Monkey (29 page)

‘This cassock,’ said Tripitaka, ‘although it covers only half my body, is described in a poem:

‘Buddha’s coat left one side bare,

But it hid the Absolute from the world’s dust.

Its ten thousand threads and thousand stitches fulfilled the fruits of

Meditation.

Is it a wonder that when I.saw you come

I did not rise to greet you?

You who call yourself a man, yet have failed to avenge a father’s

death!’

‘What wild nonsense this priest is talking!’ said the prince in a great rage. ‘That half-coat, if it has done nothing else for you, has given you the courage to babble ridiculous fustian. How can my father’s death be unavenged, since he is not dead ? Just tell me that!’

Tripitaka came one step forward, pressed the palms of his hands together and said: ‘Your Majesty, to how many things does man, born into the world, owe gratitude ?’

‘To four things,’ said the prince.

‘To what four things ?’

‘He is grateful,’ said the prince, ‘to Heaven and Earth for covering and supporting him, to the sun and moon for shining upon him, to the king for lending him water and earth, and to his father and mother for rearing him.’

Tripitaka laughed. ‘To the other three he owes gratitude indeed,’ he said. ‘But what need has he of a father and mother to rear him?’

‘That’s all very well for you,’ said the prince, ‘who are a shaven-headed, disloyal, food-cadging wanderer. But if a man had no father or mother, how could he come into the world?’

‘Your Majesty,’ said Tripitaka, ‘I do not know. But in this casket there is a treasure called “The baggage that makes kings”. It knows everything that happened during the five hundred years long ago, the five hundred years between, and the five hundred years to come, one thousand five hundred years in all. If he can quote a case where there was no gratitude to father and mother, then let me be detained captive here.’

‘Show him to me,’ said the prince. Tripitaka took off the cover and out jumped Monkey, and began to skip about this way and that. ‘A little fellow like that can’t know much,’ said the prince. Hearing himself described as too small, Monkey used his magic power and stretched himself till he was three feet four inches high. The huntsmen were astonished, and said, ‘If he goes on growing like this, in a few days he will be bumping his head against the sky.’ But when he reached his usual height, Monkey stopped growing. At this point the prince said to him, ‘Baggage who makes Kings, the old priest says you know all things good and ill, in past and present. Do you divine by the tortoise or by the milfoil ? Or do you decide men’s fates by sentences from books?’

‘Not a bit of it,’ said Monkey; ‘all I rely on is my three inches of tongue, that tells about everything.’

‘This fellow talks great nonsense,’ said the prince. ‘It has always been by the
Book of Changes
that mysteries have been elucidated and the prospects of the world decided, so that people might know what to pursue and what to avoid. Is it not said: “The tortoise for divination, the milfoil for prognostication”? But so far as I can make out you go on no principle at all. You talk at random about fate and the future exciting and misleading people to no purpose.’

‘Now don’t be in a hurry, Your Highness,’ said Monkey, ‘but listen to me. You are the Crown Prince of Crow-cock. Five years ago there was a famine in your land. The king and
his ministers prayed and fasted, but they could not get a speck of rain. Then there came a wizard from the Chung-nan mountains who could call the winds, fetch rain, and turn stone into gold. The king was deceived by his wiles and hailed him as elder brother. Is this true ?’

‘Yes, yes, yes,’ said the prince. ‘Go on!’

‘For the last three years the magician has not been seen,’ said Monkey. ‘Who is it that has been on the throne?’

‘It is true about the wizard,’ said the prince. ‘My father did make this wizard his brother, and ate with him and slept with him. But three years ago, when they were walking in the flower garden and admiring the view, a gust of magic wind that the magician sent blew the jade tablet that the king carried out of his hand, and the magician went off with it straight to the Chung-nan mountains. My father still misses him and has no heart to walk in the flower garden without him. Indeed, for three years it has been locked up and no one has set foot in it. If the king is not my father, who is he?’

At this Monkey began to laugh, and did not stop laughing when the prince asked him what was the matter, till the prince lost his temper.

‘Why don’t you say something?’ he said, ‘instead of standing there laughing.’

‘I have quite a lot to say,’ said Monkey, ‘but I cannot say it in front of all these people.’

The prince thought this reasonable, and motioned to the huntsmen to retire. The leader gave his orders, and soon the three thousand men and horses were all stationed outside the gates. None of the priests of the temple were about. Monkey stopped laughing and said, ‘Your Highness, he who vanished was the father that begot you; he who sits on the throne is the magician that brought rain.’

‘Nonsense,’ cried the prince.’ Since the magician left us, the winds have been favouring, the people have been at peace. But according to you it is not my father who is on the throne. It is all very well to say such things to me who am young and let it pass; but if my father were to hear you uttering this subversive talk, he would have you seized and torn into ten
thousand pieces.’ He began tailing at Monkey, who turned to Tripitaka and said, ‘What is to be done? I have told him and he does not believe me. Let’s get to work. Show him your treasure, and then get your papers seen to, and go off to India.’ Tripitaka handed the lacquer-box to Monkey, and Monkey taking it gave himself a shake, and the box became invisible. For it was in reality one of Monkey’s hairs, which he had changed into a box, but now put back again as a hair on his body. But the white jade tablet he presented to the prince.

‘A fine sort of priest,’ the prince exclaimed. ‘You it was who came five years ago disguised as a magician, and stole the family treasure, and now, disguised as a priest, are offering it back again! Seize him!’ This command startled Tripitaka out of his wits and pointing at Monkey, ‘It’s you,’ he cried, ‘you wretched horse-groom, who have brought this trouble on us for no reason at all.’ Monkey rushed forward and checked him. ‘Hold your tongue,’ he said, ‘and don’t let out my secrets. I am not called “the Baggage that makes Kings”. My real name is quite different.’

