Journey 008: Handover of Heaven

Sun Wukong makes a high-stakes wager with heaven’s latest mediator.

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Welcome to the Chinese Lore Podcast, where I retell classic Chinese stories in English. This is episode 8 of Journey to the West.

Last time, the Jade Emperor sent the best that heaven had to offer to punish Sun Wukong for the mess he made of the peach festival. But while they were able to capture some of his demon lackeys, they couldn’t bring him to heel. Then, the Bodhisattva Guanyin recommended the Jade Emperor’s nephew, the god Erlang (4,2), for the job. When we left off, Erlang and Wukong had just started trading blows on Flower and Fruit Mountain.

The two fought for 300 some exchanges without a winner. Then, Erlang twisted his body and morphed into a giant that was 10,000 yards tall. He looked like a mountain top. He now boasted a blue face with protruding fangs and red hair, and he viciously brought his three-tipped saber down toward Sun Wukong’s head. But Wukong answered in kind and turned into a giant with similar appearance, and parried Erlang’s blow with his golden rod. 

But while the two of them continued to hack at each other, the sight of these two giant monsters struck fear into the hearts of Sun Wukong’s monkey generals. Meanwhile, Erlang’s six sworn brothers led his forces forward and they charged toward the Water Curtain Cave. The monkeys were no match, and they dropped their weapons and scattered in every direction, fleeing into the hills and the caves like a flock of birds that had been surprised by a pouncing cat at night and were now flying up toward the heavens like stars.

The sight of his own troops fleeing made Wukong worried, so he turned back into his own self and retreated as well. Seeing this, Erlang gave chase. Wukong did not dare to linger and fight and just fled toward his cave. But as he approached the entrance, he saw Erlang’s entourage blocking his path, so he quickly tucked his rod away in his ear, turned into a sparrow, and flew onto a branch to hide in plain sight. Erlang’s sworn brothers looked everywhere, but could not find him, and they shouted in panic, “The demon monkey got away!”

Just then, Erlang arrived and asked what happened. 

“We had him surrounded, but then he vanished!” his brothers said.

Erlang now opened his third eye, which was a special eye that allowed him to see through magic. And sure enough, he recognized Wukong in the guise of a sparrow, so he put down his gear and transformed into a sparrow hawk. With wings spread, he glided toward the branch where Wukong’s sparrow was perched. 

Seeing that his cover had been blown, Wukong tok to the air and transformed into a cormorant and soared into the sky. Erlang was like, yeah whatever you can do I can do better. He now morphed into a huge ocean crane and followed in Wukong’s wake. 

Wukong then descended and plunged into a stream, turning into a fish. Erlang came down as well. When he saw no sign of Wukong around the stream, he figured his quarry must have gone underwater in the guise of a fish or shrimp. So he now turned into a fishhawk and skimmed downstream on the waves, waiting for his prey. 

Meanwhile, under the water, Wukong was swimming with the currents as a fish when he suddenly spotted this flying predator that resembled a green kite, although its feathers were not entirely green, looked an egret but had small feathers, and bore some resemblance to a crane but didn’t have the red feet of one. 

“Could that be Erlang in disguise, waiting for me?” Wukong thought to himself. He quickly turned around and swam away.

But Erlang had spotted this fish and said to himself, “That splashing fish looks like a carp but its tail is not red. It looks like a perch but I don’t see patterns on its scales. It resembles a snake fish, but there are no stars on its head. It may be a brea, but its gills lack bristles. And why did it swim away from me when it saw me? That must be the monkey!”

So he chased the fish and pecked at it. In that moment, though, Wukong darted out of the water in the form of a water snake, swam toward shore, and disappeared into the grass near the bank. Erlang, however, kept his eyes on his prey and transformed into a red-crowned gray crane with a long, razor-sharp beak, which he used to peck at the snake. 

The snake leaped away and turned into a spotted bustard, standing alone in the shallows. Now, apparently a spotted bustard is considered among the lowliest of birds, the kind of bird that no other bird wants to hang out with. In fact, it’s so lowly that Erlang didn’t even want to turn into another bird to attack it. Instead, he turned back into himself, pulled out his slingshot, and launched a ball and struck the bustard.

Going along with the shot, Wukong used the opportunity to tumble down a cliffside. He then laid down on the ground and morphed into a small temple. He turned his mouth into the entrance. His teeth became the doors, his tongue became the Bodhisattva statue inside, and his eyes became the windows. The only problem was that he didn’t know what to do with his tail, which hung out behind the temple. In a hurry, he quickly turned the tail into a flag pole. 

