Let me tell you about the lord Buddha, who left Heaven and returned to Thunderclap Monastery on Soul Mountain, where he was welcomed with flying banners and rare flowers, precious treasures and bejeweled canopies by the three thousand Buddhas, five hundred arhats, eight guardians, and innumerable bodhisattvas who dwelled in the Western Heaven.
One day, about five hundred years after the capture and imprisonment of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven was celebrated with the Banquet of Peace in Heaven, the Buddha gathered all who dwelt in Western Heaven and said to them: “I have been watching the beings who live on the Four Continents. Each continent is unique in how its inhabitants choose good or evil. Those who live on the Eastern Continent respect heaven and earth and are honest and peaceful. Those of the Northern Continent tend toward killing, but only do so to survive in their poverty. Besides, they are dull of spirit and not likely to cause much trouble. Those of the Western Continent neither covet nor kill. They discipline the spirit and moderate the soul. Though there are none who are exceptional among them, one the whole, they will achieve longevity. But those of the South are prone to lust and delight in evil. Slaughter and war are commonplace. I have here three baskets of scriptures that can persuade men toward good. We need one who knows magic to travel to the East1 to find a virtuous believer and instruct him so that he will traverse a thousand mountains and ten thousand waters to come seek the true scriptures. He can bring them back to persuade all who live in the East and bring blessing as tall as a mountain and as deep as the seas. Who among you will embark on this journey?”
The bodhisattva Guanyin was there among them. She approached the Lotus Platform and said, “This untalented disciple is willing to travel to the East and find a scripture pilgrim.”
The Buddha was extremely pleased. “The honorable Guanyin is great in power. She is perfect for the job.”
“Do you have any instructions for me before I leave?” Guanyin inquired.
“Do not fly above the clouds,” the Buddha said, “but pay attention to the road so that you can instruct the pilgrim in the path he must take. In case the way is too difficult, I shall give you five treasures.” He commanded A’nuo and Jiaye to bring out an embroidered jiasha2 robe and a staff with nine rings. “This robe and staff can be given to the pilgrim,” the Buddha said. “Wearing the jiasha will prevent him from falling into the wheel of reincarnation. Holding the staff will protect him from poison.”
After giving these to the bodhisattva, the Buddha then brought out three circlets and handed them to the bodhisattva. “These treasures are constrictive circlets. They may look the same, but they have different uses. I have here three spells: Golden, Constricting, and Prohibiting. If, along the way, you come across a powerful demon, you must persuade him to repent and do good, and become a disciple of the scripture pilgrim. If he is not obedient, you can place the circlet upon his head. It will take root. You can then speak the corresponding incantation and he will feel that his eyes will burst and his head will split.3 This will discipline him so that he will come to our faith.”
The bodhisattva received her orders and took her leave. She summoned her disciple Hui’an, who with his thousand-pound iron baton, acted as her demon-slaying bodyguard. She tied the embroidered cassock into a bundle and placed it on Hui’an’s back. She hid the gold circlets, took up the staff, and they were off.
As the master and disciple were traveling, they came upon the Ruoshui River in the Flowing Sand River Region. The bodhisattva said, “My disciple, this is indeed a difficult area to traverse. The pilgrim will be of mortal flesh and bone, how will he cross?”
Hui’an said, “Master, how wide do you think the river is?”
Guanyin looked. The river flowed from Wuge4 in the south to the Tartars in the north. It was eight-hundred li across and unmeasureably long. The water roiled as if from an earthquake; the waves swelled as if a mountain shrugged. The expanse of whitewater was breathtaking. An immortal could scarce cross on a raft, and a lotus leaf would not float. Where are the merchants that come and go? Has a fisherman ever lived on this shore? No wild geese settle on these waters. On the distant shore monkeys hoot. Only the red liao flowers know this sight, here in the fragrance of the white duckweed.
As the Bodhisattva watched, a loud sound pierced the waves and from the waters jumped out a monster yao. He was exceedingly ugly, his face somewhere between green and black, his height neither tall nor short. He was barefoot. His eyes flashed like two lights in the ashes in the hearth. His mouth was as the bowl in the slaughterhouse: forked at the corners. His mouth opened to reveal knife-like teeth. His tangled red hair billowed about. With a roar like thunder, the monster ran across the waters toward them like a wild wind.
