Chapter Recap: Chapter Twenty-Two: Eight Rules fights fiercely at the Flowing-Sand River; Moksa by order receives Wujing's submission
This chapter begins with the three pilgrims proceeding swiftly through the Yellow Wind Mountain and then traveling without any special difficulty until autumn. Yet it is at this time that they come upon “a huge and turbulent river, its waves surging and splashing.” Tripitaka and Eight Rules are doubtful that they can cross it, and even Sun Wukong is left “somewhat frightened” by the ferocity of its waves and the fact that it is at least eight hundred miles wide. For while he “need only make one twist of his body” to “reach the other shore…for you, Master, it’s a thousand times more difficult, for you can’t traverse it even in ten thousand years!”
Anxious to cross but equally anxious at the dangers that lay in trying, Tang Sanzang soon discovers a slab of stone. All three pilgrims read it and discover that their most recent obstacle is the “Flowing-Sand River,” which is not only eight hundred miles wide but also three thousand miles deep. It is further composed of “weak water” so that even feathers and petals sink to its bottom. As the trio are going over these facts, a “most savage and hideous monster” with a “head full of tousled and flame-like hair,” a “pair of bright, round, eyes which shone like lamps,” “an indigo face, neither black nor green,” a neck adorned with “nine skulls” as a necklace, and wielding “an awesome priestly staff” suddenly bursts from the water. This yaoguai “went straight for the Tang Monk,” but Pilgrim Sun manages to pull his shifu to higher ground while Zhu Bajie engages this “fiend” in a battle. We also learn through a poem that just as Eight Rules was once the Marshal of Heavenly Reeds, this river yaoguai was once the Curtain-Raising Captain by the Throne, and that in years past they had met each other as deities in the Divine Mists Hall. Now, however, they fight ferociously for twenty rounds, with neither one emerging the victor.
Sun Wukong, for his own part, is standing guard over Tang Sanzang, Bai Longma, and the luggage. Yet he “became so aroused by the sight of Eight Rules engaging that fiend” that eventually the monkey “could not restrain himself,” and leaves Tripitaka’s side so that he could “go play with [the yaoguai] a little.” Ignoring the Tang monk’s pleas for him to stay, the Monkey King joins the fight “with a loud whoop” and leaves the river monster “so shaken” that he “dove straight into the Flowing-Sand River and disappeared.” This upsets Zhu Bajie greatly, who leaps about wildly asking Sun Wukong while he spoiled the battle. The Monkey King laughingly tells the pig that when “I saw how delicious your fight with him was…I jumped up here to have some fun with him.” The two soon return to Tang Sanzang “holding hands and teasing each other,” but they do have to tell Tripitaka about their failure to catch the yaoguai. The Tang monk also suggests that the river yaoguai might be a good person “to lead us across” the Flowing-Sand River, as he had “probably lived here for a long time.” Sun Wukong agrees, and states that when they catch this yaoguai they won’t kill him immediately but will “just make him take Master across the river before we dispose of him.”
All apparently agreeing to this plan, Zhu Bajie tells Sun Wukong to fight with the river yaoguai while he guards Tang Sanzang. The Monkey King, however, reveals with a laugh that “doing business in water somewhat cramps my style” because he either has to transform into a water creature or use one hand to wield a water repelling spell when dealing with that element. Eight Rules then states that he had once “commanded a naval force of eighty thousand men” and had thus “acquired some knowledge” of moving through water when he was the Marshal of the Heavenly River, but that he is afraid that the river yaoguai might “have a few relatives down there in his den, and I won’t be able to withstand him if his seventh and eighth cousins all come out.” As such, Sun Wukong proposes that Zhu Bajie fight with the monster a little bit before feigning defeat to entice him to the shore, whereupon “old Monkey will help you.” Eight Rules agrees to this plan, and immediately “leaped through billows and waves and headed for the bottom of the river.”
