Journey to the West – Chapter 1.2

*As usual, translation notes are in the mouseover text or at the bottom of the post. 🙂 Let’s continue the story!

The Handsome Monkey King led his band of gibbons, macaques, and every type of monkey,⁶ and appointed some as generals and advisors. By day they roamed Huaguo Mountain, by night they rested in Shuilian Cave. In springtime they dined on flowers, in summer they feasted on fruit, in autumn they lived on taro and chestnuts, in winter they had tubers to tide them through to the new year.⁷ In this way the Handsome Monkey King enjoyed his rule for 3oo years.

One day, while playing happily with his band of monkeys, he grew suddenly morose and began to weep. The other monkeys hurried to ask “What troubles the King?”  The Monkey King replied: “Although I am happy now, I was suddenly troubled by thoughts of the future.” The crowd said: “The King does not know contentment! We live carefree lives in this paradise. We fear no harm from beasts, and no one has power over us. We can do whatever we want. We have great fortune. Why does the future trouble you?” The King said: “Although I am not subject to rulers or laws, and fear no beasts, eventually I will get old and weak and be ruled by the King of the Underworld.⁸ Once we die, we will have lived in vain. We can’t live forever.” The other monkeys also grew morose at the thought of their own mortality. 

Suddenly, a bare-backed ape jumped out of the crowd. “If my King is so far-sighted,” he called, “it is a sign he has begun to find the Way.⁹ There are three types of beings that are able to escape death.” The King asked, “Which three kinds?” The ape replied “Buddhas, immortals, and sages escape the cycles of reincarnation. They are not born and do not die, and live as long as mountains and rivers.” “Where do these three beings live?” the King asked. The monkey replied, “They live in the ancient caves and divine mountains in the human realms.” Hearing this, the Monkey King was filled with joy. He said, “Tomorrow I will leave this mountain. I will travel to the corners of the earth and find these beings and learn the trick of immortality.” The crowd said “Marvelous! Tomorrow we will gather fruits and foodstuffs from all over the mountain and give you a proper sendoff!” 

The next day, the monkeys groomed themselves, brought out the stone platters and bowls, and prepared a great feast, gathering immortal peaches, wondrous fruits, and mountain yams. There were cherries, red and sweet; yellow dates, full of tart flavor; longans, lychees, pears, apricots, peaches, plums, watermelons, and persimmons. Pomegranates with seeds like rubies. Chestnuts with flesh like agates. There was wine made with coconuts and grapes. Dishes were piled high with hazelnuts and pine nuts; others overflowed with tangerines and oranges. Roots and grains were slowly roasted, stewed, and simmered. All the delicacies in the world could not compare to that feast on the mountain.¹⁰ The monkeys came up one by one to the Monkey King’s throne to toast him with wine, flowers and fruits. Thus they feasted for a day. The next day, the Monkey King rose early, and said: “Little ones!¹¹ Collect some dried pine boughs and make me a raft, and bring me a length of bamboo as a pole. Gather some fruits and foodstuffs, and I’ll be off.” He got on the raft all alone, pushed off into the sea, and drifted for days, following the wind, until he came to the Southern Continent.

When he neared the shore, he left the raft and ran up the beach. He saw there people who were fishing, netting geese, digging for clams, and making salt. He went up to them and screeched and made faces, scaring them into dropping their nets and running away in every direction¹². He caught one who tired quickly, peeled off his clothes, and put them on. Imitating the way humans walk, he swaggered into the village.¹³ In the marketplace, he learned human mannerisms and human speech. From morning to night he asked everyone he met the whereabouts of a Buddha, immortal, or sage that might teach him the secret of immortality. But the people pursued only fame and power, and none of them knew.

In seeking fame and power, they had no time to rest or ponder questions of religion or eternity. Those who rode donkeys dreamt of riding stallions. Those who governed dreamt of being kings. They could only think of what they would eat, and what they would wear. They were preoccupied with seeking honor and riches to pass on to their descendants, and not one was willing to turn from the path.¹⁴

The Monkey King roamed the Southern Continent seeking the way to immortality. He climbed mountains and toured small villages. In this way he spent eight or nine years. He suddenly came to the Western Ocean. He thought, there must be immortals beyond the ocean. So he built himself a raft as before, and drifted through the Western Sea straight toward the Western Continent. On the shore, he had asked around for a long time when he came to an elegant mountain range carpeted with thick forests. As he didn’t fear wolves or insects or tigers, he climbed into the mountains to take a look. 

The range sprawled with thousands of peaks and valleys. The trees shone jade with sun, stained black with rain and blushed blue with frost. Old vines entwined about ancient trees.  Noble bamboos and towering pines had for generations flourished here. In all seasons flowers and grasses stretched forth like the sea. The mountains were filled with the sound of birds, and springs that ran crystal clear. The valleys were filled with orchids, and cliffs carpeted in moss. It was just the kind of place an immortal might live.¹⁵ 

To be continued…

^{1 There is one phrase used to refer to the crowd of monkeys in Chinese – 众猴. This two-syllable word is so efficient that you don’t mind the repetition. I’ve reduced it down to ‘the crowd’ for the sake of flow. ↩}

^{2 Likewise, ‘stone monkey’ is so clunky compared to 石猴. ‘Stone monkey’ seems to be both his name and what he is. ↩}

^{3 There’s repetition in the Chinese here that just does not translate. The use of repetition here, as well as when the crowd says ‘Lead us inside’, gives off the impression of energy. It has ADHD vibes. ↩}

^{4 Long lists are not awkward in Chinese the way they are in English. This is just a list of actions in Chinese, in parallel structure, of course. ↩}

^{5 Again, the name 美猴王 is super short in Chinese, and just does not translate over. 美 can be ‘beautiful’, ‘lovely’, or ‘perfect’. Prof. Yu translates this as ‘Handsome’, and I’m going with it. ↩}

^{6 I’m not sure exactly what types of monkeys these are supposed to be, so I just looked up monkey species in China and used those 😛 ↩}

^{7 ‘Tubers’ refers to King Solomon’s seal, a specific type of plant. I wasn’t familiar with it, so I generalized to keep it from being distracting. ↩}

^{8 The King of the Underworld is specifically Yama, a deity in Buddhism. I thought this title gets the point across without the reader having to look it up. ↩}

^{9 Also known as the Dao, as in Daosim. ↩}

^{10 This was a study of what Chinese people value in their fruits. As an example, longans need sweet flesh and thin peel/rind. Lychees need small pits and to be bright red. I left most of this out, but the idea is that everything is the best of the best. ↩}

^{11 This is something between ‘children’ and ‘underlings’. ↩}

^{12 The word here means ‘played a trick’, but I’m imagining just… how baboons act? If a baboon got in your face, you would run too. ↩}

^{13 The phrase I translated as ‘swaggered’ means something like ‘rocking from side to side’. ↩}

^{14 This is a poem I turned into prose. It’s funny how critical of materialism it is, and how relevant it still feels. ↩}

^{15 This is another description that’s half list and half poem. ↩}