Journey to the West Stuffs

Pictures are taken from the long corridor in Summer Palace. There are many more there that are not included here. 

 

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 47-49 of the original book - Fish Demon 
The pilgrims arrived at a bank of a very wide river. Since it was already late, they decided to spend a night and stayed in Chen's house. They found out that each year the villager there needed to make a sacrifice: a pair of a boy and a girl. This year happened to be their turn. Agreeing to help, Wu Kong transformed to a little boy and, helped by Wu Kong, Ba Jie transformed to a little girl. Instead they would pretend sacrificing them.

When Ba Jie in disguised was about to be eaten, he changed to his real form, Wu Kong then changed to his real form too. Both of them attacked the monster. The monster ran away. That night the monster changed the weather to be really cold for the purpose to make the river frozen. That way, the monster thought Tang priest who's so impatient to go to the West would surely crossed the river and the monster would capture him. The plan worked, Tang priest crossed the river. In the middle, the monster captured him. Ba Jie demonstrated a lot of his skills in the water and snow in these chapters.

Now, Wu Kong, Ba Jie, and Wu Jing got into the river to save the Master. Ba Jie carried Wu Kong. Wu Kong needed special spell under water which reduced his fighting capability. The game trick between Ba Jie and Wu Kong was hilarious. (Ba Jie pretended to fall in a mud but Wu Kong already changed himself to a little object in Ba Jie's ear, so the Wu Kong that fell to the mud was a fake one.) Wu Jing made Ba Jie promised not to do that anymore since they needed Wu Kong who's cleverer. Any how, Wu Kong disguised as a shrimp and found that the master was still alive. The plan was for Wu Kong to stay in shore and Ba Jie and Wu Jing tried to allure the monster to the shore and Wu Kong killed him. The monster was a great fighter under water but in shore was not a match for Wu Kong. The monster hid underwated. After several failure attempts, Wu Kong finally went to Guan Yin to ask the background of the monster. Guan Yin came to help, the monster was actually her fish. They saved Tang priest.

Still the problem of how to cross the river loomed. The villagers, thankful that the monster was driven away wanted to built them a boat, but a giant turtle appeared. It wanted to do the job to thank Wu Kong and others for wiping clean the monster. It took them to cross. At the end the turtle asked Tang priest to do him a favour and asked Buddha, when it's shell would be taken off from him. This turtle will appear again at the end of the journey when they needed to cross the river to go home. Watch out the continuation of the story.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 50-53 of the original book 
Wu Kong needed to go to beg for some food. Before he left, he made a ring on the ground with his jin gu bang and asked other pilgrimage to sit inside. After waiting for sometime, Tang priest got impatient and stepped outside. Thus the story began, he, Ba Jie, Wu Jing, saw a temple, they entered. The diciples saw and tried some coats. But, the coats got tightened and they all were caught.

Wu Kong came and was horrified to see them missing from the circle and gessed that they must be captured. A local god appeared in disguise to tell Wu Kong what happened. Of course Wu Kong recognized and exchanged a few words with him which I think is humorous :) Wu Kong found the devil’s cave and fought him, changed his Jin Gu Bang to thousands but the devil took a ring out, read a spell and the ring took Wu Kong’s weapon. Wu Kong was defeated and weapon-less. He went to heaven to ask if there’s a loose god to seek the origin of the devil. The conversation between him and the heaven guards were humorous, for example: they asked if he wanted some tea and Wu kong said he’s busy and kept walking. In heaven, there’s no loose god and Jade emperor allowed Wu Kong to take personnel that he thought fit. Wu Kong took some including Prince Ne Zha. They fought the devil, again the devil took the ring out and took all their weapon. In this chapter there’s also discussion on how the heavenly armies admired Wu Kong’s fighting skill with or without sword. Remember that they were enemies when Wu Kong made havoc in heaven so their current friendly atmosphere is really refreshing. Wu Kong visited heaven and many gods to try various ways, water, fire, etc but all were eaten and took by the ring. Every one was so frustrated except Wu Kong who’s always hopeful. Wu Kong became a tiny insect, found where their weapons were and took them all back. At the end Wu Kong asked Buddha’s help, it turn out the devil was a cow who ran away from heaven.