The river yaoguai, for his own part, is at home catching his breath. Yet he is forced to confront Zhu Bajie once again, with the pig demanding that this monster explain what he means when he says he’s “no demon or fiend, nor do I lack a name or surname,” even though he does “stay here and take human lives.” The river yaoguai then reveals through poetry how he was once the Curtain-Raising Captain in the South Heaven Gate, exalted by the Jade Emperor himself. Yet one day when the Queen Mother was giving the Festival of Peach, he had dropped and broken a jade cup, which so enraged the Jade Emperor that he immediately stripped him of his rank and finery and would have had him killed if the Naked Feet Great immortal hadn’t begged to free the ex-captain. So instead the Jade Emperor sentenced the ex-captain to exile on the shores of the Flowing-Sand River. Here the ex-captain had become a yaoguai who’s “eaten many men;/over and over I took human lives.” He then threatens to make Zhu Bajie his “minced meat sauce.” This so enrages Eight Rules—for “Old Hog is tempting enough to make people’s mouths water, and you dare say that I’m coarse, that I’m to be chopped up for a chopped meat sauce!”—that they immediately start fighting. They go at it for two hours with neither one prevailing.
Up on the shore, Sun Wukong watches the fight “with bulging eyes,” but he dares not intervene. Finally Zhu Bajie feigns defeat and makes for the eastern shore, the river yaoguai hot on his heels. The plan is ruined, however, when “our Pilgrim could no longer restrain himself. He abandoned his master, whipped out the iron rod, leaped to the riverside and struck at the monster’s head. Fearing to face him, the monster swiftly dove back into the river.” An infuriated Eight Rules calls Sun Wukong a “BanHorsePlauge” and “impulsive ape,” berating him for spoiling the effort. The Monkey King merely laughs and says they should talk to Tang Sanzang.
Returning to the monk, Zhu Bajie first gives his report before Sun Wukong suggests they bed down for the night “and let old Monkey go beg some vegetarian food.” The Monkey King quickly returns with a full bowl, laughing when Tripitaka suggests that they “go to that household which gave us the food and ask them how we may cross this river”; the family the meal is from, after all, live “about six or seven thousand miles” away. Eight Rules accuses Sun Wukong of fibbing, which leads the monkey to describe the merits of his cloud somersault, “which with one leap can cover one hundred and eight thousand miles.” Hearing this, Zhu Bajie asks Sun Wukong why he doesn’t simply carry Tripitaka to the Buddha. Yet when the Monkey King asks the pig why he doesn’t do so, for he too knows how to ride the clouds, Eight Rules states that the “mortal nature and worldly bones of Master are as heavy as the Tai Mountain…How could my cloud soaring bear him?” Sun Wukong says it’s the same case with him; “old Monkey knows every trick well, including becoming invisible and making distances shorter. But it is required of Master to go through all these strange territories before he finds deliverance from the sea of sorrows; hence even one step turns out to be difficult. You and I are only his protective companions, guarding his body and life, but we cannot exempt him from these woes, nor can we obtain the scriptures all by ourselves.” And after all, as Sun Wukong concludes, “What’s easily gotten/ soon forgotten.” Zhu Bajie accepts this all “as instruction,” and all three pilgrims eat some of the vegetarian food before going to sleep.
The next morning, Sun Wukong suggests that they try to pull the same trick as last time, promising that “this time I’ll try not to be impulsive.” After some complaining Eight Rules agrees to go along with it, and so dives back down to confront the river yaoguai. After the ex-captain gives a lengthy poem on the merits of his treasure staff, the two deities turned yaoguai start fighting in earnest “from the bottom of the river up to the surface of the water.” Zhu Bajie once again pretends to be defeated and flees, but the river yaoguai sees through it and refuses to go out on the bank. When Sun Wukong sees this state of affairs, “he became highly irritated” and tries to capture the monster nevertheless, but the river yaoguai “dove into the water and disappeared” before he has a chance. Eight Rules and the Monkey King are thus once again unsuccessful, and once again decide to talk to Tang Sanzang.
