Journey 002: Birth of a Legend

An immaculate conception shakes heaven and earth, and an anarcho-syndicalist commune gives itself over to a king.

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Transcript

Welcome to the Chinese Lore Podcast, where I retell classic Chinese stories in English. This is episode 2 of Journey to the West.

Last time, I gave you a brief introduction to this classic Chinese novel, so let’s get into it. 

In the beginning, there was … an elaborate date-keeping system that required you to do math. According to this system, 129,600 years made up one cycle. Each cycle can be divided into 12 phases, and each phase lasted 10,800 years.

Toward the end of the 11th phase, so 118,800 years after the beginning of the universe, heaven and earth were still one, and no creatures existed. Then, 5,400 years after that came the beginning of Phase 12. At this point, all was darkness and still no creatures existed. This was known as Chaos.

Another 5,400 years passed, and Phase 12 was coming to a close. That was followed by the start of a new cycle, and the phase count went back to 1. As this new phase approached, light began to creep into this dark chaos. It took another 5,400 years, but by the middle of Phase 1 of the second cycle, the light and pure substance rose upwards, and the sun, moon, stars, and constellations were formed. These were known as the Four Entities.

Another 5,400 years passed, and at the end of Phase 1 of the second cycle, the earth began to solidify. Then, another 5,400 years later, at the height of phase 2, the heavy and impure substance hardened, and water, fire, mountains, stone, and earth came into being. These were known as the Five Elements.

Another 5,400 years passed, and Phase 3 began. With this new age came the creation of living beings. According to the Book of the Calendar, the essence of heaven descended while the essence of earth rose. When they intermingled, all creatures were born.

By the middle of phase 3 — another 5,400 years later — men, birds, and beasts were created. So now, the Three Powers — Heaven, Earth, and Man — were all in existence.

And here’s kind of where human civilization and history began. Next you had all those ancient sage rulers that we’ve mentioned in past novels, like the Yellow Emperor, Yao, Shun, and all the rest, who laid down the laws of men. And according to the novel, the world was gradually divided into four continents — in the North, East, South, and West. The eastern continent was called Shenzhou (2,1), or the Divine Continent. By the way, this was China’s name for its ancient self. 

Beyond the seas of this Divine Continent in the East, there was a kingdom named Aolai (4,2). It was situated on the coast. Off the coast of Aolai, there was an island on which sat a mountain called Flower and Fruit Mountain. This mountain was the ancestral artery of the continents and islands, and it was formed when Heaven and Earth pulled apart from each other. This was one of those wonderful divine places and it looked the part, with a poem to prove it:

It stills the ocean with its might,
It awes the jade sea into calm.
It stills the ocean with its might:
Tides wash its silver slopes and fish swim into its caves.
It awes the jade sea into calm:
Amid the snowy breakers the sea serpent rises from the deep.
It rises  high in the corner of the world, where Fire and Wood meet.
Its summit towers above the Eastern Sea.
Red cliffs and strange rocks;
Beetling crags and jagged peaks.
On the red cliffs phoenixes sing in pairs;
Lone unicorns lie before the beetling crags.
The cry of pheasants is heard upon the peaks;
In caves the dragons come and go.
There are deer of long life and magic foxes in the woods;
Miraculous birds and black cranes in the trees.
There are flowers of jade and strange plants that wither not;
Green pine and bluish cypress ever in leaf,
Magic peaches always in fruit.
Clouds gather round the tall bamboo.
The wisteria grows thick around the mountain brook.
And the banks around are newly colored with flowers.
It is the heaven-supporting pillar where all the rivers meet,
The Earth’s root, unchanged through a myriad eons.

At the very peak of this divine mountain, there was a magical boulder — 36 feet and 5 inches high and 24 feet round. Those numbers, by the way, corresponded to the 365 degrees of the heavens and the 24 divisions of the solar calendar. On top of the boulder were 9 apertures and 8 holes, representing the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, all of which had great Daoist significance that are beyond me. There were no trees around this boulder, but there were a lot of fungi and orchids on the sides. 

Over the eons, this boulder had been soaking up the essence of heaven and earth, the sun and the moon. And then one day, something funky happened. 

Suddenly, the boulder cracked open, and a stone egg emerged, the size of a round ball. As soon as it was exposed to air, the stone egg morphed into a monkey. This monkey was able to crawl and walk from birth, and the first thing he did was to kowtow once toward the East, West, South, and North. His eyes emitted two beams of golden light that pierced the heavens.

