them. But Monkey managed to put in a tremendous blow of the cudgel right on
the monster’s head. At once the monster broke away, and rushing madly back to
the water’s edge leapt in and disappeared.
Pigsy was furious. “Heigh, brother,” he cried. “Who asked you to interfere? The
monster was just beginning to tire. After another three or four rounds he would
not have been able to fend off my rake, and I should have had him at my mercy.
But as soon as he saw your ugly face he took to his heels! You spoilt everything!”
“I’ll just tell you how it happened,” said Monkey. “It’s months since I had a
chance to use my cudgel, and when I saw you having such a rare time with him
my feet itched with longing not to miss the fun, and I couldn’t hold myself back.
How was I to know that the monster wouldn’t play?” So hand in hand, laughing
and talking, the two of them went back to Tripitaka.
“Have you caught the monster?” he asked.
“He gave up the fight,” said Monkey, “and went back again into the water.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing,” said Tripitaka, “if we could persuade him to show
us how to get across. He’s lived here a long time, and must know this river inside
out. Otherwise I don’t see how we are to get across an enormous river like this
without a boat.”
“There is something in that,” said Monkey. “If we succeed in catching him we
certainly ought not to kill him, but make him take the Master across the river and
then dispose of him.”
“You shall have your chance this time,” said Pigsy to Monkey. “I’ll stay here
and look after the Master.” (Wu [1942]1953:159–160)The Monkey King,
or Sun Wukong, is a
central character in
the Buddhist novel
of Ming China,
Journey to the West.
Monkey possesses
many superpowers
as well as an irre-
pressible and
sometimes trouble-
making nature.
He accompanies
Xuanzang, the
Buddhist pilgrim, on
his travels to India.
This is an early
nineteenth-century
Japanese suri-
mono, or wood-
block print.
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum.Gift of the Friends of Arthur B. Duel, 1933.4.1716