When he hears the news of this most recent failure, Tripitaka immediately starts crying. But Sun Wukong asks him to “please don’t worry,” as he’s going to leave for the South Sea to seek out Bodhisattva Guanyin again in hopes of her help while Zhu Bajie stays behind to guard the monk. The monkey leaves on this mission with Tang Sanzang’s encouragement and Eight Rules’ request to “please convey my gratitude to her for her kindly instructions in the past.” It takes Sun Wukong no time at all to reach the South Sea and the Potalaka mountain, and soon enough he prostrates himself before the bodhisattva. The monkey explains this most recent ordeal with “a monster in the river who is quite accomplished in the martial arts,” and asks her to “take pity and grant us deliverance.” Bodhisattva Guanyin, however, but asks Sun Wukong if he is “still acting so smug and self-sufficient that you refuse to disclose the fact that you are in the service of the Tang Monk?” The Monkey King is forced to admit that he had never brought the matter up to the river yaoguai. The bodhisattva chide Sun Wukong further, revealing to him that the “monster in the Flowing-Sand River…happens to be the incarnate Curtain-Raising Captain, who was also brought into the faith by my persuasion…Had you been willing to mention that you were a scripture pilgrim from the Land of the East…he would have yielded.”
There is, of course, the problem of this monster being “afraid to fight now; he refuses to come up to the shore and is hiding deep in the water.” Bodhisattva Guanyin thus summons her disciple Hui’an and gives him “a little red gourd from her sleeves” along with the instructions to “Take this gourd and go with Sun Wukong to the Flowing-Sand River. Call ‘Wujing,’ and he’ll come out at once. You must first take him to submit to the Tang Monk. Next, string together those nine skulls of his and arrange them according to the position of the Nine Palaces. Put this gourd in the center, and you will have a dharma vessel ready to ferry the Tang Monk across the boundary formed by the Flowing-Sand River.” Sun Wukong and Hui-an leave to carry out Bodhisattva Guanyin’s instructions “with the Great Sage carrying the gourd.”
Soon enough the Monkey King and Moksa meet up with Tang Sanzang and Zhu Bajie. Sun Wukong gives an account of what just happened and what he was told to do. Moksa, gourd in hand “and treading half on cloud and half on fog,” “moved directly above the surface of the Flowing-Sand River” and cries out the river yaoguai’s religious name, asking him why he hadn’t yet submitted to the scripture pilgrim. Wujing, who, “fearful of the Monkey King, had gone back to the bottom of the river to rest in his den,” swiftly leaps out of the water as soon as he hears Moksa calling, “all smiles” as he greets Hui-an but quickly souring when he spots Eight Rules and the Monkey King. Yet Moksa is able to smooth over any tension with some explanation, even though the river yaoguai is soon called a “bum” by Zhu Bajie, who asks Wujing why “did you not submit to me in the first place?” This time, it is Sun Wukong who calms the pig down, even stating that it’s “really our fault for not mentioning that we were seeking scriptures, and we didn’t tell him our names.” The river yaoguai then tells the Tang Monk that that Bodhisattva Guanyin already gave him “the religious name Sha Wujing,” and that he’s eager to accept Tripitaka as his master. At Tang Sanzang’s request, Sun Wukong shaves Sha Wujing’s head, and the river yaoguai thus becomes “the youngest disciple of the Tang Monk.” Tripitaka, when he sees that his newest follower “comported himself very much like a monk,” also gives him “the nickname of Sha Monk.”
The matter settled, Moksa then has Sha Wujing take off his skull necklace and arrange the skulls “after the design of the Nine Palaces, placing the gourd in the middle.” Tang Sanzang “thus embarked on the dharma vessel,” finding it to be “as sturdy as a little boat.” He is further “supported by Eight Rules on his left and Wujing on his right, while Pilgrim Sun, leading the dragon-horse, followed in the rear, treading half on cloud and half on fog. Above their heads Moksa also took up his post to give them added protection. In this way our master of the Law was safely ferried across the boundary of the Flowing-Sand River.” As soon as they reach the other side Moksa takes back the gourd, while “the nine skulls changed into nine curls of dark wind and vanished.” After receiving thanks from the Tang monk, Moksa goes back to the South and Tang Sanzang remounts Bai Longma, and the journey to the west goes on.
What adventures the now complete pilgrim group may encounter next is a question that will be answered in the next chapter.