Up in the heavens was the Jade Emperor, who reigned over a byzantine bureaucracy of gods that we discussed at the end of our last novel, the Investiture of the Gods. Well, on that day, he suddenly noticed these two beams of golden light shooting up from the mortal realm below. So he ordered two of his officers to go check it out. These two guys were named Thousand Mile Eyes and Favorable Wind Ears. Now, in Investiture of the Gods, these were among the Daoists who died fighting FOR the villains but were then canonized as gods because heaven needed bodies to fill its civil service jobs. So they now went outside the heavenly palace and directed their eyes and ears in the direction of the golden beams of light for a while before reporting back.

“On your command, we investigated the origin of the golden light,” they told the Jade Emperor. “It’s within the borders of the small kingdom of Aolai (4,2) on the Shenzhou Continent in the East. There’s a Flower and Fruit Mountain, and there’s a boulder on that mountain. It produced an egg, which dissolved into a stone monkey. The monkey was bowing in all four directions and when its eyes moved, they emitted golden light that shot up through the heavens. But now that it’s starting to consume mortal food, the golden light is starting to fade.”

Now you might think the Jade Emperor would be interested in such an odd phenomenon. But you’d be wrong. Instead, he was wholly unimpressed. “This is a creature of the mortal realm, born of the essence of heaven and earth,” he said. “It’s of no concern.”

So while heaven occupied itself with more ethereal matters, the stone monkey down below was making himself at home on Flower and Fruit Mountain. He ran through the mountain, consumed its vegetation, drank from its streams and fountains, plucked its flowers, collected its fruits, kept company with its wild animals, slept under its cliffs by night, and explored its caverns and peaks by day. 

As the old saying goes, “There’s no calendar in the mountains, so you don’t even know the year is over when winter ends.” In this way, some indeterminate amount of time passed. One day, the troop of monkeys that our stone simian ran with were making merry among the green pines and the clear waters. After a while, they decided to go bathe in a tumbling mountain stream. 

“Where does this water come from?” the monkeys wondered. “We’ve got nothing to do today … like every other day. Let’s climb up to its source and find out.”

So with lots of hootin’ and hollerin’, they clambered to the head of the stream, where they were greeted by a roaring waterfall that hung over a cliff like a curtain.

“What wondrous water!” the monkeys said while clapping. “It flows from here down to the foot of the mountain and joins the sea.”

Then, the monkeys decided that, actually, a farcical aquatic ceremony WAS a good way to bestow supreme executive power. 

“Hey, if someone has the skills to climb through this waterfall and find its source without getting hurt, then we should make him our king!” they said.

The troop of monkeys asked three times who might take on that challenge, and the stone monkey leaped forward and said, “Ooh, me, me!” So he closed his eyes, crouched, and jumped into the waterfall with one bounding leap. Suddenly, he felt no water coming down on him. He opened his eyes and found himself standing on a bridge behind the waterfall. 

Steadying himself, he took a closer look around and discovered that this was an iron bridge. Underneath it ran the water that flowed out into the fall, concealing the bridge. He then walked toward the head of the bridge and discovered signs that someone might’ve lived here at some point. He saw tables, seats, beds, bowls, and plates, all made of stone. 

After looking around for a while, the stone monkey got back on the bridge and saw a stone tablet in the middle of the room with some words inscribed on it, which said: Happy Land of Flower and Fruit Mountain; Heavenly Cave of the Water Curtain.

The stone monkey was elated and now hurriedly leaped back out of the waterfall, shouting, “What great luck!”

The other monkey surrounded him and asked what it was like inside the fall and how deep the water was.

“There’s no water at all,” he told them. “Turns out there’s an iron bridge there, and on the other side of the bridge is a heaven-sent home.”

“What do you mean?” the others asked.

“The water is flowing through a crack in the rocks under the bridge, hiding the entrance. There are trees and flowers around the bridge, and on the other side is a stone room with stone stoves, stone bowls, stone basins, stone beds, and stone chairs. And in the middle is a stone tablet that says, ‘Happy Land of Flower and Fruit Mountain; Heavenly Cave of the Water Curtain.’ This is a perfect place for us to call home. It’s really spacious and can hold thousands of us. Let’s all move in there so we don’t have to suffer from the elements.”

