拜师学艺

English (for the teacher)

The more the Handsome Monkey King thought about it, the sadder he grew, until tears ran down his face. He had realized that although they were all happy now, one day they would grow old and die. When that time came, what good would today's happiness be? When the monkeys heard this, they all began to weep with grief too.

Just then an old ape leapt forward and said: "That Your Majesty can think of this is truly remarkable! There are three kinds of beings in the world who never grow old and never die: Buddhas, immortals and sages. They live in caves far, far away, and they can go on living forever." The moment he heard this, the Handsome Monkey King wiped away his tears: "Good! Tomorrow I'll go down the mountain, and no matter how far it is, I'll find them and learn a way to live forever!"

The next day the monkeys laid out plenty of fruit and fine wine, and all saw him off down the mountain together. The Handsome Monkey King cut down a few old trees, made a raft, and set out across the sea all alone. The wind and the water were with him the whole way, and before long he reached the shore of the Southern Continent.

Seeing some men fishing, he deliberately pulled a terrifying face and scared them into running in every direction. He caught one who hadn't got away, stripped off the man's clothes and put them on himself, and from then on he walked and talked the way people do. And so he wandered among people for eight or nine years, asking everywhere where the immortals could be found. But he found that people spent all day thinking only of money and rank, and no one at all cared about their own life.

The Handsome Monkey King was rather disappointed, so he made another raft, crossed the Western Sea, and came to the Western Continent. One day he walked into a beautiful forest and suddenly heard someone singing, a song all about immortals. Thinking he had met an immortal, he hurried forward and knelt down. But it was only a man chopping firewood. The man laughed and said: "An immortal taught me that song. He lives nearby on the Mountain of Mind and Heart, in the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars, and he's called Patriarch Bodhi."

The Handsome Monkey King found the mouth of the cave and saw that its door was shut tight. He didn't dare knock, so he jumped up into a tree to wait. After a while the door opened, and a boy came out and said: "My master just told me there's someone outside who's come to learn the Way, and sent me to bring him in. Is that you?"

The Handsome Monkey King followed him into the cave and knelt before the Patriarch. The Patriarch asked him: "Where are you from? What is your xìng?" The Handsome Monkey King thought the Patriarch meant the other xìng, "temper", so he answered: "I don't have a temper. If people curse me, I don't get angry; if they hit me, I don't hit back." The Patriarch roared with laughter: "I asked for your xìng, your family name! What is your parents' name?" "I don't have parents either; I was born from a stone." The Patriarch was pleased to hear it: "You look like a macaque, a hu-sun, so your surname will be Sun. And I'll give you a name too: Sun Wukong." Sun Wukong was overjoyed.

From then on, Sun Wukong lived in the cave, sweeping the floor, carrying water and growing vegetables every day, and before he knew it seven years had gone by. One day, as the Patriarch was teaching, Sun Wukong listened so happily that he started to dance. The Patriarch asked him what he wanted to learn; first he offered to teach him fortune-telling, then said he could teach him to chant scriptures and to meditate. Every time, Sun Wukong asked just one thing: "Will it make me live forever?" The Patriarch said: "No." Then he shook his head: "Won't learn it, won't learn it!"

At this the Patriarch jumped down from his high seat, picked up his ruler, pointed it at him and scolded: "You monkey, you won't learn this and you won't learn that, so what on earth do you want?" With that he rapped him on the head three times, put both hands behind his back, walked inside and shut the door. Everyone blamed him: "You monkey, you've driven the master away in anger!"

But Sun Wukong wasn't worried at all; in fact he was secretly pleased. He had already solved his master's riddle: three raps meant "come at the third watch, in the dead of night"; hands behind his back and the front door shut meant "come in by the back door," because the master wanted to teach him alone.

That night, in the middle of the night, Sun Wukong crept quietly to the back door, and sure enough, it was standing half open. He tiptoed to the Patriarch's bed, knelt down, and waited. The Patriarch woke up and thought to himself: "This monkey really is no ordinary creature, or how could he have guessed what I meant?" So he had him come close, and in a low voice he passed on to him the secret of long life.

From then on, Sun Wukong practiced in secret every day. Three years went by, and he believed that he would now never grow old or die. But then the Patriarch told him that a greater danger still lay ahead. To escape it, he would have to learn an earth-shaking skill: the Seventy-Two Changes.