Chapter 5: The Great Sage Ravages the Peach Banquet and Steals the Elixir; All Heaven's Gods Move to Seize the Monster

To return to the Great Sage Equal to Heaven: monkey he was after all, a monster monkey at that. He knew nothing of ranks or stipends and cared less. So long as his name was grand, that was enough. At the mansion of the Great Sage, the two clerks attached to his household waited on him morning and night. He did nothing but eat three meals a day, sleep on one couch at night, and live without a single care to drag at him. When idle, he went wandering through the heavenly palaces, calling on friends and swearing brotherhoods.

When he met the Three Pure Ones he would address them familiarly as "old ones." When he came upon the Four Emperors he would call them "Your Majesty." As for the Nine Luminaries, the Generals of the Five Regions, the Twenty-Eight Mansions, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Twelve Year-Spirits, the Five Elders of the Five Regions, all the star-lords under heaven, and the whole host of river and sky gods, he treated every one of them as brothers, each calling the other by name. One day he drifted east, the next day he roamed west, riding cloud after cloud, never staying in one place.

One morning, when the Jade Emperor was holding court, Perfected Xu Jingyang stepped from the ranks, bowed, and said:

"The Great Sage Equal to Heaven has nothing to do and spends his days idling about, making friends among the stars and officers of Heaven, calling all alike his companions whether their station be high or low. I fear that, left so idle, he may someday stir up trouble. Better to give him some duty to manage. That way we may head off mischief before it begins."

The Jade Emperor took the advice at once and had a decree issued.

The Monkey King came in all smiles.

"What promotion has Your Majesty for old Sun?"

The Jade Emperor said, "I see that you have leisure on your hands. I am giving you a charge. For the present, you shall oversee the Peach Orchard. See to it carefully, morning and night."

The Great Sage was delighted. He thanked the throne, gave a loud salute, and withdrew.

He could hardly wait. At once he went into the Peach Orchard to inspect the place. At the gate an earth god barred his way and asked, "Where does the Great Sage go?"

The Great Sage answered, "I have received the Jade Emperor's appointment to manage the Peach Orchard in his stead. I have come to inspect it."

The earth god hurriedly bowed, then called together the tree-tenders, the water-carriers, the pruners, the sweepers, and all the workmen of the orchard, who came and kowtowed before the Great Sage and led him inside.

There he saw:

Peach bloom blazing, branch on branch;
fruit hanging thick on every tree.
The blossoms crowded the boughs in crimson clusters,
the fruit bent down the limbs like brocade-weighted shot.
Some trees flowered while others fruited,
their ripening stretching across a thousand years;
they knew neither summer's haste nor winter's delay,
but came to perfection over ten thousand seasons.
Those already ripe wore faces flushed as drunkards;
those still green kept their stems and pale skins.
Misty bloom clung to green flesh,
and under the sun the fruit glowed red.
Beneath the trees strange flowers and rare herbs stood side by side,
their color unfading through all four seasons.
To left and right rose towers and pavilions,
and over them always hovered cloud and rainbow.
These were no common mortal stock from the dark earth below,
but peaches the Queen Mother herself had planted by Jade Pool.

After admiring them for a long while, the Great Sage asked the earth god, "How many trees are there in all?"

The earth god replied, "Three thousand six hundred. The first twelve hundred, in front, have small blossoms and small fruit. They ripen once every three thousand years, and whoever eats them attains immortality and the Way, grows light of body, and keeps in perfect health. The middle twelve hundred bear layered flowers and sweet fruit. They ripen once every six thousand years, and whoever eats them rises in rosy clouds and ascends, living forever without old age. The last twelve hundred have purple-veined skins and yellow stones. They ripen once every nine thousand years, and whoever eats them lives as long as Heaven and Earth, as enduring as sun and moon."

That pleased the Great Sage beyond measure. That same day he finished checking the trees and pavilions and returned to his mansion. From then on he visited every few days to admire the place. He stopped calling on friends and ceased his wandering altogether.

One day he saw that on the oldest trees more than half the peaches had ripened. His mouth began to itch to taste the first of them. But with the orchard's earth god, its laborers, and the clerks from the Great Sage's own residence all close behind him, there was no easy chance. So in a flash he thought of a trick.

"You lot wait outside the gate for a while. Let me rest alone in this pavilion for a bit."

