齐天大圣

English (for the teacher)

After Sun Wukong became Keeper of the Heavenly Horses, he worked extremely hard in the Imperial Stables. He fed the horses by day and guarded them by night, and he made heaven's thousand fine horses fat and full of life. In less than half a month the horses were each fatter than the last, and Wukong was terribly pleased with himself.

One day the junior officials under him invited him to a drink to celebrate. Halfway through, Wukong suddenly asked: "This Keeper of the Heavenly Horses post of mine, what rank is it exactly?" They answered: "It has no rank." Wukong said: "No rank? Then it must be as high as it goes!" Everyone roared with laughter: "Quite the opposite, it's as low as it goes, not even on the list! Feed the horses as fat as you like and all you'll hear is 'good'; if a horse gets thin, you get punished."

At this Wukong leapt up in a rage: "Old Sun is a king on Flower Fruit Mountain, and they tricked me into raising horses! I quit, I quit!" He shoved the table over, took the golden-hooped staff out of his ear, and fought his way out through the Southern Gate of Heaven; none of heaven's soldiers and generals could stop him.

Back on Flower Fruit Mountain, the monkeys crowded around him: "Your Majesty, you've been gone more than ten years, you must have become a great official!" Wukong said, puzzled: "I was only gone half a month, how can it be more than ten years?" It turned out that one day in heaven is one year among humans. When they heard their king had been raising horses in heaven, the monkeys were furious: "You're so amazing, how could you raise horses for them!"

Just then two one-horned demon kings came to pay their respects and said: "Your Majesty, your powers are boundless, so why raise horses for anyone? Why not call yourself 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven', as great as heaven itself!" Wukong was delighted, and had the monkeys make a big banner and hang it high at the mouth of the cave, with four large characters on it: Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

When the Jade Emperor found out, he was furious and at once gave the order for Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li and his son Nezha to lead heaven's soldiers down and catch the monkey.

The first to attack was the Giant Spirit God. Holding up a huge axe, he bellowed outside the cave: "Little monkey, come out and surrender!" Wukong laughed: "You're big enough, but it's a pity you can't fight." With that he raised his golden-hooped staff and struck, snapping the Giant Spirit God's axe in one blow, and the god fled back in fright.

When Nezha saw this, he roared: "Change!" At once he had three heads and six arms, with six weapons in his six hands, and he came charging at Wukong. Wukong shouted too: "Change!" He also grew three heads and six arms, his staff became three staffs, and he went to meet him. The two fought back and forth, and neither could beat the other. Then Wukong had an idea: he quietly plucked out a hair and turned it into a copy of himself to keep fighting Nezha, while his real self slipped round behind Nezha, raised his staff and struck him on the left arm. Nezha couldn't bear the pain and had to flee.

Seeing he couldn't win, Heavenly King Li had to go back to the Heavenly Palace and ask the Jade Emperor for more soldiers. Then the Great White Planet had another idea: "This monkey only knows how to fight and make trouble, so why not just make him 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven'? Give him the title but no salary, don't let him be in charge of anything, and keep him up in heaven, and he won't make any more trouble." The Jade Emperor nodded and agreed.

When Wukong heard that heaven accepted his title, he flew happily back up to heaven. The Jade Emperor built him a Mansion of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven and sent two junior officials to look after him. From then on, Wukong did no real work every day, wandering east and west, calling one immortal his brother today and drinking and chatting with another tomorrow.

Someone worried that if he stayed idle too long he would make trouble, so the Jade Emperor put him in charge of the Peach Garden. The Earth God told him about the peaches in the garden: the ones in front ripen once in three thousand years and make you an immortal; the ones in the middle ripen once in six thousand years and let you live forever; and the ones at the back ripen once in nine thousand years and let you live as long as heaven and earth. Wukong looked at the trees full of big red peaches and swallowed hard: his stomach, as it happened, was feeling a little empty...