No sooner had he completed this transformation did Erlang arrive at the foot of the cliff. He didn’t see any sign of the bird that he had shot, but he did see this somewhat odd looking temple. He studied it closely, and then suddenly saw the flag pole behind the temple, and he chuckled, “That’s the damn monkey alright! He’s trying to fool me. I’ve never seen a temple with a flagpole in the back. This scoundrel is trying to lure me inside, and then he’ll bite down on me. Well, let me poke out the windows and then kick down the door!”

Hearing this, Wukong panicked. “Oh crap!” he thought to himself. “What a vicious a-hole?! The doors are my teeth, and the windows are my eyes. I can’t let him knock those out!” 

So he now leaped up and vanished into the air. Erlang looked all around, and his sworn brothers caught up and asked if he had captured the monkey.

“Just now, that ape tried to fool me by turning into a temple,” he told them with a chuckle. “I was just about to knock out his windows and doors when he leaped up and vanished. How bizarre!”

Everyone was taken aback, and after more searching produced no leads, Erlang said, “You all stay here and keep watch. I’ll go up above to look for him.”

He now rode the clouds up into the sky, where he found Li Jing and Nezha waiting with the Demon Reflecting Mirror.

“Commander, have you seen the monkey king?” Erlang asked.

“He hasn’t come this way, and I’ve had the mirror trained on him.”

Erlang recounted his pursuit. Li Jing then swung his mirror in every direction and then laughed. “Erlang, hurry! That monkey used an invisibility trick to sneak out of the encirclement. He’s heading toward your temple at the mouth of the Guan (4) River.”

Erlang now immediately gathered his entourage and rushed toward his home. Meanwhile, at the mouth of the Guan (4) River, Wukong turned himself into a duplicate of Erlang and descended from the sky. He went into Erlang’s temple, and the ghost magistrates on duty had no idea that he was a fake. They all came to pay their respects. Wukong then sat down and reviewed the recent offerings and prayers for blessings. 

Just then, someone came to report, “Uhh, there’s another you outside.”

All the ghost magistrates went out to have a look and were stunned. This second Erlang asked them if they had seen Sun Wukong come by. They told him, “We haven’t seen any Great Sage come through. But there’s another you inside, reviewing the offerings.”

Erlang stomped inside, and at the sight of him, Wukong turned back into his true form and taunted him, “Young man, don’t make a fuss. Your temple is mine now.”

An unamused Erlang swung his saber at Wukong, but Wukong pulled out his golden rod and they went at it again. They fought their way outside, and then into the heavens, and then back to Flower and Fruit Mountain. All the celestial warriors now surrounded Sun Wukong, but they were still unable to bring him down.

While this intense fighting was happening, up above in heaven, the Jade Emperor, the Golden Mother, the Bodhisattva Guanyin, and the other gods were sitting in the Hall of Perfect Light, speculating about how the battle was going, since Erlang had been gone for a day. Guanyin suggested that they all go out to have a look for themselves, so the whole party moved to outside the southern gate, where the guards greeted them and opened the doors.

From their perch high above, they could see that their gods had Wukong surrounded but were unable to bring him to heel. Guanyin said to Lao Zi, “What do you think about my recommendation of Erlang? He really is powerful. He’s been able to surround the Great Sage, even though he hasn’t brought him down yet. Let me lend him a hand.”

“What weapon do you have that can help him?” Lao Zi asked.

“I have my Immaculate Vase, which I use for holding my willow branch. I can throw it at that monkey’s head. Even if it doesn’t kill him, it will knock him down, and Erlang can then capture him.”

“But your vase is ceramic,” Lao Zi said. “It’s fine you can hit him on the head. But if you miss, or if it hits his rod, won’t it shatter? Let me help instead.”

“What weapon do you have?” Guanyin asked.

“Here,” Lao Zi said as he rolled up his sleeve and removed a ring from around his left arm. “This weapon is made of red steel, forged in the fire while I prepare my immortality pills. It has absorbed special essences and can change at will. Neither water nor fire can damage it, and it can entrap many things. It’s called the Diamond Cutter or the Diamond Snare. When I became an immortal, I relied on this. I keep it on me for defense. Let me throw it at the monkey.”