The spirits all withdrew as he told them. At once the Monkey King stripped off his cap and robes, swarmed up the nearest great tree, and plucked armful after armful of the ripest peaches, eating at his leisure among the branches. Only when he had eaten his fill did he jump back down, set his cap straight, settle his robes, summon his attendants, and return home. Two or three days later he came again and found another way to steal peaches for his own delight.

Then one day the Queen Mother threw open her jeweled pavilion and prepared the Grand Peach Banquet beside Jade Pool. She ordered seven heavenly maidens, robed in red, blue-green, white, black, purple, yellow, and green, each carrying a flower basket, to go to the Peach Orchard and gather fruit for the feast.

The seven maidens went all the way to the orchard gate and found there the earth god, the laborers, and the two clerks from the mansion of the Great Sage, all standing watch.

The maidens stepped forward and said, "We come by the Queen Mother's command to gather peaches for the banquet."

The earth god said, "Ladies, please wait. This year is not like other years. The Jade Emperor has appointed the Great Sage Equal to Heaven to supervise the orchard. We must first inform him before we dare open the gate."

The maidens said, "Where is the Great Sage?"

The earth god answered, "He is inside the orchard. Sleepiness came over him, so he is napping in the pavilion."

"Then take us to him. We must not delay the Queen Mother's command."

So the earth god went in with them.

They searched all the way to the blossom-pavilion and found only his clothes and cap lying there. There was no sign of him anywhere. As it happened, after sporting for a while and eating several peaches, the Great Sage had transformed himself into a tiny figure barely two inches long and curled himself to sleep in the dense leaves high at the tip of one of the great trees.

The seven maidens said, "We came under orders. How can we go back empty-handed when we cannot find him?"

A minor heavenly attendant standing nearby said, "Since you were sent here by command, there is no need to hesitate. Our Great Sage is forever wandering off. He has likely left the orchard to visit friends. Go ahead and gather the peaches. We will report it to him for you."

The maidens followed the advice and went beneath the trees to pick fruit. From the front grove they filled two baskets. From the middle grove they filled three. But when they came to the rear grove and reached for the great peaches, they found the branches sparse, with only a few fuzzy green fruits still hanging. The ripe ones the Monkey King had already eaten. Looking here and there, the maidens at last saw on one southward branch a single peach half red and half pale.

The maiden in blue-green tugged the branch down. The one in red picked the peach, then let the branch spring back.

But the Great Sage had transformed himself upon that very branch and was sleeping there. The snap woke him at once. He showed his true form, drew the Golden-Hooped Rod from his ear, gave it a shake till it was thick as a bowl, and barked:

"What sort of monsters are you, bold enough to come steal my peaches?"

The seven maidens dropped to their knees in terror.

"Great Sage, calm your anger. We are no monsters. We are the Queen Mother's seven maidens, sent here to gather immortal peaches for the opening of the jeweled pavilion and the holding of the Grand Peach Banquet. When we arrived, we first met the spirits of this orchard and searched for you, but could not find you. Fearing delay in carrying out the Queen Mother's command, we could not wait any longer and so began picking fruit. We beg you to forgive us."

When the Great Sage heard that, his anger melted into delight.

"Rise, heavenly ladies. When the Queen Mother opens the pavilion and gives her banquet, whom has she invited?"

The maidens answered, "The old custom of this high assembly is to invite the Buddha of the Western Heaven, the bodhisattvas, holy monks, and arhats; Guanyin of the South; the Holy Emperor of Exalted Grace in the East and the immortal elders of the Ten Isles and Three Mountains; the Dark Spirit of the Northern Pole; the Great Immortal of the Yellow Horn in the center. Those are the Five Elders of the Five Regions.

"Besides them, there are the Five Dipper Lords; the immortals of the Upper Eight Caverns, among them the Three Pure Ones and the Four Emperors; the immortals of the Middle Eight Caverns, among them the Jade Emperor, the Nine Ramparts, and the divine spirits of sea and mountain; the immortals of the Lower Eight Caverns, among them the Lord of the Underworld and the earthbound immortals appointed over the world. In every palace and every hall, the greater and lesser honored gods all attend together at the Peach Banquet."

The Great Sage grinned. "And am I invited?"

"We have never heard that you were."

"I am the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. Why should old Sun not be seated as a guest of honor?"

"That is the old custom of the assembly. As for this year, we do not know."

The Great Sage said, "Fair enough. I cannot blame you for that. Stand where you are. Let old Sun go first and learn the truth. We'll see whether they mean to invite me or not."

