for half a month, with such deep kindness and affection, that when we met robbers on the road and seized back the goods they had stolen from the Kou house, we were taking them back to the Kou house in repayment of his kindness. We never expected the constables and braves would catch us and take us for thieves. We are truly not thieves. I beg your honor to examine into it."
"You wretch!" said the prefect. "When you saw the officers and soldiers coming, you invented this fine story about repaying kindness. If you really met robbers on the road, why didn't you seize them and bring them in, and report the matter and the repayment to the authorities? Why is it only the four of you? Look here—Kou Liang has filed a complaint of loss suing you by name. Do you still dare to wriggle?"
At these words Sanzang felt like a boat being boiled on the great sea; his soul flew away and his spirit scattered. He cried: "Wukong, why don't you come forward and defend me!"
"There is the stolen property as clear evidence," said the Pilgrim. "What's the use of defending?"
"Exactly so!" said the prefect. "With the evidence of the goods still here, do you still dare to deny it?" And he ordered his attendants: "Bring the head clamp, and clamp this shaven-headed thief's skull with it—and then beat him!"
The Pilgrim was alarmed and thought to himself: "Though my master is fated to suffer this ordeal, I must not let him suffer too terribly." Seeing the lictors preparing the cords and the head clamp, he spoke up at once: "Your honor, do not clamp that monk. Last night, when the Kou house was robbed, I was the one who lit the fire, I was the one who held the knife, I was the one who carried off the goods, and I was the one who did the killing. I am the chief of the thieves. If you must beat someone, beat me, and leave the others out of it—only don't let me go."
The prefect at once ordered: "Clamp this one first." The lictors all came and put the head clamp on the Pilgrim, drew it tight, and pulled—snap! The cord broke in two. They knotted it again and clamped him again, and again—snap! it broke. Four or five times in a row they clamped him, and his scalp did not even wrinkle.
But when they took a fresh cord and tied it, someone came in to report: "Your honor, the Junior Guardian Chen has arrived from the capital. Your honor is asked to go outside the city to receive him."
The prefect at once ordered the clerk of punishments: "Put the thieves in prison and keep a close watch on them. When I have received my superior, I shall hold the examination anew."
The clerk of punishments then pushed the four pilgrims of Tang through the prison gate. Bajie and the Sha Monk carried their own luggage in with them.
"Disciples, how did it come to this?" asked Sanzang.
The Pilgrim laughed: "Master, in you go! In you go! There's no dog barking in here—it's quite a nice place for a game!"
Alas, the four were dragged inside, and every one of them was thrust into the press-beds, with the belly-bands, head-braces, and chest-straps buckled tight, and the jailers came and beat them without stint. Sanzang could hardly bear the pain and could only cry: "Wukong! What's to be done! What's to be done!"
"These beatings are for money," said the Pilgrim. "As the saying goes: where comfort is found, one settles; where pain is found, one pays. Give them a little money now, and it will be over."
"Where am I to get money?" asked Sanzang.
"If there's no money, clothes will do," said the Pilgrim. "Give them the cassock."
At these words Sanzang felt as if a knife were twisting in his heart. But seeing that he could not bear the beating, he said at last: "Wukong, do as you please."
The Pilgrim then called out: "Worthy warders, no need to beat us. In the two bundles we carried in there is a brocade cassock worth a thousand in gold. Untie the bundles and take it."
Hearing this, the jailers all set to and undid the two bundles. There were a few cloth garments in them, and a little ritual bell, none of them worth anything; but wrapped in several layers of oiled paper was an object from which shone a blaze of rosy light—they knew it was something precious. When they shook it open to look, they saw:
Cunning pearls strung upon it, Rare Buddhist treasures gathered upon it, Coiling dragons in embroidered knots, Flying phoenixes edging the brocade.
They all scrambled to look, and the commotion drew the warden of the prison, who came over and shouted: "What are you making such a row about here?"
The jailers knelt: "The registrar just now committed four monks to us, saying they were leaders of a great band of robbers. When they saw us beat them a few strokes, they gave us these two bundles. When we opened them to look, we found this object, and don't know what to do with it. If the crowd tears it apart and shares it out, that would be a pity indeed; if one man takes it for himself alone, the rest get nothing. Happily, here comes the warden. Let the warden make the decision."
