Chapter 1
"I've had a hard life," the woodcutter replied. "My mother and father brought me up till I was about eight, and just when I was beginning to know about life my father died. My mother remained a widow, and I had no brothers or sisters. As I was the only child I had to look after my mother morning and night. Now she is old that I can't possibly leave her. Our land is so overgrown that I can't grow enough to feed and clothe both of us, so I have to cut a couple of bundles of firewood to sell in the market for a handful of coppers to buy the few pints of rice that I cook for myself and for my mother. That's why I can't cultivate my conduct."
"From what you say," the Monkey King replied, "you're a filial son and a gentleman−−you're bound to be rewarded for it one day. But I'd be grateful if you could show me where that Immortal lives, so that I can go and pay him my respects."
The woodcutter said, "It's not far from here. This mountain is the Spirit Tower Heart Mountain, and in it there is the Cave of the Setting Moon and the Three Stars. In that cave lives an Immortal called the Patriarch Subhuti. I don't know how many disciples he has trained−−there are thirty or forty of them cultivating their conduct with him at the moment. If you take that path South for two or three miles you'll reach his home."
The Monkey King tugged at the woodcutter and said, "Take me there, Elder Brother. If I get anything out of this, I won't forget your kindness."
"You idiot," the woodcutter replied, "didn't you understand what I told you just now? If I went with you I wouldn't be able to earn my living, and who would look after my poor old mother then? I've got to get on with my woodcutting. Go by yourself."
After hearing this the Monkey King had to take his leave. He came out of the forest and found the path, which led up a mountain slope for two or three miles, when he saw the cave. He pulled himself up to his full height to take a look, and it was a really magnificent place:
Misty clouds scattered colours, Sun and moon shimmered bright. A thousand ancient cypresses, Ten thousand lofty bamboos.
A thousand ancient cypresses,
A soft green drawing the rain from the sky. Ten thousand lofty bamboos,
And a misty valley is azure blue.
Outside the gate rare flowers spread brocade; Beside the bridge wafts the scent of jade flowers. Rocky crags jut, glossy with green moss;
On overhanging cliffs blue lichen grows. Sometimes the call of the crane is heard And often you see the phoenix soar.
The call of the crane
Echoes beyond the Ninth Heaven and the Milky Way. When the phoenix soars,
The brilliance of its wings colours the clouds. Black apes and white deer can be just made out;
Golden lions and jade elephants prefer to keep hidden. If you look closely at this happy land,
You will see that it rivals paradise.
He saw that the doors of the cave were shut fast, and that everything was still, with no signs of any people. He turned round and noticed that there was a stone tablet about thirty feet high and eight feet wide at the top of the cliff. On it was carved in enormous letters: SPIRIT−TOWER HEART MOUNTAIN, CAVE OF THE SETTING MOON AND THE THREE STARS. The Monkey King exclaimed with delight, "The people here really are honest. The mountain and the cave do exist." He took a good long look, but did not dare to knock on the door. He climbed to the and of a pine branch and ate some pine seeds to amuse himself.
Before long the doors of the cave opened with a creak, and an immortal boy came out. In the nobility of his bearing and the exceptional purity of his features he was completely different from an ordinary boy.
His hair was bound with a pair of silken bands, His flowing gown had two capacious sleeves. His face and body were naturally distinguished; His mind and appearance were both empty.
For many years a guest beyond the world of things, An eternal child amid the mountains,
Untouched by any speck of dust,
He let the years go tumbling by.
When this boy had come out he shouted, "Who's making that row out here?"
The Monkey King scampered down the tree, went up to him, and said with a bow, "Immortal child, I am a disciple who has come to ask about the Way and study under the Immortal. The last thing I'd do would be to make a row here?" The boy laughed.
"So you've come to ask about the Way, have you?" "Yes," the Monkey King replied.
"Our master has just got up," the boy said, "and has now mounted the dais to expound the Way. Before he had started to explain about origins he told me to open the door. He said, 'There is someone outside who wants to cultivate his conduct. Go and welcome him.' I suppose he must have meant you."
"Yes, he meant me," the Monkey King said with a smile. "Come with me," the boy said.