Wielding a treasured staff5 in his hands, he ran onto the shore to attack the bodhisattva. Disciple Hui’an met the attack with his iron baton with a shout of “Stop right there!”
The two fought on the banks of the Flowing Sand River like two silver pythons in a deadly dance. One has the power to calm Flowing Sand River, the other trained his power to protect Guanyin. One can jump through waters and leap over waves; the other breathes out fog and spews out clouds. The fog and cloud darkened the sky. The monster-subduing staff was like a white tiger emerging from the mountains; the iron baton like a yellow dragon lying in wait. They fought until the desert was bathed in twilight and the stars glittered above. The monster had long been the most powerful in the river. He met his first match in this monk from Soul Mountain.
The monk and monster fought more than ten rounds without determining a victor. The monster set his staff across his shoulders and said, “Monk, where did you come from that you dare oppose me?”
Muzha replied, “I am the second son of Lord Li, the Pagoda-Bearing God, Prince Muzha now called Hui’an. I am proteching my master as we travel to the East to find one to fetch the scriptures. What monster are you that you dare block our way?”
As if waking up, the monster replied, “I remember you. You are a disciple of Guanyin, of the black bamboo groves in the South Sea. Why are you here?”
“Is that not my master upon the shore?” Muzha called back.
Hearing this, the monster quickly agreed and put away his staff. He let Muzha grab ahold of him and bring him to Guanyin, where he knelt to pay his respects. “Bodhisattva,” he said. “Forgive me! Let me explain. I am not a monster. I was a general serving in Lingxiao Palace. I was responsible for opening and closing the curtains of the imperial carriage6. Because I broke a crystal cup at the Immortal Peach Festival, I was beaten with 800 strokes, exiled to the mortal realm, and transformed into my current state. Every seven days, a sword is sent to pierce my chest a hundred times. That is how I came to be in such a pitiful state. The cold and hunger are hard to bear, so every two or three days, I come out from the river and find a passerby to eat. I did not expect to run into the great merciful Bodhisattva.”
The Bodhisattva said, “You were banished here for committing a crime in heaven, and now you propagate violence, heaping crime upon crime. I am traveling East to seek a scripture pilgrim. Why don’t you come into our fold, convert and produce good fruit, become a disciple of the scripture pilgrim, and travel to the Western Heaven to seek the scriptures? I will stop the sword from piercing you. After you have completed this task, you will be forgiven and restored to your previous position. What do you say?”
The monster replied, “I’m willing to repent, but since that time I have eaten countless people. There have been several scripture pilgrims among them, and I have eaten them all. The heads of those have sunk to the bottom of Flowing Sand River. (In this water, not even a goose feather would float.) But the skulls of nine of those scripture pilgrims have risen to the surface. I thought they must have some magic, so I strung them together and play with them when I have nothing to do. If the scripture pilgrim doesn’t come this way, what will become of me?”
“Why would he not come this way?” the bodhisattva said. “Wear that string of skulls around your neck. You’ll find a use for them.”
“In that case,” the monster said, “I wil submit to his instruction.”
The bodhisattva received the monster’s oaths of initiation and bestowed on him the surname Sha. With the surname Sha, she gave him a religious name Sha Wujing. Having entered the Door of Sand7, he accompanied the bodhisattva across the river, then cleansed his heart and mind. Resolved to never harm another life, he waited for the scripture pilgrim.
1 It seems that all four continents are east of the Western Heaven, but the phrase here, the Eastern Land, is also a classic name for China. ↩
2 the Chinese name for a kasaya ↩
3 foreshadowing much? ↩
4 Dr. Yu calls it Wuyi, but that’s not the character in my version. ↩
5 a walking stick-like staff ↩
6 that’s a position? I would rather be a bi ma wen. ↩
7 This whole naming thing is a pun. Sha means sand, and entering the door of sand means to become a Buddhist monk. This is why Waley translates Wujing’s name as Sandy ↩
Etymology Adventures 
One thought on “Journey to the West – Chapter 8.1”