The warden saw it was a cassock, and examined the other clothes and the little bell too; and when he opened the pouch and looked at the travel permit, he saw the treasure seals and countersigns of many kingdoms. "It's a good thing I came to look!" he said. "If I hadn't, you would all have brought trouble on yourselves. These monks are no thieves. Do not touch their belongings. Wait until the prefect holds a new examination tomorrow, and then the truth will be known."
Hearing this, the jailers returned the bundles to them, wrapped them up as before, and handed them to the warden for safekeeping.
Gradually the day darkened; they heard the drums on the watchtower begin to roll, and the night patrol made its rounds. They endured until the third drum of the fourth watch, when the Pilgrim saw that none of them was groaning—they had all fallen asleep. He thought to himself: "My master is fated to have this one night of imprisonment. It was for this reason that Old Sun did not speak up in defense or use his magic powers. Now the fourth watch is almost over, and the ordeal is nearly complete. I must make my preparations, so that at daybreak we may leave the prison."
Just watch him use his arts! He made his body small and slipped out of the press-bed, then shook himself and changed into a gnat, and flew out through the cracks in the tiles of the eaves. He saw the stars bright and the moon clear—it was one of those still, clear, balmy nights. He marked the direction and flew straight to the gate of the Kou house, where he saw a household west of the street with its lamps burning bright. Flying closer to the door, he saw it was a tofu maker's. An old man was tending the fire, and his wife was straining the bean curd.
The old man suddenly called out: "Wife, Elder Kou had sons and had wealth, but no long life. He and I studied together as boys, and I was five years his elder. His father was called Kou Ming; in those days he didn't have even a thousand mu of land, and when he lent out grain at rent it could barely be collected. When Kou Hong reached twenty, old Ming died, and he took over the family estate—and truly, it was his one run of luck. The wife he married was the daughter of one Zhang Wang, whose milk name was Thread-the-Needle, and she was a good luck-bringer to her husband. From the time she entered his door, his fields prospered and his loans bore interest; whatever he bought turned a profit, whatever he did made money, until he had amassed a fortune of a hundred thousand. At forty he turned his heart to goodness, fed ten thousand monks, and who would have thought that last night he would be kicked to death by robbers? A pity! He was only sixty-four this year, just at the age for enjoying himself. Who would have thought that such a good man would meet with no good return and die a violent death? Alas! Alas!"
The Pilgrim took it all in, and by then it was the first stroke of the fifth watch. He flew into the Kou house and saw the coffin already set in the main hall, with a lamp burning at its head, incense, candles, flowers, and fruit laid out, and the old lady weeping beside it. Then he saw the two sons come in to kneel and weep, and two daughters-in-law holding bowls of offerings.
The Pilgrim perched on the head of the coffin and gave a cough, so frightening the two daughters-in-law that they flung up their hands and stumbled out in a fluster, while the brothers Kou Liang fell flat on the ground and dared not move, crying only: "Father! Oh! Oh! Oh!"
The old lady was bolder. She patted the head of the coffin: "Old master, have you come back to life?"
"I have not come back to life," said the Pilgrim, imitating the voice of Elder Kou. The two sons grew still more frantic, knocking their heads without pause, their tears streaming, crying: "Father! Oh! Oh! Oh!"
The old lady plucked up her courage and asked again: "Master, if you haven't come back to life, how is it you can speak?"
"I was sent back home by King Yama," said the Pilgrim, "with a demon escort, to speak with you. This Zhang, wife of the house, whose milk name is Thread-the-Needle, has been telling lies with her glib tongue and framing innocent people."
When the old lady heard him call her by her milk name, she knelt in a panic and knocked her head: "You old devil! At your age you still call me by my milk name! What lies have I told? What innocent people have I framed?"
The Pilgrim shouted: "Where is this 'Tang Sanzang lit the fire, Bajie called the killing, the Sha Monk carried off the gold and silver, and the Pilgrim beat your father to death'? It is all because of your lies that good men are suffering. Those four reverend masters of Tang met robbers on the road, seized back the goods, and brought them here to thank me—what excellent intentions! But you faked a complaint of loss and had your sons lay information with the officials. The officials have not examined the matter carefully, and now they have locked them up. The prison god, the local deity, and the city god are all in a panic, unable to sit or lie at ease, and they have reported the matter to King Yama. King Yama in turn sent a demon escort to bring me home, to tell you to set them free before it is too late. If you do not, I shall come and raise a riot in this house for a whole month, and of all the household, old and young, and the chickens and dogs as well, not one shall be left alive!"