As he spoke, he tossed the ring down. It sailed all the way down into the mortal realm toward Wukong’s head. Wukong was focused on fighting Erlang and his entourage, and was caught off guard as the ring struck him squarely on the head, knocking him to the ground. As he scrambled to get up, Erlang’s hunting hound pounced on him and sank its teeth into his calf, keeping him down.

“Damn you!” Wukong cursed the dog. “Why don’t you go bother your owner instead of biting me?!”

As Wukong struggled to get up, Erlang and his brothers pounced on him, tied him up, and punctured his breastbone with a knife, which is apparently a way to prevent magical beings from using their powers of transformation.

Lao Zi now retrieved his ring and returned to the Hall of Perfect Light with the Jade Emperor, the Golden Mother, and Guanyin. Down below, meanwhile, Li Jing and the Four Heavenly Kings struck camp and went to congratulate Erlang on accomplishing his mission. Erlang’s sworn brothers, meanwhile, told him to hurry up and take his prisoner to heaven.

“Brothers, you haven’t received any divine appointments, so you can’t see the Jade Emperor,” Erlang told them. “I will take the prisoner and return to heaven with the celestial troops to report back. You all sweep the mountain and mop up, and then return to my temple. Once I have received our reward, I will return and celebrate with you.”

So Erlang now took to the air and returned to heaven in victory. Word soon reached the Hall of Perfect Light that the demon monkey had been taken prisoner and was awaiting his sentence. The Jade Emperor did not mess around. He immediately ordered his generals to take the prisoner to the Demon Execution Terrace and cut him to pieces.

So the warrior gods hustled Wukong over to the terrace, tied him to the execution stake, and went to work trying to carry out the order of cutting him to pieces. But he was impervious to all their weapons. They then had the Department of Fire try to burn him, but to no avail. The Department of Thunder then took their shot but couldn’t even singe a single hair on his head. 

When this minor technical difficulty was reported back to the Jade Emperor, he was at a loss for what to do. Lao Zi now said, “That monkey ate the immortal peaches, drank the celestial wine, and stole my immortality pills. Once inside him, those pills probably have melted into one mass inside his stomach, giving him a diamond body, that’s why you can’t injure him. Let me take him, put him in my brazier, and smelt him with high and low heat. When I separate my pills from his body, he will be reduced to ashes.”

The Jade Emperor consented, so his guards took Wukong down from the stake and followed Lao Zi to his palace. Meanwhile, the Jade Emperor rewarded Erlang with 100 golden flowers, 100 bottles of celestial wine, 100 immortality pills, and countless pearls, fine silks, and such, to be shared with his sworn brothers. Erlang thanked him and left to go back to his temple.

Meanwhile, once in his palace, Lao Zi removed Wukong’s binds, took out the knife that had been pushed through his breastbone, and tossed him into the brazier. He then ordered his attendants to fan the flames so that fires were roaring.

Inside the brazier, there were eight compartments, laid out in accordance with the eight trigrams. Wukong managed to crawl into the space beneath one of the compartments. This compartment just so happened to be the symbol for wind, and where there’s wind, there’s no fire. So he was safe from the flames here. However, wind does tend to whip up quite a bit of smoke, and that smoke turned his eyes red, making them permanently inflamed. From here on out, Wukong had what they called “Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils.”

Time flies when you’re being subjected to cruel and unusual punishments. BEfore you knew it, 49 days had passed, and Lao Zi’s smelting process had come to an end. So Lao Zi opened the brazier to retrieve his pills and to check on what he was sure would be the charred remnants of the former Great Sage.

Lo and behold, though, there was Sun Wukong, very smokey, but very much alive. He was covering his eyes, which were tearing up from the smoke. When he heard the brazier cover being removed and saw a beam of light creep in from above, he immediately leaped out of the brazier, kicking it over in the process. All the attendants tried to rush forward and subdue him, but Wukong was like a crazed tiger or dragon, and he knocked them all down. Lao Zi grabbed his arm, but Wukong shoved him so hard that he fell head over heels and ran away. 

Wukong was free, and he was PISSED. He now whipped out his golden rod and started smashing anything and anyone in his way as he stormed through the palaces of heaven. Every god was sent scrambling for cover. Soon, he made his way to the Hall of Perfect Light. There, one of the gods tasked with being the Jade Emperor’s bodyguard got up the courage to take on Wukong, and the two started to spar. 