What a Great Sage he was. He pinched out a spell, muttered a charm, pointed at the maidens, and cried, "Stay! Stay! Stay!"

This was a body-fixing spell. At once the seven maidens stood stock-still beneath the peach trees, staring with blank white eyes and unable to move.

The Great Sage leapt onto an auspicious cloud, shot out of the orchard, and went straight toward Jade Pool. As he traveled, he saw:

Auspicious haze swaying in the sky,
five-colored clouds flowing without end.
White cranes cried from the far marshes,
purple fungus spread its bloom in a thousand leaves.
And there in the midst appeared an immortal
with a noble face and an air unlike any other.
Rainbow brilliance played about him as he moved through the high blue,
and at his waist hung a talisman precious and deathless.
This was the Barefoot Immortal,
on his way to the Peach Banquet to add another measure to his long life.

The Barefoot Immortal came upon the Great Sage face to face. The Monkey King at once lowered his head and made a plan to trick the true immortal so that he himself could slip unseen into the feast.

"Old worthy," he called, "where are you bound?"

The immortal answered, "The Queen Mother has sent for me. I go to attend the Peach Banquet."

The Great Sage said, "Then you have not heard. Because old Sun's somersault-cloud is so swift, the Jade Emperor ordered me to invite all the guests by five routes and direct them first to perform the rites before Tongming Hall. Only after that are they to proceed to the banquet."

The Barefoot Immortal was an open and upright soul, so he took the lie for truth.

"Year after year we go straight to Jade Pool to perform our rites of thanks. Why should we first go to Tongming Hall and only then attend the feast?"

But in the end he had no choice but to turn his cloud around and head for Tongming Hall. The Great Sage, meanwhile, rode on a cloud of his own, spoke a charm, gave himself a shake, and turned into the very likeness of the Barefoot Immortal. Then he hurried on toward Jade Pool. Before long he reached the jeweled pavilion, checked his cloud, came softly down, and walked inside.

There he saw:

Jade fragrance winding through the air,
auspicious vapors flowering in all directions.
The terraces of Jade Pool were spread with color,
and the treasure pavilion breathed out mist and radiance.
Phoenixes wheeled, paired luan-birds drifted, half lost in haze.
Golden flowers and jade calyxes seemed to float and sink before the eye.
Above stood screens of rosy cloud beneath nine-phoenix canopies,
purple cushions set with the eight treasures,
tables painted and gilded in five colors,
and green-jade basins massed with a thousand flowers.
On the tables lay dragon liver and phoenix marrow,
bear paws and orangutan lips.
Hundreds of delicacies, each more exquisite than the last;
rare fruits and marvelous dishes, every one newly prepared.

Everything was laid out in perfect order, and yet not a single immortal guest had arrived.

The Great Sage went about taking it all in. Then a gust of wine-scent struck him full in the nose. Turning his head, he saw beneath a long corridor on the right several officials charged with brewing, together with laborers working the lees, water-carriers, and boys tending the fire. They were washing vats and rinsing jars. The jade liquor and crystal wine were already made, the fragrant brews and fine vintages all prepared.

The Great Sage could not keep the saliva from running at the corners of his mouth. He wanted at once to eat and drink, but with all those people there he could not. So he worked another trick. He plucked several hairs from himself, chewed them in his mouth, spat them out, muttered a charm, and cried, "Change!"

At once they became a swarm of drowsiness-bugs and flew onto the faces of the workers. Look at them then: hands gone limp, heads drooping, brows closing over their eyes, each dropping his work and nodding off where he stood.

The Great Sage gathered up all kinds of delicacies and rare dishes and went into the long corridor, moving from vat to vat, from jar to jar, drinking without measure and feasting to his heart's content.

He drank for a long time, until he was deep in his cups. Then he patted himself and muttered:

"This won't do, this won't do. In a little while the invited guests will come. If they catch me here, won't that bring trouble down on my head? If they lay hands on me, what then? Better get back to my own place and sleep it off."

But being drunk, he reeled and lurched and blundered on by pure impulse. Before long he had taken a wrong turning. Instead of the mansion of the Great Sage he found himself at the Tusita Palace.

At the sight of it he sobered a little and said to himself, "The Tusita Palace lies above the Thirty-Three Heavens, in the Heaven of Parting Sorrow, where Laozi dwells. How did I get here by mistake? No matter, no matter. I've long meant to visit the old man and never had the chance. Since these wandering steps have carried me here, I may as well look in on him."

