Monkey (35 page)

‘I’m certain it is men shouting and horses neighing,’ said Tripitaka.

‘You’re all wrong,’ laughed Monkey. ‘Wait while I go and have a look.’ Dear Monkey! He gave himself a shake, sprang straight up into the clouds and looked down. Below him he saw a moated city. The vapours that surrounded it were all of good omen; none were baleful. Monkey thought to himself, ‘Where can all that noise come from? I see no banners or halberds, no artillery. Yet certainly there is a din of horses and men.’

While he was debating with himself, his eye fell upon a tall sandy cliff outside the city, near which were gathered together a great crowd of Buddhist priests dragging a cart; and to give themselves courage for their task, each time they hauled they cried out all together the name of the Bodhisattva of Power. This was the noise that had alarmed Tripitaka. Lowering his cloud Monkey saw that the cart was loaded with bricks, tiles, timber, earth-clods, and the like. The cliff was almost perpendicular, but a narrow path ran up between steep walls. How they were going to get the cart up this path defied imagination. It was a hot day; but they were all still clad in full monastic robes. Seeing them in this plight, Monkey could think of no better explanation than that they were building a temple, and, unable to obtain labourers because the harvest was in process, they had found nothing for it but to take on the work themselves. While he was thus speculating, the gates of the city opened and two young Taoists came out. No sooner did the Buddhists see them than
in an evident agony of apprehension they redoubled their efforts, tugging madly at the cart. ‘Aha!’ said Monkey to himself. ‘Now all is plain. The priests are afraid of those Taoists. I have heard it said that on the way to the west there is a place where Taoists are in power and Buddhism has been destroyed. This must be the place that was meant. However, if I go back at once and tell the Master he will say this is all mere guess-work and scold me for not bringing back a trustworthy report. I will go down and find out all about it before I speak to the Master.’ He gave himself a shake and changed into the guise of a wandering Taoist magician. On his left arm he carried a hamper and in his right hand a tambourine, and singing Taoist songs as he went he strolled towards the two Taoists.

‘Masters, I salute you most humbly,’ he said bowing.

‘Where do you come from?’ they asked. ‘Your disciple,’ said Monkey, ‘wanders through the world like a cloud. The four corners of the earth are his home. His purpose in coming here is to collect subscriptions for works of piety. In what quarters of this city of yours is the Way loved, in what streets are the worthy esteemed ? For I feel like going and begging a little supper.’

‘Sir,’ said the two Taoists, ‘we are surprised to hear you speak so humbly.’

‘What do you mean by “humbly”?’ asked Monkey.

‘You spoke of begging for your supper,’ they said. ‘Is not that a humble way of talking ?’

‘That is how those who have left the world must get their bread,’ said Monkey,’ for they have no money to buy it with.’

‘It is dear,’ they said, smiling, ‘that you have no knowledge of how things stand in these parts. In this city not only do all the officials and officers love the Way, and all rich merchants and tradesmen esteem its adepts, so that there is not a man or woman, young or old, who does not bow down before us and ask to be allowed to supply our needs – that would be a small thing, hardly worth mentioning. What is singular in this country is that the king himself is a devout supporter of Taoism.’

‘I am young,’ said Monkey, ‘and come from far away. It is natural that I should know nothing of this. I must trouble you to tell me the name of this country, and how it comes about that the king is such a lover of the Way, that I may know just how things stand with my fellow-Taoists in this country.’

‘This country,’ they said, ‘is called Cart Slow, and the king is our kinsman.’

‘He is, I suppose, a Taoist priest who became king,’ said Monkey.

‘No,’ they said. ‘Twenty years ago there was a famine here. The whole Court and all the people purified themselves and prayed fervently for rain. Their prayers were not answered; but just when all seemed lost, three Immortals suddenly came from the sky and saved us. Today they are our masters, and we are their disciples.’

‘What are their names ?’ asked Monkey.

‘Their leader,’ said the Taoists, ‘is called the Tiger Strength Immortal, and the two others are called Deer Strength Immortal and Ram Strength Immortal.’