Kou Liang and his brother knocked their heads and pleaded: "Father, pray go back. Whatever you do, don't harm the old and young. At daybreak we shall go to the prefectural office and present a writ of discharge, and accept the return of the case. We only beg that the dead and the living may both be at peace."
Hearing this, the Pilgrim called out: "Burn paper money—I'm going!" And the whole family came to burn paper money.
The Pilgrim took wing and flew off, straight into the residence of the prefect. Looking down, he saw lamplight already shining within the house—the prefect had got up. He flew into the main hall and saw, hanging on the wall at the back, a painted scroll: an official riding a dappled horse, with several attendants holding a blue umbrella and carrying a folding stool. He did not know what the subject was, and perched himself in the middle of it.
Suddenly the prefect came out of his room, bending over as he washed and dressed. The Pilgrim gave a sudden cough, so startling the prefect that he hurried, flustered, back into his room to finish his toilet, put on his great robe, came out, burned incense before the scroll, and prayed: "Spirit of my late uncle, Lord Jiang Qianyi! Your filial nephew Jiang Kunsan, thanks to the virtue of his ancestors, passed the highest examinations and now, by the favor of Heaven, holds the office of prefect of Tongtai, serving the incense of this shrine morning and evening without cease. Why should you speak out today? Pray do not turn demon or sprite and frighten the household."
The Pilgrim laughed to himself: "This is the spirit tablet of his honored uncle!" And so, catching the thread, he called out: "Kunsan, worthy nephew! Though you received your office through your ancestors' virtue, you have been honest and clean all along. How was it that yesterday, in your folly, you took four holy sages for thieves, and without examining the cause, shut them up in prison! The prison god, the local deity, and the city god are ill at ease, and have reported to the King of Hell; the King of Hell has sent a demon escort to bring me to tell you to weigh the circumstances and examine the truth, and set them free at once. If not, he will have you summoned to the underworld to argue it out."
Hearing this, the prefect was frightened to the heart and said: "Uncle, pray go back. Your nephew will take his seat in court and release them at once."
"If that is so, burn some paper money," said the Pilgrim, "and I shall go and report to the King of Hell." The prefect added incense and burned paper money, bowing in thanks.
The Pilgrim flew out again and saw that the east was already turning pale. When he flew to the county town of Diling, he saw all the county officials already in the court hall. He thought: "If a gnat goes about talking, and someone sees it, the game will be up." So in midair he changed into a great dharma body, stretched down a foot from the sky, and filled the whole county hall with it, calling: "Hear me, all you officials: I am the Rambling Wandering Spirit sent by the Jade Emperor! You have wrongfully beaten the scripture-seeking disciples of Buddha in the prefectural prison, and stirred the gods of the Three Realms into such unrest that I have been sent to tell you: release them at once! If there is the least delay, I shall come and plant this foot again, and first kick all the prefectural and county officials to death, then trample the people of the four quarters to death, and stamp the whole city into ashes!"
Every official and clerk in the county, in a panic, knelt and knocked their heads in worship: "Most holy being, pray go back! We shall go at once to the prefecture and report to the prefect, and have them released. Whatever you do, do not move that foot and scare us underlings to death."
Only then did the Pilgrim take back his dharma body, change again into a gnat, fly in through a crack in the prison tiles, and squeeze back into his press-bed to sleep.
Meanwhile the prefect, having taken his seat and just had the memorial-receiving board brought out, saw Kou Liang and his brother kneel at the gate with the board, shouting. The prefect ordered them brought in, and the two presented their writ of discharge. The prefect read it and flew into a rage: "Yesterday you filed a complaint of loss, and I had the thieves seized for you, and you took away the goods. How is it that today you come back with a writ of discharge?"
