Страница 224 из 229
“How can I?” Monkey said. “The monster hasn't been caught yet.”
“Isn't that him in the basket?” the Bodhisattva asked.
Pig and Friar Sand then bowed low and asked, “How could that fish have had such great powers?”
“It originally was a goldfish that I raised in my lotus pool,” the Bodhisattva replied. “Every day it would swim up to listen to sutras, and it trained itself to have magic powers. The nine-knobbed copper mace was an unopened lotus bud that it tempered and made into a weapon. One day, I do not know when, a high tide reached the pool and carried it here. When I was leaning on the balustrade looking at the lotuses this morning I noticed that the wretch had not come to pay his respects, so I examined my fingers and the palms of my hands and worked out that it must have become a spirit and be pla
“In that case,” said Monkey, “could you stay here a moment longer? We would like to let the faithful in Chen Village gaze upon your golden countenance, Bodhisattva. This would be a great kindness, and it would also teach common folk to believe and make offerings by showing them how that demon was subdued.”
“Very well,” said the Bodhisattva. “Call them here.”
Pig and Friar Sand then ran to the village shouting, “Come and see the living Bodhisattva Guanyin, come and see the living Bodhisattva Guanyin.” All the villagers, young and old, men and women, rushed to the edge of the river and fell to their knees and kowtowed in worship despite the mud and the water. Among them was a good painter who left to posterity the painting of the Bodhisattva Guanyin appearing with a fish-basket. The Bodhisattva then returned to the Southern Sea.
Pig and Friar Sand cleared a way through the water straight to the River Turtle's Residence, where they searched for their master. All the water monsters and fish spirits there were now dead and rotten. They went round to the back of the palace, opened the stone chest, carried the Tang Priest up out of the water, and showed him to the crowds.
The Chen brothers kowtowed and expressed their thanks, saying, “My lord, if only you had accepted our advice and stayed longer you would have been spared all this trouble.”
“Say no more about it,” replied Monkey. “From next year onwards you people here won't need to make any more sacrifices. The Great King has been removed, and will never do you any harm again. Old Mr. Chen, I'd now like to trouble you to find a boat as soon as you can to take us across the river.”
“Yes, I can, I can,” said Chen Qing, ordering people to saw wood into planks to build a boat.
When his retainers heard this they were all delighted to make offerings, and there were many cries of “I'll pay for the mast and the sail,” “I'll fix the oars,” “I'll provide the rigging,” and “I'll hire the boatmen.”
Amid all the noisy yelling on the bank a great shout came from the river, “Great Sage Sun, don't waste other people's money building a boat. I shall carry you all, master and disciples, across the river.” When the crowd heard this they were all terrified. The more timid among them slipped home, while the bolder stayed to watch, shivering and shaking. A moment later a monster emerged from the water. This is what it was like:
A divine square-headed and extraordinary beast,
The miraculous creature, the immortal of the waters.
Wagging his tail he can live for many an age,
Hiding still and silent in the depths of the rivers.
Leaping through the waves he rushes to the bank,
Or lies beside the sea facing sun and wind.
He has mastered the true Way of nourishing his essence,
The Ancient Soft-shelled Turtle with his carapace of white.
“Great Sage,” called the Ancient Soft-shelled Turtle, “don't have a boat built. I'll take you four across.”
“I'll get you, you evil beast,” said Monkey, swinging his iron cudgel. “Come to the bank and I'll kill you with this.”
“I am grateful to you, Great Sage, and have offered in good faith to carry you master and you disciples across the river, so why do you want to kill me?” the monster asked.
“What good turn have I ever done you?” Brother Monkey asked.
“Great Sage,” said the Soft-shelled Turtle, “you may not realize that the River Turtle's Residence at the bottom of the river is my home, which was handed down to me by many generations of ancestors. Because I acquired awareness of the fundamental and developed a divine spirit by cultivating my conduct I had my ancestral home rebuilt as the River Turtle's Residence. Nine years ago, on a day when the sea was roaring and the waves were crashing, that evil monster came here on the tide and used his power to make a vicious attack on me. He killed many of my children and captured many of my clan. As I was no match for him I had to let him take my home for nothing. Now that you have come to rescue the Tang Priest, Great Sage, and have asked the Bodhisattva Guanyin here to sweep away evil and capture the monster my house has been returned to me and my family reunited. We can now live in our old home instead of having to make mud shelters. That is why my gratitude to you is as great as a mountain and as deep as the sea. And it is not only my family that is grateful. The whole village will now be spared from the a
Monkey's heart was warmed to hear this, so he put his cudgel away and asked, “Is all that really true?”
“How could I possibly lie to the Great Sage who has done me so very great a kindness?” the Ancient Soft-shelled Turtle asked.
“If it's the truth you must swear an oath to Heaven,” Monkey said, whereupon the Ancient Soft-shelled Turtle opened his red mouth and swore to Heaven, “If I do not faithfully carry the Tang Priest across the River of Heaven may my whole body be turned to blood.”
“Come ashore, come ashore,” said Monkey with a smile. Only then did the Ancient soft-shelled Turtle approach the shore, give a jump, and climb up the bank. When they all went close they saw that he had a huge white shell about forty feet around.
“Master,” said Monkey, “let's climb on his back and cross over.”
“But, disciple,” said Sanzang, “we could not get across that ice even though it was frozen so thick. I'm afraid that we would be even less safe on a turtle's back.”
“Do not be afraid, Master,” said the Ancient Soft-shelled Turtle. “I'm much safer than those thick layers of ice. I'll only fail in my spiritual endeavors if I roll to the side.”
“Master,” said Monkey, “no creature that can speak human language will tell a lie.” He then told Pig and Friar Sand to lead the horse forward.
When they reached the banks everyone in the village came to see them off with deep bows. Monkey led the animal on to the turtle's white shell and asked the Tang Priest to stand to the horse's right, Pig to its left, and Friar Sand behind it while he stood in front. Just in case the Soft-shelled Turtle tried to misbehave, Monkey undid his belt of tiger sinew, threaded it through the turtle's nose, and held it like a halter. Then with one foot on the turtle's shell and one on its head, and with his iron cudgel in one hand and the halter in the other, he shouted, “Take it easy, Ancient Soft-shelled Turtle. One roll from you and I'll hit you on the head.”
“I'd never dare, I'd never dare,” the turtle said, and he started to walk across the water on his four feet as if going across dry land. All the people on the bank burnt incense, kowtowed, and recited, “Namo Amitabha Buddha.” This had indeed been a case of a true arhat coming down to the mortal world, and the appearance of a living Bodhisattva. Everyone bowed, watched them until they could be seen no more, and then went home.