Monkey: A Folk Novel of China

Chapter 9 chronicles the history of the man who will eventually become Tripitaka. Tripitaka’s father, Ch’ên O, who is a scholar, does well on a test in Ch’ang-an. While being celebrated for his success, a young woman chooses him for her husband. He, his wife, and his mother set out for Chiang-chou, where he will be made governor. Stopped on the way, Ch’ên buys a strange carp and releases it rather than killing and eating it. Ch’ên leaves his mother, as she is unwell, and continues on with his wife.

Ch’ên and his wife meet Liu and Li, two ferrymen “whom, so it happened, Ch’ên had injured in a previous incarnation” (87). Liu and Li kill Ch’ên, and Liu steals his wife and his identity. As the carp Ch’ên saved was actually a dragon king, the dragon king rescues Ch’ên’s soul and preserves his body to bring him back to life later. Ch’ên’s wife, who was pregnant, gives birth to her son who will become Tripitaka, whom Kuan-yin tells her to protect. She sends her child away down the river before Liu can kill him.

An abbot rescues the boy, who grows up in religion and receives the name Hsüan Tsang. When he has almost reached adulthood, Hsüan Tsang wonders about his origins, and the abbot tells him about his parentage, based on a letter his mother included. Hsüan Tsang finds his mother, rescues his grandmother from beggarhood, and tells his mother’s parents about Liu’s murder of his father. The King of T’ang sends an army, which captures Liu and Li, and both are executed. Ch’ên’s corpse floats to the top of the river, and his soul is returned, bringing him back to life. Reunited with his family, Hsüan Tsang devotes himself to “meditation and religious austerities” (95). 

In this chapter, Wu abandons Tripitaka’s story for the time being and focuses on the Emperor of T’ang’s background. Two men are talking, and one mentions that he knows of an infallible fortune-teller who lets him know when he will catch many fish. A servant of a nearby dragon king overhears and tells his king. Worried that this fisherman will catch and kill all his subjects, the dragon goes to investigate whether the fortune-teller is as accurate as the man has said, and he tells the fortune-teller that he will destroy his shop if he is wrong.

Shortly after hearing the fortune-teller’s prediction regarding the weather, the dragon king receives instructions from the Jade Emperor, “coinciding exactly with what had been promised by the soothsayer” (98). The dragon king alters the rain by a slight amount. Once he has destroyed the fortune-teller’s shop, the fortune-teller reveals that he knows the dragon king is a dragon and that the dragon king will be executed for disobeying Heaven’s orders.

In a dream, the Emperor of T’ang meets the dragon king, who begs for his help in preventing his execution by a minister named Wei Chêng. Though the Emperor agrees to help, Wei Chêng falls asleep in his company and executes the dragon in his dreams. The Emperor “felt utterly wretched at having failed entirely to protect [the dragon] from its fate” (101), and soon after his death, the dragon’s headless ghost accosts the Emperor, angry with him for letting him die. Overcome by shame, the Emperor falls deathly ill. Shortly before his death, Wei Chêng gives the Emperor a letter for the Judges of the Dead that he hopes will convince them to send the Emperor back to life.

Continuing from the last chapter, the Emperor wanders the land of the dead, where he meets Wei Chêng’s mentor and gives him the letter. Yama summons the Emperor to the Hall of the Dead, where they discuss the dragon’s case against him. The Judge of the Dead reveals that “even before this dragon was born it was already entered in the Book of Fate that he was to be beheaded by a human official” (106). The Judge of the Dead asks for the registers of death to look for the Emperor. Wei Chêng’s mentor alters the register to indicate that the Emperor should live for another 20 years, and because of this, the Emperor will be sent back to life. The Judge tells the Emperor that his sister will die soon, and the Emperor offers to send some melons to the afterlife as a present in return for the Judge’s help.

Before returning to life, the Emperor meets many dead who have not received salvation and beg him for help. He agrees that when he returns to life, he will hold a mass for the dead and save their souls.

Once he returns to life, the Emperor asks “for a volunteer who would undertake to bring melons to the Judges of the Dead” (108). A man whose wife had recently committed suicide offers to take the melons and kills himself to be with his wife in the afterlife. Yama, King of Death, reunites the man and his wife and is thankful to the Emperor for keeping his word. Yama realizes that the man and his wife “were destined to live to a ripe old age” and should be returned to life (109). As the wife has been dead for too long, Yama suggests that she should be given the Emperor’s sister’s body to inhabit when the latter dies.

The man and wife return to living, with the wife takes over the body of the Emperor’s sister. The Emperor sends her home with her new “husband” and continues fulfilling his promises made in the land of the dead. He repays money owed to a couple from whom he borrowed on credit in the land of the dead. They refuse his repayment, and he instead uses the money to build Hsiang Kuo National Temple. The Emperor also moves forward with his Mass for the Dead, inviting many priests, who choose Hsüan Tsang from among themselves to lead the mass.

Kuan-yin, still disguised as a poor priest, continues looking for a pilgrim to retrieve scriptures from India. She offers her magic cassock to several men along the way, until one finally suggests that Hsüan Tsang might be the right man to wear it. Recognizing Hsüan Tsang as the boy she once helped, she decides to investigate his mass, which she then interrupts to tell him that the set of scriptures he preaches “cannot save the souls of the dead, and only leads to general misapprehension and confusion” (115).

The Emperor seizes Kuan-yin for interrupting the Mass, at which point the three threads of the Emperor, Kuan-yin, and Tripitaka’s stories come together. Kuan-yin mentions that there are “Big Vehicle” scriptures in India and she needs a pilgrim to retrieve them, and she reveals her true form. Hsüan Tsang volunteers to go to India and is given the name “Tripitaka” to represent the three baskets of scriptures he will retrieve. He expects the journey to take around three years. The Emperor sends off Tripitaka with a horse, two helpers, and a drink of his country’s soil.