At the end the cow was taken back to heaven, weapons restored and given back to the right owners. The heavenly armies went back to heaven and Tang priest and other disciples were saved. Local gods told Tang priest how hard Wu Kong worked to capture the devil just because he ignored Wu Kong’s advice. Tang priest was so grateful to Wu Kong and promised to always listen to Wu Kong.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 56-58 of the original book - Double Wu Kong 
Interesting story starting with a rift/fight between Tang Priest and Wu Kong... 

Impatient that the trip was really slow, Wu Kong scared the horse so the horse ran with Tang priest riding it. Unfortunately they got captured by bandits. Wu Kong found them and killed the bandits. Tang priest was really angry but let him go this time but the following day Wu Kong killed more people. Tang priest was very angry to Wu Kong because he killed so many people. He read the head band tightening spell and sent him away. The conversations between angry Tang priest and Wu Kong really worth reading. Sun Wu Kong felt outcast and angry. He went to Guan Ying and made the tearful complains. According to him, he had gave it all to protect and saved the priest, it's so not right that he sent him away just because he killed people. After some interesting dialogue, Guan Yin convinced Wu Kong to go back because priest Tang did need him.

In the meantime another Wu Kong came and hit Tang Priest in addition to steal their stuff. Tang Priest sent Wu Jing to Cave Hua Guo to reason with Wu Kong. Got nothing, Wu Jing went to Guan Ying to complain but he found Wu Kong there. Wu Jing started to beat him and Wu Kong didn't fight back. Wu Jing told what happened, but Guan Yin was the witness that Wu Kong never left her place. It turnt out there're two Wu Kong. The rest of the story was spent to see which is the real one, they went to heaven, hell, and so on but no one could distinguish who's the real one. Finally the Lord Buddha himself helped out. Buddha also asked Wu Kong to go back to Tang Priest and Guan Ying herself asked priest Tang to accept Wu Kong back.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 59-61 of the original book 
They arrived in a place and felt so hot. They learnt that there’s a mountain with a great fire that could be put off with a special fan borrowed from Princess Iron Fan. So Wu Kong went to her to borrow. Alas, she’s the mother of the red boy (pg 710) who blamed Wu Kong for making him “captured” by Guan Yin so she refused. They fought, she retreated and fanned Wu Kong with the magic fan and made Wu Kong blown away thousand of miles away. Wu Kong came back, disguised as a little insect, Wu Kong entered her resident and when she drank tea, Wu Kong entered her stomach and kicked it. Hurting, she promised the fan. Wu Kong went out, got the fan and used it to extinguish the fire but the fire got even bigger! He was cheated and got the fake fan. Wu Kong learnt that her ex-husband (Bull King) was his step brother. Wu Kong visited the Bull King, he refused to lent him the fan. They fought and needed to stop because Bull King needed to go to a banquet. Wu Kong disguised as a crab to follow him. Then, he went back to the ex-wife and disguised as the Bull King. Princess Iron Fan and disguised Wu Kong had a drink, she got a bit drunk and Wu Kong got the fan. Bull King found out that Wu Kong tricked him, he disguised as Ba Jie, went to Wu Kong and got the fan back. Both of them fought furiously and did lots of transformation. Finally Bull retreated. Finally, surrounded by heavenly armies, the Bull was caught. Princess Iron Fan lent Wu Kong the fan to extinguish the fire and made rain then he returned it back the fan to her.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 64 of the original book 
The pilgrims arrived in an area where the path was covered by thorns. Ba Jie said a spell and became a giant pig with a giant rake and cleared the way. At some point when they rested, suddenly there’s a gust of wind and Tang priest disappeared. He was taken to a place where there’re four elderlies and five of them exchanged poems all night long. Suddenly a woman came and she showed interest in the priest and wanted to marry him. Tang priest refused and after while Wu Kong and others came. He saw old trees and those are the devils, Ba Jie cut them all up. They, then, continued the journey to the West.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 65-66 of the original book 
The pilgrims arrived in a temple. priest Tang believed they already arrived and was so excited. Wu Kong, however, believed that the temple was "wrong" and urged him not to get in. After a long argument, Tang Priest insisted on getting in. Since he's the master, they got in.

