We will leave for now the heavenly army besieging the mountain and the Great Sage at rest. Let us turn instead to the compassionate savior of the suffering and distressed, the Goddess of Mercy, Bodhisattva Guanyin1 of Mount Putuoluojia of the South Sea, who was invited by the Queen Mother to attend the Immortal Peach Festival. Guanyin arrived at the Turquoise Pool with her first disciple Hui An to find the banquet hall in chaos. Several immortals were present, but they were not seated in their places and instead were milling about in confused discussion. After greeting the gathered immortals, the immortals recounted all that had happened. The Bodhisattva said, “Since there is to be no banquet and no celebration, I would be glad if you all would accompany this poor monk2 to go see the Jade Emperor.”
The immortals gladly agreed. That morning, the Four Celestial Masters and the Barefoot Immortal were among the immortals in attendance at the Palace of Transcendence. They welcomed the bodhisattva and told her of the Jade Emperor’s worry: the heavenly soldiers that had been sent below to catch a monster had not returned. “I wish to speak with the Jade Emperor,” the Bodhisattva said. “Could I trouble one of you to announce me?” Master Qiu Hongji entered Lingxiao Palace to announce the bodhisattva’s arrival. At that time Lao Tzu was in attendance before the throne, and the Queen Mother was in attendance behind the throne.
The Bodhisattva and the assembly paid their respects to the Jade Emperor, greeted the old Daoist and the Queen Mother, and seated themselves. “What has happened to the Immortal Peach Festival?” the Bodhisattva asked.
The Jade Emperor said, “Each year the Festival is a joyful affair, but the chaos caused by that yao monkey has turned this year’s Festival into an invitation to nothing.”
The Bodhisattva said, “From whence did the yao monkey come?”
The Jade Emperor said, “The yao monkey was born from a stone on Huaguo Mountain, from the Kingdom of Aolai of the Eastern Continent. At the time when of his birth, we saw a ray of golden light pierce Heaven. We did not think much of it at first, but he cultivated his spirit,3 vanquished tigers and dragons, and erased his name from Hell’s records. The Dragon King and the King of Hell reported these events to me. I intended to capture him at that time, but the Evening Star4 presented a suggestion. He said that, within the three realms, of those beings with nine orifices, very few can achieve immortality. In the spirit of educating one with such abilities, I invited him up to Heaven and appointed him as the Horses’ Fortune of the Imperial Stables.
The hooligan resented the insignificance of the office and left Heaven. I sent Lord Li and Prince Nezha to capture him, then pardoned him, invited him to Heaven, and appointed him as Great Sage, Equal to Heaven. It was a post without salary, but because he had no responsibilities, he was wandering around everywhere. I feared he would make some trouble, so I appointed him overseer of the Immortal Peach Orchard. He again did not respect the law and stole and ate all of the peaches of the ancient trees.
The hooligan resented the insignificance of the office.
嫌 – resented – is a useful verb meaning “to think about with discontent”. You can 嫌 all kinds of things – that the food is too salty 嫌菜太咸, that the clothes are too expensive 嫌衣服太贵, or that the salary is too low 嫌工资太低.
At the time of the Festival, this official with not even a salary found out he was not invited to the Immortal Peach Festival. He devised a scheme to hoodwink the Barefoot Immortal and take on his appearance to enter the Festival in secret. He ate the immortal food and drink, then he stole Lao Tsu’s golden pearls to enjoy with the monkeys in his mountain nest. That is why I am worried. I have sent a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers with cosmic net to capture him. I have had no reports today and do not know whether my troops have been victorious or vanquished.”
When the Bodhisattva heard this, she immediately said to Disciple Hui An, “Go down quickly to Huaguo Mountain and assess the situation. If the army has met a true match, you may lend a hand. Bring back news of the situation.”
Hui An straightened his clothes, took his iron baton, and rode his cloud down to the Mountain. He saw layers upon layers of cosmic net.5 The camp was thick with soldiers and generals carrying out their orders, The siege was laid such that not even a drop of water could escape.6 Hui An stopped before the camp and called out, “Guards of the camp, please carry a message! I am the second son of Lord Li, Muzha, the oldest disciple of South Sea Guanyin, Hui An,7 here to comprehend the military situation.”
The spirits of the Five Sacred Mountains guarding the camp immediately carried the message through the general’s gate. The Aquarius Rat, Pleiades Cockerel, Hydra Horse, and Scorpius Hare8 passed this message into the commander’s tent. Lord Li gave the command to lift the cosmic net to admit him. At that time, the eastern horizon was just starting to brighten. Hui An followed the standard-bearer into the camp, and presented himself before Lord Li and the Four Heavenly Kings.
“My child, who has sent you?” Lord Li asked after he had genuflected before them.
Hui An replied, “Your servant accompanied Bodhisattva Guanyin to attend the Immortal Peach Festival. The Bodhisattva saw that the festival was ruined and the Jade Pool desolate, so took the immortals and this servant to see the Jade Emperor. The Emperor said that my lord father and the troops had descended to the mortal world to capture a yao monkey and that no report had come for a day, so the Bodhisattva sent your servant to come understand the situation.”
Lord Li replied, “Yesterday we arrived and pitched our camps here and sent the Nine Heavenly Bodies into battle, but the criminal has some powerful tricks and the Nine Heavenly Bodies returned defeated. Afterwards we personally led our troops into battle. He also sent out his troops. Our hundred thousand troops engaged him in chaotic battle until evening, but he worked a magic of dividing the body and retreated. When we returned to camp and assessed, we found we had captured some wolves, insects, tigers, and such, but had not captured a single yao monkey. Today we have not yet commenced battle.”
1 Guanyin has been portrayed as both male and female in various times and places. The text does not specify Guanyin’s gender, but in the modern Chinese imagination, Guanyin is most commonly female, so I have gone with female pronouns here. ↩
2 Though a powerful deity in her own right, she is being humble in the way she refers to herself to be polite. No one is fooled. ↩
3 The phrase here, 成精, literally means ‘became aware’. It is the process of going from a regular animal to one with consciousness, humanoid features (like walking on two feet), and magical powers through religious cultivation. ↩
4 aka Old Man Taibai ↩
5 Cosmic net, 天罗地网, is an idiom meaning inescapable net. ↩
6 This idiom, 水泄不通, can also be used to describe tightly packed crowds. ↩
7 Muzha 木吒 is the older brother of Nezha 哪吒, which you can tell by the shared second character. Hui An is his religious name (法名), which he likely received when he became Guanyin’s disciple, similarly to how the Monkey King received the name Wukong when he began his religious studies. ↩
8 Chinese astrology has different animals assigned to these constellations, so these names don’t quite roll off the tongue. Dr. Yu leaves off the Chinese animals and just lists the constellations by their English names, but I feel this obscures the feeling of the original text. ↩
Etymology Adventures 