紧箍咒

English (for the teacher)

The six men, each with a sword or spear, blocked the road and bellowed: "Monk, leave the horse, put down the luggage, and we'll let you pass with your life!" Their names were strange, too: Eye-That-Sees-Delight, Ear-That-Hears-Anger, Nose-That-Smells-Love, Tongue-That-Tastes-Thought, Mind-That-Sees-Desire and Body-That-Bears-Sorrow. The Tang Monk was so frightened that he fell off his horse and could not say a word. But Wukong laughed: "So you're just six petty thieves!" The six robbers were furious; they hacked at his head seventy or eighty times, and Wukong did not even move. Only then did he take his golden-hooped staff out of his ear and strike them down, one blow apiece, until all six robbers were dead.

When the Tang Monk saw it, he complained: "You've caused a terrible disaster! They may have been robbers, but even if they'd been taken to court, they wouldn't have deserved death. Clever as you are, you only had to chase them off; why did you kill them all? We who have left home 'sweep the floor for fear of hurting an ant, and cover the lamp for pity of the moth'; if you go around killing like this, how can you be a monk?" Wukong said: "Master, if I hadn't killed them, they would have killed you!" But the Tang Monk kept on nagging him without stopping. Wukong had never in his life been able to stand being pushed around, and unable to hold back his temper, he said: "If you say I can't be a monk and can't go to the West, then I'll just go home!" With that he leapt up, there was a whoosh, and he was gone.

With one somersault Wukong reached the Dragon Palace of the East Sea. The Dragon King invited him to tea, and Wukong looked up and saw a painting hanging on the wall, so he asked what it showed. The Dragon King said: "This is called 'Three Times Fetching the Shoe'. Huang Shigong sat on a bridge and dropped his shoe under it on purpose, and told Zhang Liang to fetch it. Zhang Liang brought it back and offered it to him on his knees. This happened three times, and Zhang Liang never showed the slightest impatience, so Huang Shigong passed a book of strategy on to him, and later Zhang Liang helped found the Han dynasty." Then the Dragon King urged him: "Great Sage, if you don't guard the Tang Monk and won't take his teaching, you'll be nothing but a demon immortal in the end, so don't dream of ever reaching enlightenment." Wukong thought about it for a long while, then said: "Say no more; old Sun will go back and guard him."

Meanwhile, the Tang Monk was sitting alone by the road when an old woman came along, carrying a cotton robe and a flowered cap set with gold, which she said were for him. She also taught him a spell called the "True Words for Calming the Mind", also known as the "Tightening Spell", and told him to learn it by heart in secret and never let it out. With that, the old woman turned into a beam of golden light and went off to the east. Only then did the Tang Monk realize that it had been the bodhisattva Guanyin herself.

Before long, Wukong came back. He opened the bundle to find something to eat, saw the robe and the flowered cap, and asked where they had come from. The Tang Monk said offhandedly: "I wore them when I was little. Whoever wears this cap can chant the scriptures without being taught." Wukong said: "Dear Master, let me wear it!" And as he spoke he put the cap on his head.

The Tang Monk quietly began to recite the Tightening Spell. At once Wukong clutched his head and cried: "My head hurts! My head hurts!" He rolled on the ground and even tore the cap to pieces. The cap had turned into a golden band, clamped tight around his head; he couldn't pull it off and couldn't prise it open, as if it had grown into his flesh. When the Tang Monk stopped, the pain stopped; when he recited, Wukong hurt so much he wished he were dead. Wukong lost his temper, pulled out his golden-hooped staff and was about to strike his master, but the Tang Monk recited it a few more times, and he fell to the ground, begging for mercy over and over: "Master, stop! Don't say it again! I understand!"

The Tang Monk asked: "From now on, will you take my teaching?" Wukong said: "I will!" "Will you still dare to be rude?" "I won't!" Only then did Wukong realize that the trick had come from Guanyin, and he wanted to go to the South Sea to settle accounts with her. The Tang Monk said: "Since she taught me this spell, she must know it too. If you go after her and she starts reciting, will you still be alive?" Wukong had no choice but to kowtow and say: "Master, I'll guard you on the way west and never turn back again."

From then on, Wukong did as he was told — most of the time, anyway. One day master and disciple came to the edge of a deep gorge, and with a great splash something huge rose up out of the water…