The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 2 (43 page)

“Yes, yes, yes!” said the prince. “Say some more.”

Pilgrim said, “After three years, the Daoist disappeared, and who is he now who uses the royal ‘we’?” The prince said, “There was indeed a Daoist, with whom father king swore to be his brother. In fact, they ate together and rested together. Three years ago when they were enjoying the sights of the imperial garden, the Daoist used a gust of magic wind and transported back to Zhongnan Mountain the gold inlaid white jade token that father king had in his hands. Even now, however, father king still misses him, and because of his absence, has closed down the garden for three years. But who is now ruling, if not my father king?” When Pilgrim heard these words, he began to snicker. The prince asked him again, but instead of replying, he only continued to snicker some more. “Why don’t you speak when you should?” said the prince angrily. “Why do you snicker like that?” “I still have plenty to say,” said Pilgrim, “but there are so many people around and it’s not convenient for me to speak up.”

When the prince saw that there might be some reason for such a statement, he waved his sleeve once to dismiss the soldiers. The captain of the guards immediately gave the order to have the three thousand men and
horses
stationed outside the monastery gate. The hall was thus nearly emptied of people, with only the prince sitting in the middle, the elder standing before him, and Pilgrim to his left. After even the resident monks retired, then Pilgrim went forward and said to him soberly, “Your Highness, the one who left with the wind is actually your true father, but the one who occupies the throne now is the Daoist who made rain.”

“Nonsense! Nonsense!” said the prince. “Since the departure of the Daoist, my father has governed so well that the wind and rain are seasonal, the country is prosperous, and the people are secure. But if what you say is true, then the present ruler is not my father king. It’s a good thing that I am young and I can be somewhat tolerant. If my father king hears such treasonous words from you, he will have you seized and hewn to pieces.” He dismissed Pilgrim with a snort. Turning to the Tang Monk, Pilgrim said, “You see? I said that he wouldn’t believe me, and indeed he does not. Take the treasure now and present it to him. After certifying our rescript, we can proceed to the Western Heaven.” Tripitaka handed the red box over to Pilgrim, who having received it, shook his body and the box disappeared. It was, you see, actually the transformation of his hair that was retrieved by him. With both hands, Pilgrim presented the white jade token to the prince.

When he saw the object, the prince shouted, “What a monk! What a monk! You were the Daoist of five years ago who came to cheat our household of this treasure. Now you are disguised as a monk to present it back to us? Seize him!” When he shouted the order like that, the elder was so frightened that he pointed at Pilgrim and said, “You BanHorsePlague! You have a special knack for causing trouble and bringing calamity on me!” “Don’t shout!” said Pilgrim, walking up to the prince to stop him. “Don’t let this thing leak out. I’m not called King-Making Thing, for I have a real name.” “You come up here!” said the prince angrily. “Answer me with your real name so that I can send you to the bureau of justice to sentence you.”

Pilgrim said, “I’m the senior disciple of this elder, and my name is Wukong Pilgrim Sun. Because my master and I were on our way to acquire scriptures in the Western Heaven, we arrived last night and found lodging here. My master was reading the sūtras in the night, and at about the hour of the third watch, he dreamed that your father appeared to him. Your father claimed that he was harmed by that Daoist, who pushed him into the octagonal well with the marble wall in the imperial garden. The Daoist changed into the form of your father, and this was not known to any of the court officials nor to you since you were so young. You were forbidden to enter the inner palace, and the garden was shut down so that the truth could not be discovered, I suppose. Your father king came specially in the night to ask me to subdue this demon. At first, I was afraid that the murderer was not a demon, but when I surveyed the city in midair, I could see
that
there was a monster-spirit all right. I was about to seize him when you came out of the city to hunt. The white rabbit that you shot with your arrow happened to be this old Monkey, who led you here to the monastery to see my master. Every word that we have said to you is the truth. If you could recognize this white jade token, how could you possibly not think of your father’s care and love and seek vengeance for him?”

When the prince heard these words, he became grief stricken, thinking to himself sorrowfully, “Even if I don’t believe him, his words seem to have at least thirty percent truth. But if I believe him, how could I face the father king now in the palace?” This is what we call

    
To advance or retreat is hard, so the mind asks the mouth;

    
To think thrice, to have patience—as the mouth asks the mind.

When Pilgrim saw how perplexed he was, he said again, “Your Highness, there’s no need for perplexity. Let Your Highness return to your kingdom, and make inquiry of your queen mother. Ask her whether the feelings between her and her husband are the same as three years before. Just this one question will reveal the truth.” Persuaded by this, the prince said, “Yes, let me go and inquire of my mother.” Leaping up, he took hold of the white jade token and wanted to leave. Pilgrim, however, tugged at him, saying, “If all these men and horses of yours return with you, someone is bound to leak out information, and it’ll be hard for me to succeed. You must, therefore, go back alone, and don’t make a show of yourself. Don’t go through the Central Gate of the Sun, but enter the palace through the Rear Gate of the Servants. When you get to see your mother in the palace, you must remember not to speak loftily or loudly; you must speak quietly and in a subdued manner. For I fear that the fiend has great magic powers, and if he ever gets wind of the news, it’ll be difficult to preserve the lives of you and your mother.” The prince obeyed this instruction; walking out the door, he gave this order to the officers; “Stay and camp here. Don’t move. I have something to attend to. When I return, we shall go back to the city together.” Look at him!

    
He gave his troops the order to pitch their camp,

    
And sped to his city on a flying horse.

As he left, we do not know what they have to say when he sees his mother; let’s listen to the explanation in the next chapter.

THIRTY-
EIGHT

The child queries his mother to learn of deviancy and truth;

Metal and Wood, reaching the deep, see the false and the real.