He straightened his robes and barged in, but there was no sign of Laozi and not another soul in sight. As it happened, Laozi was on the cinnabar terrace of a three-storied pavilion expounding the Way with Dipankara Buddha, while all the immortal pages, generals, officials, and attendants stood on either side listening.

The Great Sage went straight into the elixir chamber and looked around without finding anyone. But beside the elixir furnace there was fire in the brazier, and on either side of it stood five gourds. Inside the gourds were all the finished golden elixir pills.

The Great Sage was overjoyed.

"This stuff is the treasure of the immortal house. Since old Sun attained the Way, I've understood that inside and outside follow the same principle, and I've often meant to refine some golden elixir myself to help others, only I never had the time once I got home. Today luck has brought the thing itself under my nose. Since the old master isn't here, let me swallow a few and taste what they're like."

With that he tipped out every gourd and ate every pill inside, crunching them down as though he were eating fried beans.

In a short while the elixir filled him and the wine was gone from his head. Then he took stock of things and said:

"This is bad. Worse than bad. This trouble is larger than Heaven itself. If the Jade Emperor hears of it, my life won't be worth a hair. Go, go, go. Best to head back to the lower world and reign there as king."

He rushed out of the Tusita Palace, avoided the old road, slipped out through the Western Gate of Heaven by means of an invisibility spell, and rode his cloud all the way back to Flower-Fruit Mountain.

There he saw banners flashing and halberds shining. The four tough lieutenants and the demon kings of the seventy-two caves were drilling in arms.

The Great Sage shouted at the top of his voice, "Children, I am back!"

The monsters all threw down their weapons, knelt, and cried, "Great Sage, how large-hearted you are! You left us for so long and never once looked in on us."

"Not long, not long at all."

Talking as he went, he strode straight into the depths of the cave-heaven. The four lieutenants swept out a place for him to rest. After bowing and paying their respects, they asked together, "Great Sage, what office did you truly hold in Heaven over these hundred-odd years?"

The Great Sage laughed.

"I remember only half a year's time at most. Why do you talk of a hundred years?"

The lieutenants answered, "One day in Heaven is one year below."

The Great Sage said, "Well then, so much the better. This time the Jade Emperor was fond enough of me to style me Great Sage Equal to Heaven, build me a mansion of my own, and assign two offices with immortal clerks to stand guard and wait on me. Later, seeing I had nothing to do, he set me to watching the Peach Orchard.

"Lately the Queen Mother held her Peach Banquet but did not invite me. So rather than wait to be asked, I went first to Jade Pool and ate up all their immortal fare and immortal wine. Then, staggering out of Jade Pool, I wandered by mistake into Laozi's palace and swallowed all the golden elixir from his five gourds as well.

"I was afraid the Jade Emperor might blame me, so only now did I slip out through the heavenly gate and come back down."

At that the monsters were delighted. They at once laid out fruits and wine to welcome him home and filled a stone bowl with palm wine for him. The Great Sage took one swallow, smacked his teeth, and said, "Bad. Bad stuff."

The generals Beng and Ba said, "Great Sage, after drinking immortal wine and eating immortal food in Heaven, no wonder palm wine seems poor to your taste. There's an old saying: if it's home water, it tastes sweet enough."

The Great Sage laughed.

"And another saying: one's own countrymen are one's own flesh. When I was enjoying myself at Jade Pool this morning, I saw under the long corridor a great many jars and bottles, all filled with those jade liquors and crystal wines. None of you has tasted any. Let me go steal a few bottles more and bring them back. Each of you can drink half a cup and live forever."

That set all the monkeys dancing with delight.

At once the Great Sage went out of the cave, turned one somersault, used his invisibility spell again, and made straight for the Peach Banquet at Jade Pool. There he entered the palace and found that the brewers, the workers of the lees, the water-carriers, and the fire-tending boys were all still snoring in their sleep. He tucked two large jars under his arms and took two more in his hands, then turned his cloud and came back. Gathering all the monkeys in the cave, he held an Immortal Wine Feast, and each of them drank several cups. Their happiness need not be told.

Now to return to the seven maidens. They had been held fast by the Great Sage's fixing spell for one full circuit of the heavens before it wore off. Then they lifted their baskets and went back to report to the Queen Mother.

"The Great Sage Equal to Heaven trapped us with magic, and that is why we have come late."