The Monkey King straightened his clothes and followed the boy deep into the depths of the cave. He saw majestic pavilions and towers of red jade, pearl palaces and gateways of cowry, and countless rooms of silence and secluded cells leading all the way to a jasper dais. He saw the Patriarch Subhuti sitting on the dais and thirty−six minor Immortals standing below it.
A golden Immortal of great enlightenment, free from filth, Subhuti, the marvel of the Western World.
Neither dying nor born, he practices the triple meditation, His spirit and soul entirely benevolent
In empty detachment he follows the changes; Having found his true nature he lets it run free. As eternal as Heaven, and majestic in body,
The great teacher of the Law is enlightened through aeons.
As soon as the Handsome Monkey King saw him he bowed low and knocked his head on the ground before him many times, saying, "Master, master, your disciple pays his deepest respects."
"Where are you from?" the Patriarch asked. "You must tell me your name and address before you can become my pupil."
"I come from the Water Curtain Cave in the Flowers and Fruit Mountain in the land of Aolai in the Eastern Continent of Superior Body," replied the Monkey King.
"Throw him out," the Patriarch roared. "He's a liar and a cheat, and even if he tried cultivating his conduct he would get nowhere."
The Monkey King desperately kept hitting his head on the ground and said, "Your disciple spoke the truth. I promise I wasn't lying."
The Patriarch asked, "If you were speaking the truth, why did you say that you came from the Eastern Continent of Superior Body? Between here and the Eastern Continent there are two seas and the Southern Jambu Continent, so how could you possibly have come here from there?"
The Monkey King, still kowtowing, replied, "I sailed across seas and oceans, crossed frontiers and wandered through many countries for over ten years before I arrived here."
"So you came here by stages," the Patriarch remarked. "What is your surname?"
"I'm not surly," the Monkey King replied. "If people call me names it doesn't bother me, and if they hit me I don't get angry. I'm just polite to them and that's that. I've never been surly."
"I didn't ask if you were surly. I wanted to know the surname you inherited from your parents." "I didn't have any parents," the Monkey King replied.
"If you had no parents, did you grow on a tree?"
"I grew not on a tree but in a stone," the Monkey King replied. "All I remember is that there was a magic stone on the top of the Flower and Fruit Mountain, and that one year the stone split open and I was born."
Concealing his delight at searing this, the Patriarch remarked, "In other words, you were born of Heaven and Earth. Walk around for a moment and let me have a look at you." The Monkey King leapt to his feet and shambled round a couple of times.
The Patriarch smiled and said, "Though you have rather a base sort of body, you look like one of the rhesus monkeys that eat pine seeds, and I ought to give you a surname that fits your appearance and call you Hu ('Macaque'). The elements that make up the character Hu are 'animal,' 'old' and 'moon'. What is old is ancient, and the moon embodies the Negative principle, and what is ancient and Negative cannot be transformed. But I think I would do much better to call you Sun ('Monkey'). Apart from the 'animal' element, the character Sun has one part implying male and one part suggesting a baby, which fits in with my basic theories about children. Your surname will be Sun."
When the Monkey King heard this he kowtowed with delight and said, "Great! Great! Now I have a surname. I am eternally grateful to you for your mercy and compassion, master. I beg you to give me a personal name to go with my new surname, then it will be much easier to address me."
"There are twelve words within my sect," said the Patriarch, "which I give as names. You belong to the tenth generation of my disciples."
"What are these twelve words?" asked the Monkey King.
"Broad, great, wisdom, intelligence, true, likeness, nature, sea, bright, awakened, complete and enlightenment. If we work out the generations of disciples, then you should have a name with Wu ('Awakened') in it. So we can give you the Dharma−name Sun Wukong, which means 'Monkey Awakened to Emptiness'. Will that do?"
"Marvellous, marvellous," said the smiling Monkey King. "From now on my name will be Sun Wukong." Indeed:
When the Great Vagueness was separated there were no surnames; To smash foolish emptiness he had to be awakened to emptiness.
If you want to know what success he had in cultivating his conduct, you must listen to the explanation in the next installment.
To be continue......Chapter 2