白龙马

English (for the teacher)

It was a white dragon! It shot up out of the gorge, opened its huge jaws and lunged at the Tang Monk. Wukong quickly dropped the luggage, picked up his master and ran. When they looked back, the dragon had swallowed the white horse, saddle and all, in one gulp, and slipped back into the water.

The Tang Monk was too frightened to speak. After a long while he asked: "Where's my horse?" Wukong looked all around with his fiery golden eyes, but there was no sign of the white horse anywhere, and only then did he understand that the dragon had eaten it. This place was called Eagle Grief Stream, on Coiling Snake Mountain. The Tang Monk sat on the ground and wept: "Without a horse, how will I ever cross all these mountains and rivers?" Wukong hated nothing more than seeing his master cry, and said loudly: "Don't cry, Master. I'll go and make it give the horse back right now!"

He jumped to the water's edge and yelled: "You little mud-loach, wherever you came from, give me back my horse!" The dragon was furious. It leapt out of the water and started fighting Wukong. But how could it be a match for Wukong? Before long it was beaten, fled back into the water and refused to come out again. Wukong churned the water into chaos with his golden-hooped staff, but the dragon still hid below and wouldn't come out.

Wukong had no choice but to call out the local mountain god and earth god. The earth god said: "Great Sage, this stream is full of holes that all connect, and once he slips into one, nobody can find him. Guanyin put this dragon here. He is waiting here for the pilgrim. Only she can make him come out." When the gods who were secretly guarding the Tang Monk heard this, they hurried off to the South Sea to ask Guanyin to come. Before long, Guanyin arrived.

As soon as Wukong saw Guanyin, he complained: "You put this golden band on me so the Tang Monk can keep me in line with that spell every day. And now you've let this little white dragon eat the Tang Monk's horse!" Guanyin smiled and said: "You monkey, if no one kept you in line, whom would you ever listen to? This little white dragon is the third son of the West Sea Dragon King. He burned the bright pearls in his father's palace, and his father reported him to heaven, so he was nearly put to death. I saved him and had him wait here to be the pilgrim's horse. How could an ordinary horse from the East cross all these mountains and rivers and reach the Western Heaven?"

Guanyin had someone call out over the stream, and the little white dragon came out of the water, took human form and bowed to her. He said: "Bodhisattva, I've been waiting here for the pilgrim all along, but this monkey never once said he was the pilgrim's disciple!" That finally shut Wukong up. Guanyin took a bright pearl from under his chin, dipped a willow branch into the water in her vase, sprinkled it over him and called out: "Change!" At once the little white dragon turned into a white horse, exactly like the old one. Guanyin said to him: "Carry the Tang Monk to the West well and faithfully. When you have finished this great task, you will be rewarded." The white horse nodded and agreed. When the Tang Monk saw the new white horse, he was happy and grateful, and bowed to Guanyin again and again.

Wukong held on to Guanyin and wouldn't let her go: "The road to the West is so hard, I'm not going!" Guanyin said: "Don't worry. I'll give you one more power." She picked three willow leaves and put them on the back of Wukong's head, where they turned into three life-saving hairs, and said: "Later, when you're in real danger, use them. They can save your life." Only then did Wukong cheer up, and he led the White Dragon Horse back to his master.

Now the master had a horse, a disciple — and a cassock worth more than a whole kingdom. But that very cassock was about to bring on a great fire.