The Queen Mother asked, "How many peaches did you gather?"

The maidens answered, "Only two baskets of small peaches and three of middle peaches. As for the rear grove, not half a great peach remained. We suppose the Great Sage had eaten them all. While we were searching, out he came, acting with violence, and questioned us about whom the banquet invited. We told him the whole matter of the high assembly. Then he fixed us where we stood and vanished. Only now were we able to free ourselves and return."

When the Queen Mother heard this, she went at once to the Jade Emperor and recounted everything. She had barely finished when the brewers and the other officials came to report as well.

"We do not know who it was, but someone has thrown the Peach Banquet into chaos and stolen the jade liquor and crystal wine. The eight treasures and all the delicacies have likewise been eaten."

Then four great celestial masters came in to say, "The Supreme Patriarch has arrived."

The Jade Emperor went out with the Queen Mother to receive him. When Laozi had finished his salutation, he said:

"In my palace this old Taoist had refined some nine-times-turned golden elixir in order to serve Your Majesty at the Elixir Origin Assembly. Yet a thief stole it away before the offering could be made. I have come to inform Your Majesty of the matter."

The Jade Emperor was shaken with alarm.

Soon after that, the clerks from the mansion of the Great Sage came in and kowtowed.

"Sun the Great Sage has neglected his post. Since going out yesterday on a pleasure jaunt, he has not come back, and we do not know where he has gone."

The Jade Emperor's suspicions only deepened. Then the Barefoot Immortal too bowed and reported:

"Your servant received the Queen Mother's summons and yesterday set out for the banquet. By chance I met the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. He told me that Your Majesty had ordered him to invite us all first to Tongming Hall to perform the rites, and only then to proceed to the feast. Trusting his words, I turned back to Tongming Hall, but found neither Your Majesty's dragon carriage nor phoenix chariot there. So I hastened here again to wait."

The Jade Emperor was now more alarmed than ever.

"That villain forged my command and deceived a worthy minister. Let the divine inspectors go at once and track him down."

The inspectors received the order, searched everywhere, learned the whole truth, and returned to say:

"The one who threw Heaven into confusion was none other than the Great Sage Equal to Heaven."

They then reported all that had happened from beginning to end.

The Jade Emperor flew into a towering rage. At once he ordered the Four Heavenly Kings, together with Li the Heavenly King and Prince Nezha, to muster the Twenty-Eight Mansions, the officers of the Nine Luminaries, the Twelve Year-Spirits, the Five Jiedi of the Five Regions, the four duty gods of the watches, the stars of east and west, the gods of south and north, the spirits of the Five Peaks and Four Rivers, and all the star-lords of Heaven. In all there were a hundred thousand heavenly troops. With eighteen layers of heavenly nets and earthly meshes, they were to descend to Flower-Fruit Mountain, surround it, seize that rogue, and punish him without fail.

At once the gods set the army in motion and departed from Heaven.

This was what one saw:

Yellow winds rolling dark across the sky,
purple vapors rising thick over the earth.
All because a demon monkey had mocked the Lord Above
did the holy host descend to the mortal dust.
The Four Heavenly Kings and the Five Jiedi came on;
the kings held overall command, the Jiedi marshaled rank on rank of troops.
Li of the Pagoda held the middle army and its signals;
fierce Nezha led the van.
Rahu-star took the first watch,
Ketu-star followed in flashing pride.
The moon-star shone with gathered spirit,
the sun-star burned clear and bright.
The five planets were all heroes,
the nine luminaries loved contention most.
The year-spirits of rat, horse, rabbit, and cock,
each of them a mighty divine guard.
The plagues and peaks spread east and west;
the six Ding and six Jia marched right and left.
The dragon gods of the four rivers held the lines above and below;
the Twenty-Eight Mansions stood packed in layer on layer.
Horn, Neck, Root, and Chamber took the lead;
Legs, Mound, Stomach, and Hairy Head were eager for the fray.
Dipper, Ox, Maiden, Void, Rooftop, House, and Wall,
Heart, Tail, and Winnowing Basket, every one of them able.
Well, Ghost, Willow, Star, Wing, and Chariot-Tongue
brandished spears and swung swords in all their awe.
They stopped the clouds and lowered the mist over the mortal world
and pitched their camp before Flower-Fruit Mountain.

A verse says:

Heaven bred the Monkey King with arts beyond all measure.
He stole the elixir and stole the wine, then reveled in his mountain nest.
Because he threw the Peach Banquet into chaos,
a hundred thousand heavenly troops cast down their nets for him.