The two brothers wept: "Your honor, last night our father's spirit appeared and said: 'The holy monks of Tang seized the thieves, recovered the goods, and let the thieves go, then in all goodwill brought the goods back to our house to repay our kindness. How could you turn on them as thieves and have them locked up in prison to suffer? The prison god and the city god are ill at ease and have reported to King Yama, and King Yama has sent a demon escort to bring me to tell you to go to the prefecture and sue again, to have the monks of Tang released, so as to escape the disaster. If not, old and young will all perish.' And so we have come especially to present this writ of discharge. We beg your honor to be accommodating!"
Hearing this, the prefect thought privately: "His father is a hot corpse, a newly made ghost—it is all very well that his spirit should appear and bring retribution. But my uncle has been dead for five or six years—how is it that his spirit also appeared last night, telling me to examine and release them? It seems this must be a case of wrongful arrest." While he was pondering, the magistrate of the county of Diling and the other officials came rushing up to the hall in confusion: "Old Excellency, it's terrible! Terrible! Just now the Jade Emperor sent the Rambling Wandering Spirit down to earth, ordering us to release quickly the good men in prison. Those monks arrested yesterday are no thieves—they are all scripture-seeking disciples of Buddha. If there is the least delay, he will kick us officials to death and stamp the whole city, with its people, into ashes."
The prefect turned pale with fright and at once ordered the clerk of punishments to write the warrant in hot haste and bring the prisoners out.
The prison gate was opened and they were brought out. Bajie said, worried: "I wonder how they'll beat us today." The Pilgrim laughed: "I guarantee not one stroke will touch you—Old Sun has fixed everything. When we get to the hall, whatever you do, don't kneel. They'll come down and ask us to sit in the place of honor. Then I'll demand our luggage and our horse from them. If a single item is missing, watch me beat them!"
Before the words were well out, they had reached the entrance of the hall. The prefect, the magistrate, and all the great and small officials of the prefecture and county, the moment they saw them, came down to welcome them: "When the holy monks arrived yesterday, first of all the reception of our superior kept us busy, and in the second place we had just seen the stolen goods that had been seized, and had no time to inquire into the details."
Tang Sanzang pressed his palms together, bowed, and told the whole story again in detail. The officials all acknowledged it and said: "A mistake! A mistake! Pray forgive us! Pray forgive us!" Then they asked whether anything had gone amiss in the prison. The Pilgrim stepped forward, glaring, and shouted at the top of his voice: "My white horse was taken by the people at the hall, and my luggage by the people in the prison! Give them back to me at once! Today it is my turn to put you on the rack! You wrongfully arrested innocent men as thieves—what punishment do you deserve?" The prefectural and county officials, seeing him so fierce, were every one of them afraid. They ordered the horse-keepers to bring the horse and the luggage-keepers to bring the luggage, and handed everything over, item by item.
Just look at the three of them swaggering and glowering, while all the officials tried to cover themselves with talk of the Kou family. Sanzang interposed: "Disciples, this will not be settled by us. Let us go to the Kou house—first, to offer our condolences, and second, to confront them and see who it was that saw us committing robbery."
"You're right," said the Pilgrim. "Let Old Sun bring the dead man back to life and see who it was that beat him." There on the prefectural hall the Sha Monk lifted Sanzang onto the horse, and with shouts and yells they all swept out. The officials of the prefecture and county followed one and all to the Kou house, so frightening the brothers Kou Liang and Kou Dong that they knocked their heads without cease at the gate as they received them into the hall.
In the mourning hall the whole family was weeping within the funeral curtains. The Pilgrim called out: "Old lady who told lies and framed innocent people, stop your crying for a moment! Let Old Sun call your husband back, to see who it was that beat him to death, and put you to shame!"
All the officials took Sun the Pilgrim's words for a jest. The Pilgrim said: "Honored gentlemen, pray keep my master company for a while. Bajie and the Sha Monk, guard him well. Wait for me—I'll be back in a moment."
Brave Great Sage! He leapt out the door and up into the sky, and one could see a colored mist veiling the house and auspicious vapor protecting his spirit. Only then did the crowd realize he was an immortal who rode the clouds and mists, a sage who could bring the dead back to life, and there they all burned incense and bowed in worship—but of that no more.