‘And what powers of magic have they ?’ asked Monkey.

“They can summon the wind or bring rain,’ said the Taoists, ‘by a mere turn of the hand. They can point at water, and it becomes oil; prick stones and they become gold, as easily as one turns in bed. Small wonder that the king and his ministers fell down before them and are eager to count us Taoists as their kin.’

‘Your king is a lucky man,’ said Monkey. ‘And if your masters have such arts there must be few who would be sorry to claim kinship with them. Indeed, if it isn’t making too bold, I should take it as a great kindness if I might be allowed to meet them for a moment myself.’

‘There is no difficulty about that,’ they said. ‘We two are the most favoured and trusted of all their disciples. Moreover, such is their love of Taoism, that they have only to hear the word mentioned and they immediately come out, overflowing with welcome. If we were to introduce you, the thing would be as easy as blowing ashes from a tray.’

‘Bravo!’ cried Monkey.’ Let us go to them at once.’

‘You must wait a few minutes’ they said. ‘We have some business to attend to.’

‘I don’t quite understand,’ said Monkey. “Those who have left the world are bound by no ties. How can you speak of having business to conduct ?’

“Those people over there’ they said, pointing to the priests by the cliff, ‘are working for us. We have to go and check them off by the list, in case some should be playing truant.’

‘You must be mistaken’ said Monkey. ‘Those are Buddhists, but they are priests just as we are. What right have we to set them to work or check them off on a list ?’

‘You do not understand’ said the Taoists. ‘At the time of the great drought the Buddhists prayed to Buddha and the Taoists to the Pole Star. The Buddhists had no success at all; in vain they prayed, in vain they recited their scriptures. But in the nick of time our Masters appeared, and at once rain fell and the suppliant crowds were saved. Our Masters then demanded that as the Buddhists had proved themselves to be impostors their temples and images should be destroyed and their passports taken away from them, so that they might not flee to their homes. They were then given to us to work for us as slaves. It is they who light our fires, they who sweep our floors, they who are the porters at our gate. At the back of our temple there is a building which is not yet finished; so we set them to bring tiles and bricks and logs up the cliff. It was feared they might be shirking their work or not pulling hard enough at the cart. So we two were sent to see what was happening.’

‘This is all most unfortunate’ said Monkey, bursting into tears. ‘It is quite impossible for me to meet your Masters,’

‘How is that ?’ they asked.

‘I must tell you’ said Monkey, ‘that the purpose of my wanderings is in part to discover a lost relation/

‘What relation ?’ they asked.

‘I have an uncle’ said Monkey, ‘who when he was young became a Buddhist priest. During the famine he went to distant parts to beg alms and has not been seen since. It is very possible that he is detained here and cannot get home.
I cannot go with you to the city till I have found out whether he is here.’

‘That can easily be done,’ they said. ‘We’ll sit here, and you can go to the cliff and do our business for us. There are five hundred names on the list. You have only to check over the list and see that they are all there. If you find your uncle among them, in consideration of the fact that you are a Taoist yourself we should gladly release him. Then we would take you to the city.’

Monkey thanked them heartily and set out towards the cliff, beating his drum as he went. When he reached them the priests flung themselves to their knees and beating their heads upon the ground cried out, ‘Spare us, Father! There is not one among us that has been idle, nor of all the five hundred is there any that has absented himself, or failed to haul the cart.’

‘Aha!’ thought Monkey to himself, ‘these priests are clearly used to being roughly handled. If they cringe like this to me, I think they must pretty well die of fright when their real masters go near them.’ He motioned to them to rise, saying, ‘You have nothing to be afraid of. I am not here to see that you do your work. I have come to look for a lost kinsman.’ On hearing this they all pressed round, each stretching out his head with upturned face, hoping that he might be claimed as kin.

‘Which of us is it ?’ they asked.

After having looked attentively at each of them, Monkey burst out laughing.

‘It seems you have not found your relative,’ they said. ‘Why then are you laughing ?’