Umm … first of all, we’re monkeys. So what use do we have for bowls and stoves? Second, stone beds? Really? That doesn’t exactly sound comfy. And third, where did you learn how to read? But nevermind all the questions, the other monkeys were delighted at this report and said, “You lead the way, and we’ll all go!”

So the stone monkey closed his eyes again, crouched once more, and leaped back toward the fall, shouting for the others to follow. Some of the bolder monkeys immediately jumped in after him, while the more cautious ones took a while longer to muster the courage to do the same. But eventually, they all leaped through the waterfall and landed in the cave. 

Once there, they immediately started acting like monkeys and squabbled over the stoneware and stone furniture. The cave was filled with noise until all the monkeys had worn themselves out. 

Now, the stone monkey sat down on a stone chair that overlooked the room and said, “Hey everybody. One must keep his word. You all said that if someone could make it in here and back out without getting hurt, you would make him your king. Well, I did it, and I found this heavenly cave where you all can sleep in peace and live the good life. So why haven’t you made me your king yet?”

To their credit, all the other monkeys immediately fell into line and lived up to their promise. They all bowed to him and declared him their king. So from that day forth, the stone monkey reigned as the Monkey King, and he dropped the word stone from his name, replacing it with the word Handsome instead. So from now on, he was known as the Handsome Monkey King. And I’m guessing Humility was his middle name.

Oh, and apparently these monkeys took this whole king thing very seriously. Not only did they declare the stone monkey their king, but they now set up a whole class structure with clear distinctions between king, subjects, and officials. There’s probably a PhD dissertation somewhere in there about what it reveals that the novel not only imagines heaven being organized into a bureaucracy similar to that of the human government of the mortal realm, but also that monkeys living in paradise would adopt such a system as well.

Anyway, the Monkey King and his subjects no longer ran with the wild animals. Instead, they spent their days making merry on the mountain and in their cave. This state of bliss continued for some 500 years — I guess these were some long-lived apes. But then, one day, in the middle of another never-ending party, the Monkey King was suddenly overcome by such troubled thoughts that he started to weep.

All the other monkeys asked what was bothering him, and the Monkey King explained, “I may be living in bliss now, but there is a long-term worry that troubles me.”

The other monkeys laughed and said, “Great king! What else could you possibly want? We live blissfully in this divine place every day and answer to no one — not to the unicorns, not to the phoenixes, and not to the human kings. We’re free. This is boundless good fortune. So what long-term worry can you have?”

But the Monkey King said, “Today we answer to no man or beast. But eventually, we will become old and weak and fall under the jurisdiction of the King of Hell. When we die, we will no longer be able to live among the blessed, and our lives will have been in vain!”

Welp, apparently none of the other monkeys had ever contemplated mortality before, and now that their king had put this notion in their minds, the party came to a screeching halt, and they all started wailing. But then, from among the ranks of the simian officials, a gibbon came forth and shouted, “Great King, if you’re thinking that far ahead, then this is the beginning of enlightenment. Among the Five Classes of Creatures, only three do not fall under the jurisdiction of the King of Hell.”

“Which three?” the Monkey King asked.

“Buddhas, Immortals, and Sages. They are able to evade the cycles of life and death and enjoy the longevity of Heaven and Earth.”

“And where are they?” the Monkey King asked.

“Only in the human world,” the gibbon replied. “In ancient caverns and mountains.”

This perked up the Monkey King, and he said, “Tomorrow, I will take my leave of you all. I will leave the mountain and travel to the ends of the earth to search out these three groups so I can learn from them the secret of eternal youth and how to avoid death.”

All his subjects clapped and cheered, saying, “Great! Tomorrow we’ll scour the mountain to collect some fruits so we can hold a banquet to see you off.”

The next day, they did exactly that, piling heaps of fruits, herbs, and flowers on their stone tables. The Monkey King sat down in his throne, and one by one, his subjects offered him wine, flowers, and fruits.

After a day of hearty drinking, the Monkey King got up early the next morning and said to his subjects, “Little ones, help me cut down some old pine trees to build a raft. Find me a stalk of bamboo to use as a pole. And pack up some fruits and such for my journey.”

His monkeys did as he instructed, and soon, the Monkey King was pushing his raft through the breakers and into the open sea. He was in luck, as favorable winds were at his back and delivered him to the coast of a landmass to the northwest of his island. This was the Southern Continent. 