The Great Sage rode his somersault cloud all the way to the borders of the underworld and burst straight into the Hall of Darkness, so startling the ten kings of hell that they folded their hands in welcome, and the judges of the five quarters that they knocked their heads in greeting. The thousand trees of swords all leaned aside; the myriad tiers of knife mountains were leveled flat. In the City of Those Who Died Unjustly the specters were transformed; beneath the Bridge of the Nai River the ghosts won release. Truly, one beam of his divine light was like an amnesty from Heaven, and the dark underworld shone bright on every side. The ten kings received the Great Sage, and when they had met, asked where he had come from and what business brought him.
"The ghost of Kou Hong of the county of Diling in the Prefecture of Tongtai, who fed monks," said the Pilgrim. "Which of you took him in? Look him up at once and hand him over to me."
"Kou Hong was a good man," said the ten kings. "No demon escort was sent to fetch him. He came here of his own accord, and met the golden-robed acolyte of Ksitigarbha, who brought him to see the Bodhisattva."
The Pilgrim took his leave of them and went straight to the Emerald Cloud Palace to see the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha. When the Bodhisattva had exchanged greetings with him, the Pilgrim told him the whole story. The Bodhisattva was pleased: "Kou Hong's span of life in the world of the yang was no more than the number allotted him; his fate ending, he died without so much as touching his bed and came to us here. Because he fed monks, and was a good man, I took him in as registrar in charge of the account book of good deeds. Since the Great Sage has come to fetch him, I will extend his span of life in the yang world by a full twelve-year cycle, and let him go with the Great Sage."
The golden-robed acolyte then brought out Kou Hong. When Kou Hong saw the Pilgrim, he cried out again and again: "Reverend master! Reverend master! Save me!"
"You were kicked to death by robbers," said the Pilgrim. "This is the place of the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha of the underworld. Old Sun has come especially to bring you back to the world of the living to have this matter set right. Since the Bodhisattva has been pleased to let you return, and to extend your life by a twelve-year cycle, you may come again after twelve years."
The elder bowed his head in thanks without end. The Pilgrim thanked the Bodhisattva, blew on Kou Hong and turned him into a breath of vapor, tucked him into his sleeve, and with him went out of the underworld palace and back to the world of the living. Riding his cloud, he came to the Kou house, and called to Bajie to pry open the coffin lid, and pushed the soul back into its own body. In a moment the breath returned and the man came back to life. Elder Kou climbed out of the coffin, and knocked his head to the four pilgrims of Tang: "Reverend masters! Reverend masters! Kou Hong died a violent death, and by your grace has been rescued from the underworld and brought back to life—this is the grace of a second creation!"
He thanked them without end. When he turned his head and saw the officials drawn up in ranks, he knocked his head again: "Honored gentlemen, why are you all here at my house?"
The prefect said: "At first your sons filed a complaint of loss, suing the holy monks by name, and I dispatched men to arrest them. It turned out that the holy monks had met on the road the thieves who robbed and murdered in your house, seized back the goods, and brought them to return to your house. It was my underlings who arrested them by mistake, and I, without due examination, had them put in prison. Last night, by your manifest spirit, and because my late uncle came to the house to complain, and the county was also honored by the descent of the Rambling Wandering Spirit, there were in a single moment all these manifold proofs—and so I released the holy monks, and the holy monks in turn went and brought you back to life."
The elder Kou knelt: "Your honor, these four holy sages were truly wronged! That night more than thirty robbers, with blazing torches and weapons in hand, carried off our family's goods. It was I who could not bear to part with them and went to argue with the thieves, and who would have thought they would kick me in the groin and kill me! What has this to do with these four?"
He called for his wife: "Who was it that was kicked to death? How dare you make such false accusations? Pray, your honor, pass sentence on them." The whole family, old and young, could only knock their heads. But the prefect, in his broad mercy, pardoned them. Kou Hong ordered a banquet laid out to repay the great kindness of the prefecture and county, and the officials did not return to their offices until each had taken his seat at the feast. The next day he hung up his sign of feeding monks again, and pressed Sanzang to stay, but Sanzang was firmly set on going. So he invited his friends and relatives again, prepared banners and canopies, and saw them off as before. Alack!
This is truly:
The earth, though opened, can harbor deeds of wickedness; Heaven, though high, never fails the man of good heart. Free and easy, with steady steps they tread the Tathagata's road, Until they reach the gate of utmost bliss on Spirit Mountain.
If you do not know how their meeting with the Buddha fared, listen to the explanation in the next chapter.