    
I meet you to speak just on the cause of birth

    
That’ll make you one of Buddha’s assembly.

    
One calm thought sees Him in this realm of dust;

    
The whole world watches the god who subdues.

    
If you’d know today’s true, enlightened lord,

    
You must ask your mother of former years.

    
There’s another world you have never seen,

    
For each step in life may bring something new.

We were telling you about the prince of the Black Rooster Kingdom, who, after he took leave of the Great Sage, soon returned to his city. Indeed, he did not approach the gate of the court, nor did he dare announce his arrival. Going instead to the Rear Gate of the Servants, he found that it was guarded by several eunuchs. When they saw the prince approaching, however, they dared not stop him and let him pass. Dear prince! Pressing his horse, he galloped inside and went straight up to the Brocade Fragrance Pavilion, in which the queen was seated, with scores of palace maidens waving their fans on both sides. The queen, however, was reclining on the carved railings of the pavilion and shedding tears. Why was she shedding tears, you ask? For at the hour of the fourth watch, you see, she too had a dream, but she could remember only half of it. She was trying very hard to recall the other half when the prince dismounted and knelt beneath the pavilion, saying, “Mother!” Forcing herself to appear delighted, the queen cried out, “Son, what joy! What joy! For these two or three years, you have been staying in the front palace to study with your father king and I have not been able to see you. How I have thought of you! How is it that you have the leisure today to come see me instead? This is truly my greatest joy, my greatest joy! O son, why do you sound so sad? Your father king, after all, is getting on in his years. There will be a day when the dragon returns to the jade-green sea and the phoenix will go back to the scarlet heavens. You will then inherit the throne. What could there possibly be to make you unhappy?”

The prince kowtowed before he said, “Mother, permit me to ask you: who is he that is on the throne now? Who is the man who uses the royal ‘we’?” When the queen heard this, she said, “This child has gone mad! The
one
who is ruling is your father king. Why do you ask such questions?” Again kowtowing, the prince said, “I beseech my mother to grant her son a pardon first. Only then would I dare present a further question. If you do not, I’ll dare not ask.” “Between mother and son,” said the queen, “how could there be any criminal offense? Of course I’ll pardon you. Speak up, quickly!” The prince said, “Let me ask you this: are your relations with your husband just as warm and intimate as three years before?”

When the queen heard this question, her spirit left her and her soul fled. She dashed out of the pavilion and embraced the prince tightly as tears fell from her eyes. “My child,” she said, “I haven’t seen you for such a long time. Why do you come to the palace today and ask this question?” “Mother,” said the prince, becoming irritated. “If you have something to say, say it. If you don’t speak up, you might jeopardize a very important affair.” Only then did the queen dismiss all her attendants and spoke, quietly weeping, “This matter, if you, son, did not ask me, would never have come to light even when I reached the Nine Springs
¹
down below. Since you have asked me, listen to what I have to say:

    
Three years ago he was loving and warm;

    
For three years now he has been cold as ice.

    
By the pillows I’ve pressed him long and hard;

    
He said, ‘I’m old, I’m frail, I can’t make that something rise’!”

When the prince heard these words, he at once struggled free and mounted his horse once more. Clutching at him desperately, the queen said, “Child, what are you doing? Why do you leave before we finish speaking?” Again the prince knelt on the ground and said, “Mother, I dare not speak, though I must! During the time of the early court this morning, I went out by imperial decree to hunt with falcons and dogs. By chance I met a holy monk sent by the Throne in the Land of the East to fetch scriptures. He has under him a senior disciple by the name of Pilgrim Sun, who is an expert in the subjugation of fiends. I was told that my real father king had been murdered in the imperial garden; he died, in fact, in the well with the octagonal marble walls. It was the Daoist, who falsely changed into the form of father king and usurped his dragon seat. Last night, father king appeared to the monk in a dream and asked him to send his disciple to the city to catch this fiend. Your child did not dare believe them completely and that was why I came specially to question you. Now that mother has spoken like this, I know that there must be a monster-spirit here.”

“O son,” said the queen, “how could you take the words of some stranger outside as the truth?” The prince said, “I did not, but father king left them a sign.” When the queen asked what sort of sign it was, the prince took out that white jade token inlaid with gold and handed it to her. Recognizing at
once
it was a treasure that had belonged to the king, the queen could not hold back the torrents of tears. “My lord!” she cried. “How could you not come to see me first, if you had been dead for three years? How could you go to see the sage monk first, and then the prince afterwards?” “Mother,” said the prince, “what are you saying?” The queen said, “My child, I also had a dream last night at about the hour of the fourth watch. I dreamed that your father king stood before me dripping wet, and he told me himself that he was dead. His spirit, he said, had gone to plead with the Tang Monk to subdue the specious king and to save his former body. I clearly recall these words, but there is another half of the dream which I just cannot remember. I was speculating just now by myself when you arrived with your questions and this treasure. Let me put away the jade token for the moment. You should go and ask the sage monk to do what he must do quickly, so that the demonic miasma may be dispelled and the perverse and true can be distinguished. That’s the way you can repay your father king’s kindness in rearing you.”

Swiftly mounting his horse, the prince went out of the Rear Gate of the Servants and slipped away from the city. Truly

    
Holding back his tears, he kowtowed to leave the queen;

    
In grief he went to bow again to the Tang Monk.

In a little while, he was out of the city gate and went straight to the gate of the Precious Grove Monastery, where he dismounted. As the soldiers came to receive him, the sun began to set. The prince gave the order for the soldiers to remain where they were stationed. Again by himself, he walked inside after straightening out his clothes to solicit Pilgrim’s assistance.