When he steered his raft onto a beach, the Monkey King saw some humans fishing, birding, harvesting clams, and making salt. He approached them, put on his mean face, and scared the humans so much that they abandoned their baskets and fled. One was too slow, and the Monkey King caught him and took the man’s clothes for himself. 

The next thing you know, this monkey clad in ill-fitting human clothing was swaggering through the towns and cities of the Southern Continent. And it seems the people in those places were pretty much cool with this, as the novel did not report any mass panics from these encounters with the uncanny valley. 

Instead, any revulsion from these interactions were all on the other side. Gradually, the Monkey King learned the customs and language of man. He traveled the land in search of Buddhas, immortals, or sages who could teach him the secret of eternal youth. But all he found was a world filled with greed, as all the mortal men seemed to be occupied only with fame and fortune. The novel included a poem commenting on this:

When will the struggle for fame and fortune end?
Toiling from morning till night, never free.
Riding donkeys, they long for stallions,
As ministers, they yearn to be princes.
Only laboring for the sake of food and clothing, 
They never think of when the King of Hell will come for them.
Occupied with ensuring wealth for their descendants, 
No one pauses to consider another path.

This went on for about 9 years. Then one day, the Monkey King came upon a great ocean on the west coast of the continent. He figured there must be immortals or sages on the other side of the ocean, so he fashioned himself another raft and traversed this body of water as well. This took him to the Western Continent. 

After yet more travels across this new land, he came upon a majestic tall mountain with thick woods. Having no fear of wild beasts, the Monkey King climbed to the top of the mountain to have a look and was quite impressed with the scenery. 

As he was surveying the landscape, he suddenly heard someone’s voice coming from deep in the woods. So he rushed in that direction, entered the forest, and listened closely. Turns out, a man was singing. The song went:

Watching chess games, 
Cutting firewood, ding, ding,
I stroll at the edge of the clouds and the mouth of the valley.
Selling firewood to buy wine,
I cackle with laughter and self contentment.
Under a clear autumn sky, I rest against a pine tree.
Gazing up at the moon, I sleep until morning.
Gazing out at this ancient forest, I scale cliffs and cross ridges.
Wielding my ax, I cut down withered vines.
When I’ve gathered a basketful, 
I walk down to the market with a song,
And trade it for three pints of rice.
There is no competition, the prices stay as they are, and there’s no scheming 
With neither honor nor shame, tranquility lengthens my days.
The people I meet are Daoists and Immortals,
Sitting quietly, we expound on the scriptures. 

Upon hearing those lines, the Monkey King rejoiced. “Turns out the immortal was hiding here!” he thought to himself. So he rushed forward and found a woodcutter busy chopping wood. He wore a hat weaved from young bamboo husks and was clad in a plain linen shirt. Around his waist was a belt made from the strands produced by old silkworms. His sandals were made from straw and had straps torn from rotten sago trees. He wielded an ax and a bamboo pole with a rope. And he was busy at work, hacking away at an old tree.

Approaching the woodcutter, the Monkey King said, “Old Immortal, greetings!”

The woodcutter hurriedly put down his ax, returned his greeting, and said, “I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy! I can’t even feed and clothe myself properly. How would I dare to call myself an immortal?”

“Well, if you’re not an immortal, then why were you talking like one?” the Monkey King asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Just now, I heard you sing about meeting with immortals and Daoists and discussing Daoist scripture. So how are you not an immortal?”

The woodcutter laughed and said, “To tell you the truth, an immortal taught me this poem. He’s my neighbor. Because I’m poor, I was always occupied by worry. So he taught me this poem and told me to recite it when I’m worried so as to distract myself. Just now, I was thinking about some dissatisfaction, so I sang the poem. I didn’t expect anyone would hear it.”

Ok, well, not an immortal, but a solid lead nonetheless.

“Since you’re neighbors with an immortal, why don’t you study under him and learn the secret of immortality?” the Monkey King asked.

“I have a poor lot in life,” the woodcutter said. “My parents raised me to the age of 9, but then my father died early, leaving my mother widowed. And I have no siblings, so I have no choice but to take care of her day and night. Right now, my mother is old and I dare not abandon her. Yet, our garden and fields are fallow and we don’t have enough to eat, so I have to cut firewood and sell it for a few coins so I can buy a few pints of rice to feed my mother. So I can’t cultivate my Dao.”