Soon, 36 members of the Department of Thunder arrived and surrounded Wukong. But he showed no fear as his golden rod danced to hither and thither. And when his assailants closed in, he suddenly sprouted three heads and six arms, wielding three golden rods. He twirled like a windmill, and no one dared to approach him.

With this ruckus breaking out inside his palace, the Jade Emperor fell into a panic. He hurriedly sent two of his officials to the West, to beg the Buddha for help. The two officials rushed to the Spirit Mountain, where they greeted the various Bodhisattvas and such in front of the Sacred Thunderclap Temple. They requested an audience with the Buddha and were soon summoned in.

Now, we know that there are multiple Buddhas in the Buddhist canon. For instance, we met two of them in Investiture of the Gods. Well, the one we’re talking about here is the OG Buddha, the historical founder of Buddhism — Tathagata, or Gautama. I’ll just call him the Buddha from here on out, since there are no other Buddhas in this novel.

The Buddha asked his visitors why they had come, and they recounted the whole backstory of Sun Wukong’s troubled relations with heaven and how he was currently smashing up the place and that the Jade Emperor was so desperate that he was seeking divine intervention from a whole other religion. Upon hearing this, the Buddha told his Bodhisattvas to stay put and that he would be back in a bit.

Then, accompanied by just two disciples, the Buddha left the Thunderclap Temple and went to heaven. As he approached the palace, he heard the ruckus inside. The 36 officers of the Department of Thunder still had Wukong surrounded, but still did not dare to approach him. 

“Tell the warriors of the Department of Thunder to stop fighting and ask that Great Sage to come out so that I can ask him about his powers,” the Buddha said.

Upon hearing that command, the warrior gods backed off, and Wukong also reverted to his normal self, appeared before the Buddha, still in quite a mood, and shouted sternly, “Where are you from, monk, that you would dare to call off the guards in order to talk to me?”

The Buddha laughed and said, “I am the Buddha, the Venerable One from the Western Region of Ultimate Bliss. I heard you were acting up and have rebelled against heaven repeatedly. Where were you born? When did you cultivate your Dao? Why are you so vicious?”

Wukong answered this question in verse:

Born of Earth and Heaven, immortal divinely fused,

An old monkey hailing from the Flower and Fruit Mountain.

I made my home in the Water Curtain Cave;

Seeking friend and teacher, I learned the Great Mystery.

Perfected in the many arts of ageless life,

I learned to change in ways boundless and vast.

Too narrow the space I found on that mortal earth,

So I set my mind to live in the Green-jade Sky.

In Divine Mists Hall none should long reside,

For king may follow king in the reign of man.

If might is honor, let them yield to me.

He only is hero who dares to fight and win!”

When he heard this, the Buddha chuckled and said, “You’re just a monkey demon. How dare you aspire to take the Jade Emperor’s throne? He has been cultivating his Dao since he was a child, and he made it through 1,750 kalpas, with each kalpa lasting 129,600 years. Do the math: How many years did it take for him to attain such deep cultivation of the Dao? You’re a baby animal; how dare you make such a boast? Such blasphemy. It would surely erode your pre-allotted lifespan. Give it up now and stop this blasphemy. Otherwise, you might die a terrible death in the blink of an eye, and what a shame that would be for you.”

But Wukong scoffed, “So what if he’s been cultivating his Dao for a long time? It doesn’t entitle him to stay here forever. As the saying goes, ‘The throne changes hands all the time, and next year it will be my turn.’ Just tell him to move out and let me have the palace. Otherwise, I will see to it that he never knows peace!”

The Buddha now asked, “Aside from immortality and transformation, what other powers do you have?”

“I’ve got lots of powers!” Wukong boasted. “I can turn into 72 things. I can live forever. One of my Somersault Clouds will take me 108,000 miles. Why am I not deserving of the throne of heaven?”

“How about we make a wager?” the Buddha suggested. “If you can fly out of my right palm with one Somersault Cloud, then you win, and without anymore fighting, I will have the Jade Emperor move to the West and let you have his palace. But if you can’t fly out of my right palm, then you must return to being a demon down below, and cultivate your Dao for a while longer before you raise any more ruckus here.”

This made Wukong smirk as he thought to himself, “What an idiot! One of my Somersault Clouds covers 108,000 miles. His palm is no more than a foot around. How can I not leap out of it?”

So he quickly replied, “So you can speak for the Jade Emperor?”

“I can,” the Buddha reassured him as he extended his right palm, which was the size of a lily pad.

