大闹天宫

English (for the teacher)

Sun Wukong had become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, and the Jade Emperor gave him a job in the Peach Garden. The peaches here were not like other peaches: eat one, and you would never grow old. Sun Wukong was overjoyed: "This job is great!" From that day on, he often climbed up into the trees all by himself and ate all the biggest peaches.

One day, seven fairies came to the garden to pick peaches. They said: "The Queen Mother is about to hold her Peach Banquet, and she's inviting lots of guests to eat peaches and drink wine." Sun Wukong asked: "Did she invite me?" The fairies said: "We haven't heard anything about inviting you." Sun Wukong was furious: "I'm the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, so why wasn't I invited?" He said one word: "Freeze!" The seven fairies stood right where they were and couldn't move a muscle.

Sun Wukong went to the Peach Banquet on his own, ahead of everyone. The tables were covered with good things to eat, and there was lots of wine too. He used a little trick to put all the workers to sleep, and then started drinking in big gulps. He drank and drank, until he had drunk too much.

He walked and walked, took a wrong turn, and walked into the home of Lord Laozi. There was nobody home, only lots of golden pills. People said that if you ate the golden pills, you would never grow old. Sun Wukong laughed: "I'll have a few!" He ate them like beans, one per mouthful, until every golden pill was gone. Only when he had finished did it hit him: "Oh no, I'm in big trouble this time!" At once he went back to Flower Fruit Mountain.

The Jade Emperor was furious and sent a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers to catch him, but not one of them could beat him. At last, Erlang Shen came, bringing his dog. The two of them fought for a long time, and Sun Wukong turned into a little bird and flew up into a tree. Erlang Shen at once turned into a big bird to eat the little bird. Sun Wukong turned into a fish and jumped into the water. So Erlang Shen turned into a water bird that eats fish. In the end Sun Wukong could only turn into a little temple, but there was nowhere to put his tail, so it became a flagpole standing behind the temple. Erlang Shen laughed: "Whoever heard of a flagpole behind a temple? It's that monkey!"

Just then, Lord Laozi threw down a ring from above, and it hit Sun Wukong on the head. He lost his footing for a moment, and Erlang Shen's dog rushed over and bit him on the leg. And that's how Sun Wukong was caught.

The heavenly soldiers tried to kill him with swords, but they couldn't; they burned him with fire, but that couldn't kill him either. Lord Laozi said: "He ate my golden pills, and his body is harder than stone. Put him in my Eight Trigrams Furnace and burn him for forty-nine days!"

The fire in the Eight Trigrams Furnace was very big. But Sun Wukong found a corner inside where there was only wind and no fire. Still, the smoke kept getting into his eyes and turned them red. From then on he had a pair of "fiery golden eyes": whatever anyone turned into, he could tell at a glance.

When the forty-nine days were up, Lord Laozi opened the furnace to see if anything was left of him. Sun Wukong leapt out in a flash and kicked the Eight Trigrams Furnace over. He took out his Golden-Hooped Staff and fought his way right up to the Hall of Divine Mists. Everyone fled in terror; nobody could control him anymore.

Now even the Jade Emperor was scared: "Quick! Quick, go and ask the Buddha for help!" What could the Buddha do?