The Monkey King said, “Well it sounds like you’re a filial son, so good things will happen to you. In the meantime, I hope you can direct me to that immortal so I can pay him a visit.”

“Oh he’s not far from here. This mountain is called the Spirit Tower Heart Mountain. On the mountain, there’s a Setting Moon Three-Star Cave. In the cave, there resides an immortal named Patriarch Puti (2,2). He has trained numerous disciples, and has about 40 studying with him right now. Just follow this small trail and head south for a few miles, and you’ll be there.”

So this Puti, by the way, is believed to be based on Subhuti, one of the 10 principal disciples of the Buddha. But here, he’s being presented as a Daoist sage. It’s just one example of the cross-proliferation between the two religions in Chinese culture. 

The Monkey King now asked the woodcutter if he could take him to Patriarch Puti, but the woodcutter said, “You’re so dense. Did you forget what I just told you? If I go with you, it would interfere with my living. Then who will tend to my mother? I need to cut more wood. You go on by yourself!”

So the Monkey King took his leave and departed the woods. He followed the trail over a hill. After a few miles, he indeed saw a cavern up ahead. It was surrounded by ancient trees and exotic flowers. The gate at the entrance was tightly shut, and all was quiet. Looking around, the Monkey King spotted a stone tablet perched atop a cliff that said, “Spirit Tower Heart Mountain, Setting Moon Three-Stars Cave.” 

“The people here are really honest,” he muttered to himself. “Turns out this cave really does exist.”

But he was still just on the outside of the cave. He waited for a long time but did not dare to knock. Instead, he jumped onto a nearby pinetree and ate the seeds from some pine cones to pass the time.

After a good long while, the gate swung open with a creak, and out came a young acolyte. 

“Who’s messing around out here?” he called out.

The Monkey King leaped down from the tree, bowed, and said, “Acolyte, I’m looking to study the Dao and attain immortality. I would not dare to misbehave around here.”

“You’re here to study the Dao?” the acolyte asked with a skeptical laugh.

The Monkey King answered in the affirmative, and the acolyte told him, “My master just started delivering a lecture, but then he told me to come out here to open the gate. He told me that someone was out here, seeking to study the Dao, and that I should go welcome them. I guess he must mean you.”

“Yup, that must be me!” the Monkey King said with a chuckle.

So the Monkey King tidied up his clothes and followed the acolyte inside. They passed numerous towers, halls, and meditation rooms, and came to a dais. Atop the dais sat the Patriarch Puti, and flanking the foot of the dais were two rows of disciples, totaling 30 in all. 

The Monkey King now kneeled and kowtowed a bunch of times, saying, “Master, master! Your disciple pays his deepest respects!”

“Who are you? Tell me your name and place of origin before you kowtow to me,” Puti said.

“I am from the Water Curtain Cave on Flower and Fruit Mountain on the Eastern Continent,” the Monkey King replied.

But Puti cut him off and declared to his disciples, “Kick him out! He’s a liar! He’s not suitable for studying the Dao!”

The Monkey King again kowtowed nonstop and said, “Every word I said was true. I would never lie!”

“If you’re honest, then how can you claim to be from the Eastern Continent?” Puti said. “That’s two oceans and a continent away from here. How could you have gotten from there to here?”

“I sailed across the oceans and traversed countless territories. It took me more than 10 years to get here.”

“Well, if it took you that long to get here, then ok,” Puti said. “What’s your surname?”

“I’m not surly,” the Monkey King said. “If someone were to hit me or curse me, I don’t get mad. I just offer an apology. I have never been surly.”

“No, not surly,” Puti said. “I was asking about your surname.”

So this is one of those Chinese word plays that only makes sense if you knew that in Chinese, the character for last name sounds the same as the character for temper. The surname-surly joke I just relayed was from the C. Anthony Yu translation, and I think he did about as good a job with that as you could. Anyway, to see if Puti will take in the Monkey King as a disciple, tune in to the next episode of the Chinese Lore Podcast. Thanks for listening!

Music in This Episode

• “Luỹ Tre Xanh Ngát Đầu Làng (Guzheng) – Vietnam BGM” by VPRODMUSIC_Asia_BGM
• 旗袍风情音乐 by Tilixia-Summer
• “Loneliest Road in America (US 50)” by Jesse Gallagher (from YouTube audio library)