火烧观音院

English (for the teacher)

As night was falling, master and disciple came to a temple called Guanyin Temple. The Tang Monk was delighted to hear the name. The monks politely invited them in. Soon two young monks came out helping an old monk along. He wore a costly hat and a costly robe, and held a walking stick. He was the oldest monk there and the master of the temple, and he was two hundred and seventy years old.

The old abbot had tea brought in. The tray was made of white jade, the cups were set with gold, and the tea smelled wonderful. The Tang Monk said: "What lovely things!" The old abbot was very pleased with himself and asked: "You've come from the great Tang in the East, so you must have brought some treasures?" The Tang Monk said: "We have no treasures, and even if we did, we couldn't bring them all this way."

Wukong, beside him, said: "Master, isn't that cassock in our bag a treasure?" When the old abbot heard the word "cassock", he laughed. He had twelve chests carried out, and when they were opened, they were full of the cassocks he had collected, seven or eight hundred of them. The Tang Monk said quietly: "Disciple, don't compete with people over who has the best things. When you're away from home, you mustn't show your fine things to just anyone." But Wukong wouldn't listen. He opened the bag himself and took out the cassock. At once a red light lit up the whole hall, the jewels on the cassock sparkled, and everyone stared, struck dumb.

The moment the old abbot saw it, tears ran down his face. He said to the Tang Monk: "My eyes are poor and I can't see well at night. Could I borrow it and take it to my room to look at for one night? I'll give it back first thing tomorrow." The Tang Monk didn't want to lend it, but he couldn't very well refuse, so he lent it to him.

The old abbot sat in his room hugging the cassock and crying without stop: "I've lived two hundred and seventy years and I have hundreds of cassocks, but not one as good as this!" One of the monks had an idea: "What's so hard about that? Tonight, when they're asleep, we go in with knives and kill them, and the cassock is yours." Another monk said: "If we kill them with knives, people will find out. A fire is different: if they burn to death, people will just think they were careless." The old abbot heard this and agreed.

In the middle of the night Wukong heard noises outside, so he turned into a little bee and flew out to look. There were the monks, carrying wood to pile around the rooms where they were staying, ready to burn them. Wukong thought: "So that's it — they want to kill my master!" In one somersault he flew up to heaven, borrowed a fire-proof cover from the Heavenly King Guangmu, and put it over the Tang Monk, the white horse and the luggage.

The monks lit the fire. Instead of putting out the fire, Wukong blew a breath and raised a great wind, which blew the flames toward the monks' own quarters. In no time the whole of Guanyin Temple was ablaze.

On nearby Black Wind Mountain lived the Black Bear Demon, and he saw the great fire. He was the old abbot's friend, and he had meant to come and help put the fire out, but in the old abbot's room he saw the glowing cassock. Delighted, he stole it.

Just before dawn, Wukong gave the cover back to the Heavenly King Guangmu. When day broke, the Tang Monk walked out safe and sound, but the cassock was gone. The old abbot had ruined his own temple and lost the treasure too. Too ashamed to face anyone, he ran his head into a wall and died.

The Tang Monk, anxious and angry, recited the spell over and over. Wukong rolled on the ground in pain, crying: "Stop, Master! I'll get the cassock back, I promise!" Next stop: Black Wind Mountain.