 
Of course, Wu Kong was right, inside, recognizing that the Buddha was indeed fake, he charged the devil, but it's too late. The devils caught priest Tang and captured Wu Kong inside a cymbal.Wu Kong tried anything he could to get out, he tried to get big, the cymbal became big too, he hit, etc but he could not break the cymbal. Inside was getting hot and in panic he called some gods. They also tried to move the cymbal, but they couldn't. One god, made himself really small, he pushed his horn inside where the two cymbals joined they he made himself big. Wu Kong then made himself really small and drilled the horn and got inside. The god pulled his hord and Wu Kong escaped. He smashed the cymbals with his jin gu bang and woke up the devils. Wu Kong and the gods fougt agains the devils, but the devil had a magic pouch. He released the poch and Wu Kong with the gods all were sucked in.

When Wu Kong was captured and tied up, he heard his master cyring and how he felt sorry for Wu Kong for not listening to him and how he promised too always listen to him from then on. Wu Kong escaped, made himself small and went to the master to comfort him. The master was surprised but overjoyed to know that Wu Kong was there. Very quietly (so they didn't wake up the devil) Wu Kong released everyone BUT the suspense continued... they couldn't find the luggage. The luggage was very important since it had the passport, golden begging bowl and the treasured from Buddha. So Wu Kong needed to go back to search. (One should really read the book to feel the suspense :) To make the story short, one item fell, make a loud noise and woke up the devil. Very suspenseful.

Anyway... they all got captured again in the magic pouch, but Wu Kong could escape. He asked for other gods help, but again all but Wu Kong got captured in the pouch. Wu Kong got desperate which illustrated really well in the book. Another god passed by offering suggestion, Wu Kong tried, again all captured. But as he got really desperate a laughing Buddha came and told him that the devil was his own person who stole his cymbals and pouch. The laughing Buddha made a plan to capture the devil. He would disguise as an old watermelon farmer and Wu Kong would disguise as a big ripe watermelon. Wu Kong would lure the devil to the watermelon farm and had him eat the ripe watermelon. The plan worked and as soon as the devil wanted to eat the watermelon, Wu Kong got to his stomach and kicked it and did all kinds of act that made the devil cried in pain for mercy. The laughing Buddha spared him, Wu Kong went out and the devil was put in the pouch. Laughing Buddha fixed the cymbals and left. Wu Kong saved every one.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 67 of the original book - Ba Jie became a giant pig to clean path 
They went to a house to spend a night and the owner found out that Wu Kong could capture demon so invited them in. They found out that there's a monster that came to their village to eat people, chicken, etc. Wu Kong promised to capture it for them. Read the book for great conversation between the house owner and Wu Kong. They said they've invited priests to capture the demons but all were lost and they even needed to spend more money buy coffins, etc. Very timeless...

Anyway, the monster came, Wu Kong fought him together with Ba Jie. Wu Kong killed him. The people were so happy and showered them with gifts and even promised to clean the road. For hundred of miles the area was very smelly because of rotten persimmons that fell year after year that made it impossible to pass. But considering the area was too big, Wu Kong devised another idea. He asked Ba Jie to be a giant pig and cleaned the path. The villagers instead needed to supply him with food. So everything got taken care of and off they continued their journey.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 72-73 of the original book (Seven Spiders and the Master) 
It was a nice day and Tang priest spotted a house so this time, he decided to beg for food himself instead of asking his disciples. As he got closed to the house, he saw seven girls. He got discouraged didn’t want to go back since he’s afraid his students laughed at him. Well, the girls captured him and wanted to eat him. The girls are spider demons and they produced spider webs around the house.

Wu Kong who’s climbing trees outside and saw a light and knew that the master had been captured. Wu Kong disguised as an eagle took the girls’ dresses when they were bathing and went back to the other two. He didn’t kill them since he thought it’s improper to kill girls who were so defenseless. Ba Jie disagreed and went to the girls to kill them. But instead, he’s caught by the girls’ spider webs. He could manage to escape. Meanwhile the girls called their sons who changed to thousands of insects they attached the three disciples. Wu Kong took his hair and changed them into various bird forms and ate all the insects up. They, then released the priest, burnt the cave and ran away.