Wukong put away his rod, leaped into the center of the Buddha’s palm, and said, “Here I go!” He then did a somersault, vaulted into the air, and kept spinning forward like a windmill.

After a good while, he came upon five flesh-pink pillars enshrouded in a mass of green air. 

“This must be the edge of heaven,” he thought to himself. “When I get back, that Buddha is gonna have to let me have the palace.”

But then he said to himself, “Wait, I need to leave some evidence that I’ve been here, so that Buddha can’t get out of it.”

So he plucked one of his hairs and turned it into an inkbrush, with which he wrote a column of huge characters in the center pillar, that literally said, “The Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, was here.”

When he was done writing and about to head back, he suddenly felt the call of nature. It would be a long way back, and since there were no latrines around and on onlookers, he decided to relieve himself at the foot of the first pillar. This done, he did a somersault in the opposite direction, and flew back the way he came. Moments later, he was standing in the palm of the Buddha again, and he said, “I’m back. Now tell the Jade Emperor to let me have his palace.”

But the Buddha scolded him, “You leaky monkey! You haven’t left my palm yet!”

“What? Look, I flew all the way to the end of heaven. I saw five flesh-pink pillars there, enshrouded in a mass of green air. I left a note there. Do you dare to go see it with me?”

The Buddha was like, oh you left a note there alright. “There’s no need to go anywhere,” he told Wukong. “Just look down.”

Wukong looked down, and sure enough, on the Buddha’s middle finger was the very column of characters he had written: “The Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, was here.” And at the base of the thumb was a familiar stench.

“What is this?” a stunned Wukong said. “I wrote those words on the pillar holding up the sky. How did it end up on his finger? Could it be that he could see the future and wrote those words here? I don’t believe it! Let me go check out those pillars again!”

And so he prepared to leap from the Buddha’s hand again. But in that instant, the Buddha flipped his palm upside down, and it cast Wukong down from heaven. He fell to earth, and on top of him, the five fingers of the Buddha turned into five mountain peaks, corresponding to the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. These would become known as the Five Elements Mountain, and they pinned Wukong down underneath their weight.

As all the gods and the Buddha’s disciples watched on, they clapped and cheered this mighty display of power. 

Dusting his hands — and probably dousing them with a huge gob of hand sanitizer — the Buddha now summoned his two disciples and started to head back to the West. But two of the Jade Emperor’s officials rushed out and said, “Please wait! Our lord is coming.”

So the Buddha held up. Momentarily, the Jade Emperor arrived in style, accompanied by much music and fanfare. He told the Buddha, “Thank you so much for taming that demon. I hope you will stay for at least a day so that I may thank you with a banquet.”

The Buddha obliged him and said, “It was nothing; I came in response to your summon. It’s all thanks to the blessings of you and your gods. There’s no need to thank me.”

The Jade Emperor now sent out a decree, inviting everyone who was anyone in the realm of heaven to come join the feast, complete with all the ethereal delicacies. Soon, all the gods gathered, all holding rare treasures and exotic fruits and flowers for the Buddha. They approached him and said, “Thank you for using your boundless powers to tame the demon monkey. The Jade Emperor has summoned us all to this feast, so we have come to express our gratitude. Please give this event a name.”

The Buddha told them, “If you all want a name, then you can call this ‘The Great Banquet for Peace in Heaven.’ ”

“What a great name!” all the gods exclaimed simultaneously. They then took their seats, and the party got underway. The Golden Mother then led a group of fairies, approached the Buddha, and said, “Previously, that monkey demon disrupted the peach festival. Thanks to your taming him, we can now celebrate this Great Banquet for Peace in Heaven. We have nothing to offer in gratitude, except these large immortal peaches that I plucked myself.”

The Buddha clasped his hands and thanked her, and then she ordered her fairies to sing and dance to entertain the guests. This was followed by a string of other deities coming forth to present fancy gifts, which I will not detail one by one. In any case, the Buddha told his disciples to pack up all the gifts and thanked the Jade Emperor. 

In the midst of this celebration, however, a scout rushed in and said in a panic, “That Great Sage is emerging from under the mountains!”

Uh oh, this sounds bad. To see how pissed he’ll be when he gets out, 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
• “The Quiet Aftermath by Sir Cubworth (from YouTube audio library)
• “Ravines” by Elphnt (from YouTube audio library)
• “Slow Times Over Here” by Midnight North (from YouTube audio library)