‘I am laughing,’ said Monkey, ‘to think what a strange notion you have of the duties of your Order. Having been born under an unlucky star you quarrelled with your parents or some such thing, and were disowned by them and sent to be priests. One would have thought that you would then at least have devoted yourselves to reading the scriptures and other holy works. How is it that instead I find you hiring yourselves out to Taoists and working as their servants ?’

‘Why have you come to mock at us?’ they cried. ‘But you
are evidently a stranger, and perhaps do not know of our plight.’

‘That is the case,’ said Monkey.

‘The king of this country,’ they said, ‘has turned his heart away from the true Law, and gives his favour to these heretical Masters and their crew.’

‘How came that about ?’ asked Monkey.

‘The three Immortals,’ they said, ‘having obtained the king’s confidence by bringing rain, persuaded him to destroy us; all our temples were pulled down, our passports taken away, so that we could not return to our homes. Nor were we allowed to labour for our own support, but were given over to the Immortals as their drudges and bondsmen. The moment any Taoist itinerant magic-maker sets foot in the town, he is sent for by the king and loaded with presents; whereas if a Buddhist comes, whether from far or near, he is seized and given to the Immortals as a labourer.’

‘Those Taoists,’ said Monkey, ‘must certainly possess more than the common arts, or they would never have found their way to the king’s heart. After all, summoning the wind and bringing rain are common, trumpery practices, such as would not move a monarch’s heart.’

‘True enough,’ they said. ‘These Immortals can also make the philosopher’s stone, go into trances, turn water into oil and stones into gold. And now they have built a temple dedicated to the Taoist Trinity where all day and all night they read scriptures and perform rites to preserve the king’s youth; and this no doubt gratifies his Majesty.’

‘Things being as they are,’ said Monkey, ‘I can’t imagine why you do not simply run away.’

‘Father,’ they said. ‘How can we run away? The Immortals have persuaded the king to have portraits of us painted, which are hung up in every part of the land. There is not a hamlet in the whole kingdom that has not got copies of these pictures, inscribed at the top in the king’s own hand. Any official who catches a Buddhist priest is at once promoted three stages, and a private person is given a reward of fifty weights of silver. We should never succeed in escaping. Why, not to speak of priests, anyone with his hair cut a bit short or a
little thin on top would as likely as not be grabbed 1 The whole land swarms with police and detectives. Judge for yourself what chance anyone would have of getting clear. We have no choice but to stay here and bear our sufferings.’

‘I wonder you are alive to tell the tale,’ said Monkey.

‘Father,’ they cried, ‘many have died. The priests who belonged to this place, together with those who were arrested in various parts of the kingdom, were about two thousand in all. Of these some six or seven hundred died of exhaustion, of exposure to heat and cold, or through lack of food; and seven or eight hundred took their own lives. The five hundred whom you see here are those who failed to die.’

‘What do you mean by “failed to die”?’ asked Monkey.

‘The rope broke,’ they said, ‘or the blade was blunt, or the poison did not work, or the backwash carried them to the surface of the water and they did not drown.’

‘Lucky fellows!’ said Monkey. ‘Heaven has blessed you with long life.’

‘Say rather “cursed us with eternal torment”,’ they cried. ‘What do you suppose they give us to feed on? Water that the cheapest rice has been cooked in, three times a dayl And where do we sleep ? Here in the open, at the foot of this cliff. But the moment we close our eyes, spirits come to keep watch over us.’

‘Quite so,’ said Monkey. ‘You have nightmares as the result of all your sufferings.’

‘That is not so at all,’ they said. ‘The Six Guardians and the Defenders of Religion come to watch over us, and if any of us is at the point of death they revive him.’

‘More fools they!’ said Monkey. ‘They ought to let you die and go to Heaven as quickly as possible.’

‘They tell us in our dreams,’ the Buddhists said, ‘that we must hold out a little longer, despite our torments. For soon, they said, a pilgrim will come, who is on his way to India to get scriptures. With him is a disciple named the Great Sage Equal of Heaven, who has great magic powers, which he uses to right the wrongs of the oppressed. He will destroy the Taoists and bring the followers of Zen once more into respect.’