On the way, they found a temple, they entered. They didn’t know that it belonged to a Taoist master who were the teacher of the seven girls. The seven girls who ran away there told everything to the Taoist master, they planned to poisoned the pilgrims. The Taoist master served them tea that had been poisoned. Alas, Tang priest, Ba Jie, and Wu Jing got poisoned, but not Wu Kong who saw something suspicious in the tea didn’t drink his cup. Wu Kong was so angry and fought the Taoist master. He also changed his hair to many little monkeys who dragged the seven girls out. Wu Kong told the Taoist that if he released Tang priest and his brothers, he’d let his sisters go. The Taoist refused since he wanted to eat Tang priest’s meat so Wu Kong killed them all. Wu Kong and Taoist kept fighting soon the Taoist felt he’s losing. He opened his clothes and revealed thousand eyes underneath shone very brightly. He tried to fly but failed, all he could was spin around inside the light. At the end he changed form to be a digger with four claws (a pangolin). He digged the ground until six miles long and emerged turnt to himself very exhausted and in pain. Then he saw a lady coming who was a goddess in disguise, she told Wu Kong whom to go to for help. Wu Kong followed the advice. This goddess later subdued the Taoist demon and changed him to his original form, a centipede. The goddess later also give antidotes to cure Tang priest, Ba Jie and Wu Jing. Thus… they continued their journey to the west.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 74-78 of the original book 
A long episode will full of fightings. They met several devils who all fought well. The five of them were captured several times before finally, thinking that the master died, Wu Kong went to Lord Buddha who finally helped them out. Very suspenseful with excellent story. When Wu Kong met Buddha and the gate keeper yelled for rules to meet him, I wondered if this one of the reasons why they said this book was written to sneer at the empirial system back then.

The story itself is really complicated and long with lots of casts: they came in a mountain full of evils where they got some warning from a god who disguised as an old man. Wu Kong was captured in a magic bottle, but using three magic hair from Guan Yin, he could escape. The quarrel over favoritism of Ba Jie and Wu Kong was very transparant here. Tang priest cried and prayed for Wu Kong safety which is quiete moving.

Wu Kong got into one of the devil's stomach and forced him to carry his master over the mountain. He agreed, but he lied. This happened twice. The second one was when another devil lost in the fight with Wu Kong and Ba jie. But the still lied and pretended to agree to carry Tang priest, but at the end, they captured them and was gonna to steam them. Wu Kong called Dragon King's help to prevent the water from boiling to save his master and brothers. They could re-escape but recaptured and Wu Kong heard that the master had been eaten, he got so desperate and went to Lord Buddha who ended up transforming all the devils and took them with him to repent. Tang priest had not been eaten and the journey continued.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 80-83 of the original book 
The pilgrims arrived in a forest. Tang priest asked Wu Kong to beg for food, while Wu Kong left, Tang priest heard a girl cried for help, there’s a girl tied up in a tree. Tang priest asked Ba Jie to release her, when Ba Jie just about to release her, Wu Kong came. Wu Kong said the girl was an evil spirit. After some argument, Tang priest did what Wu Kong said and left the girl alone… off they walked away. The girl sent a helping request to Tang priest’s ear, none others could hear. This time Tang priest was mad at Wu Kong and ordered the girl to be set free. So… The girl was released and off they went. They arrived in a temple. The following day, Tang priest fell sick so they stayed there one more day. One night, Wu Kong learnt that there’s a devil who ate monks in the previous night, so Wu Kong disguised as little monk pretending praying and did like what the two monks who got eaten did the previous night.

In the middle of the night, there’s a breeze coming and the evil appeared. After some acts, Wu Kong turnt into his own form and attacked the monster. The monster made some magic spell and turnt her shoe to be her own image. Wu Kong got fooled, the monster ran away and took Tang priest.

So the three disciples were searching where the monster took their master. They asked local gods too and they found a cave. Wu Kong disguised as a little insect and found Tang priest, it turnt out the monster wanted to marry the priest. Wu Kong made a plan that he would enter the devil’s stomach when the devil was drinking. She spotted the insect and threw it (Wu Kong away). First plan failed. So Wu Kong came back and asked Tang priest to allure the monster to eat a red peach since he will disguise as one. The plan worked, Wu Kong got in and kicked the monster’s stomach from inside and asked the devil to release Tang priest. After they got out, Wu Kong went out too from her stomach and the two fought, Ba Jie and Wu Jing came for help and left Tang priest alone. The monster fooled them again with the shoe transformation and took Tang priest with her.