. ‘I shall be glad to know your real name,’ said the prince, ‘that I may send you to the magistrate to be dealt with as you deserve.’

‘My name then,’ said Monkey, ‘is the Great Monkey Sage, and I am this old man’s chief disciple. I was going with my Master to India to get scriptures, and last night we came to this temple and asked for shelter. My Master was reading scriptures by night, and at the third watch he had a dream. He dreamt that your father came to him and said he had been attacked by that magician, who in the flower garden pushed him into the eight-cornered crystal well. Then the wizard changed himself into your father’s likeness. The court and all the officers were completely deceived; you yourself were too young to know. You were forbidden to enter the inner apartments of the Palace and the flower garden was shut up, lest the secret should get out. Tonight your father came and asked me to subdue the false magician. I was not sure that he was an evil spirit, but when I looked down from the sky I was quite certain of it. I was just going to seize him, when I met
you and your huntsmen. The white hare you shot was me. It was I who led you here and brought you to my Master. This is the truth, every word of it. You have recognized the white tablet, and all that remains is for you to repay your father’s care and revenge yourself on his enemy.’

This upset the prince very much. ‘If I do not believe this story,’ he said to himself, ‘it must in any case have an unpleasant amount of truth in it. But if I believe it, how can I any longer look upon the present king as my father?’ He was in great perplexity.

‘If you are in doubt,’ said Monkey, ‘ride home and ask your mother a question that will decide it. Ask whether she and the king, as man and wife, are on changed terms, these last three years.’

‘That is a good idea,’ said the prince. ‘Just wait while I go and ask my mother.’ He snatched up the jade tablet and was about to make off, when Monkey stopped him, saying, ‘If all your gentlemen follow you back to the palace, suspicions will be aroused, and how can I succeed in my task? You must go back all alone and attract no attention. Do not go in at the main gate but by the back gate. And when you get to the inner apartments and see your mother, do not speak loudly or clearly, but in a low whisper; for if the magician should hear you, so great is his power that your life and your mother’s would be in danger.’

The prince did as he was told, and as he left the temple he told his followers to remain there on guard and not to move. ‘I have some business,’ he said. ‘Wait till I have got to the city and then come on yourselves I’ Look at him !

He gives bis orders to the men-at-arms,

Flies on horseback home to the citadel.

If you do not know whether on this occasion he succeeded in seeing his mother, and if so what passed between them, you must listen to the next chapter.

T
HE
prince was soon back at the city of Crow-cock, and as instructed he made no attempt to go in by the main gate, but without announcing himself went to the back gate, where several eunuchs were on guard. They did not dare to stop him, and (dear prince!) he rode in all alone, and soon reached the Arbour of Brocade Perfume, where he found his mother surrounded by her women, who were fanning her, while she leant weeping over a carven balustrade. Why, you will ask, was she weeping ? At the fourth watch she had had a dream, half of which she could remember and half of which had faded; and she was thinking hard. Leaping from his horse, the prince knelt down before her and cried ‘Mother!’ She forced herself to put on a happier countenance, and exclaimed, ‘Child, this is a joy indeed! For years past you have been so busy in the men’s quarters at the Palace, studying with your father, that I have never seen you, which has been a great sorrow to me. How have you managed to find time today? It is an unspeakable pleasure! My child, why is your voice so mournful? Your father is growing old. Soon the time will come when the “dragon returns to the pearl-grey sea, the phoenix to the pink mists”; you will then become king. Why should you be dispirited ?’

The prince struck the floor with his forehead. ‘Mother, I ask you,’ he said, ‘who is it that sits upon the throne?’

‘He has gone mad,’ said the queen. ‘The ruler is your father and the king. Why should you ask ?’

‘Mother,’ the prince said, ‘if you will promise me forgiveness I will speak. But if not, I dare not speak.’

‘How can there be questions of guilt and pardon between mother and son ? Of course, you are free to speak. Be quick and begin.’

‘Mother,’ said the prince, ‘if you compare your life with my father these last three years with your life with him before, should you say that his affection was as great?’

Hearing this question the queen altogether lost her presence of mind, and leaping to her feet ran down from the arbour and flung herself into his arms, saying, ‘Child, why, when I have not seen you for so long, should you suddenly come and ask me such a question ?’

‘Mother,’ said the prince hotly,’ do not evade this question. For much hangs upon the answer to it.’

Then the queen sent away all the Court ladies, and with tears in her eys said in a low voice, ‘Had you not asked me, I would have gone down to the Nine Springs of Death without ever breathing a word about this matter. But since you have asked, hear what I have to say:

‘What three jears ago was warm and bland,

These last three years has been cold as ice.

When at the pillow’s side I questioned him,

He told me age had impaired his strength

and that things did not work.’

When he heard this, the prince shook himself free, gripped the saddle, and mounted his horse. His mother tried to hold him back, saying, ‘Child, what is it that makes you rush off before our talk is done ?’

The prince returned and knelt in front of her. ‘Mother,’ he said, ‘I dare not speak. Today at dawn I received a command to go hunting outside the city with falcon and dog. By chance I met a priest sent by the Emperor of China to fetch scriptures. He has a chief disciple named Monkey, who is very good at subduing evil spirits. According to him my father the king was drowned in the crystal well in the flower garden, and a wi2ard impersonated him and seized his throne. Last night at the third watch my father appeared in a dream to this priest and asked him to come to the city and seize the impostor. I did not believe all this, and so came to question you. But what you have just told me makes me certain that it is an evil spirit.’