Wu Kong entered the cave again for the third time and found that she had a relation with Prince Ne Zha so Wu Kong went to heaven. The girl was the adopted daughter of Heavenly King Li and Prince Ne Zha was her adopted brother. So they all went down and captured her and released Tang priest.

Wu Kong’s argument with the heavenly gods in order to make them help him were very interesting: How it's time consuming to "sue" someone. Also why Wu Kong needed to get into the devil's stomach instead of just attacking her? That’s because the way to get in and out the cave was really complicated, he’s worried he couldn’t get out by himself.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 87 of the original book 
The pilgrims arrived in Feng Xian (India). There had no rain for more than three years. The people there were desperately in need help to have rain. Wu Kong decided to help them, he went to heaven to ask why there's no rain. The Jade emperor said because when he was touring that area, Shang Guan (the governor) kicked the offerings and made other fault doings. So he decided no rain until little hen finished eating mountain of rice, little dog finished eating a mountain of flour and a little lamp can melt a bar of lock (which Wu Kong saw displayed in the heaven). Or... until the people in that area could do one good deed that could move the Heaven. Wu Kong passed the information, the people than prayed hard, burnt incense, etc. Shang Guan apologized (he actually didn't do the mistake on purpose, he's quarreling with his wife) and the heaven was pleased and gave them rain. Everyone was grateful to Wu Kong, but instead Wu Kong asked them to thank the gods that made rain.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 88-91 of the original book 
The pilgrim arrived in Yu Hua county in India. The prince of that region has three princes who liked kung fu. Later on they all became the disciples of Wu Kong, Bajie, and Wu Jing. One day, the princes asked to make imitations of the three’s weapons. The smiths were working hard to get the job done. One day they found out that the weapons were stolen. So the three pilgrims were looking or their weapons. Wu Kong found out where the weapons were stolen. The three disguised as one of the devils and Wu Jing as pig and sheep sellers to get inside and took the weapons back. The devil couldn’t hold three of them and ran away to ask help. The three pilgrims went back to the palace to tell their master before that they burnt the devil’s place.

The following day the three of them were looking for the monster again to be captured. Enforced with five more devils, the monsters were fighting the three. Ba Jie lost and got captured. Wu Kong changed his hair to many little Wu Kong and kept fighting. They captured two demons. The following day Wu Kong went back asked them to release Ba Jie. The lion leader who had nine heads captured the four princes, and Tang priest. Wu Kong asked local gods who the demons were and went to his cave. Wu Kong and Wu Jing were also captured by the lion. Wu Kong was beaten all day long because he destroyed the lion’s dent. At night, Wu Kong ran away and went to heaven to ask if there’s any lose gods. It turn out there’s one lion missing. The lion’s owner captured the lion back. They burnt the cave and went back to the palace. They stayed there for a while so the three could teach their disciples, the three princes, and then continued on the journey to the west.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 93-95 of the original book (Jade Rabbit) 
Should read the conversations between Tang priest and Wu Kong where Wu Kong asked if the priest really understood one passage in the scripture, really funny :) On their way in India, they found out that there's a missing princess.

In this chapter, there's a devil who replaced an Indian princess and disguised herself as one. When she needed to pick a husband, she threw the ribbon ball to Tang priest. Wu Kong asked him to accept the marriage for the purpose of investigation if she's really a devil. Wu Kong could see indeed she's so on the wedding day and the two fought. She's no match to Wu Kong. At the time he's just about to finish her a god appeared, it turnt out she's a jade rabbit who ran away. Everything was taken care of, the real princess was returned and the king and family was very grateful. The four continued the journey to the West.

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

Ch 98 of the original book 
They got the scripture. And again a very satirical way of illustrating bureaucracy. Very interesting to read, indeed.

Ch 100 of the original book 
Emperor Tai Zong met all members of the succesfull pilgrim. Rewards from Buddha were given to all five of them. The head tightening band was removed from Wu Kong's head. Happy ending for all :D

..... Journey to the West ..... 西游记 ..... daytodayinchina.com .....

 

Pictures are taken from the long corridor in Summer Palace. There are many more that are not included here. 

 
 


Below, Wu Kong tried to hit a devil disguised as a woman and Tang priest tried to stop him.