When Li the Heavenly King had given the order, the troops set up camp and ringed Flower-Fruit Mountain so tight not even water could have slipped through. Above and below they stretched all eighteen tiers of the heavenly net, then first sent out the nine fierce stars of the Nine Luminaries to challenge the enemy.

The Nine Luminaries marched with their troops straight to the mouth of the cave, where they saw great and small monkeys leaping about in play. The star-lords cried in a harsh voice:

"You lesser demons! Where is your Great Sage? We are heavenly gods dispatched from the upper world to subdue your rebellious lord. Tell him to come at once and submit. If he dares say so much as half a no, then every one of you will be put to the sword."

The lesser demons fled in panic and ran inside shouting, "Great Sage, disaster! Disaster! Outside are nine fierce gods who call themselves heavenly deities sent from above to force the Great Sage to surrender."

The Great Sage was at that moment sharing immortal wine with the demon kings of the seventy-two caves and the four lieutenants. Hearing the report, he paid it no mind at all.

"If there's wine today, drink it today. Never mind what quarrels sit outside the gate."

He had scarcely finished speaking when another band of lesser demons bounded in.

"Those nine fierce gods are hurling abuse at the gate and calling for battle."

The Great Sage laughed. "Ignore them. While there's poetry and wine, take the joy of the day. Why bother asking when success and glory will come?"

Before he had finished speaking, yet another troop rushed in.

"Grandfather! Those nine fierce gods have already smashed the gate and are killing their way in!"

The Great Sage flew into a rage.

"Those hairy gods are insolent beyond bearing. I had meant not to bother with them, so why have they come right up to my door to bully me?"

He at once ordered the One-Horned Ghost King, "Lead the demon kings of the seventy-two caves into battle. Old Sun will follow with the four lieutenants."

The Ghost King swiftly led the demon troops out to meet the foe, but the Nine Luminaries fell on them all together and pinned them down at the Iron-Plate Bridge so they could not break through.

In the midst of the shouting the Great Sage arrived and cried, "Open the way!"

He drew out the iron rod, gave it a shake till it was thick as a bowl and over twelve feet long, spread his stance, and laid into them. Not one of the Nine Luminaries dared stand firm before him. In a moment he had beaten them back.

The Nine Luminaries halted their line and shouted:

"You wretch with no sense of life or death, you Keeper of the Heavenly Horses! You stand guilty of tenfold villainy. First you stole peaches, then you stole wine, you wrecked the Peach Banquet, you robbed Laozi of his immortal elixir, and then you even stole the imperial wine and brought it here for your own pleasure. Crime upon crime. Do you not know it?"

The Great Sage laughed.

"Every one of those things is true, true enough. But what of it now?"

The star-lords said, "We bear the Jade Emperor's golden decree and have led our forces here to accept your submission. Yield at once, and spare these living creatures their lives. If not, we will level this mountain flat and turn this cave upside down."

That made the Great Sage blaze.

"You little hairy gods, what power have you to mouth such windy threats? Don't run. Taste one stroke of old Sun's staff."

The Nine Luminaries all sprang together. The Beautiful Monkey King feared them not in the slightest. He whirled the Golden-Hooped Rod, parrying left and beating right.

Before long he had fought the Nine Luminaries to the end of their strength. One by one they dragged their weapons behind them and fled the field, racing back to the central command tent to report to the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King:

"That Monkey King is truly fierce beyond telling. We could not stand against him and have been beaten back."

At once Li the Heavenly King sent out the Four Heavenly Kings and the Twenty-Eight Mansions to join battle. The Great Sage, for his part, showed not the least fear. He drew up the One-Horned Ghost King, the demon kings of the seventy-two caves, and his four lieutenants, and formed them in ranks before the cave mouth.

Just look at that melee. It was enough to shake the heart.

Cold wind hissed; dark vapors boiled.
On one side the banners flashed in streams of color;
on the other the halberds shone with hard light.
Helms blazed in rolling waves, armor glittered layer on layer.
The helmets caught the sun like silver chimes crashing against the sky;
the armor packed the cliffs like mountains of ice weighing on the earth.
Long sabers slashed like cloud-bolts and lightning-flashes;
white-shafted spears pierced mist and split the clouds.
Halberds, tiger-eye whips, bronze swords, and spades
stood ranked thick as a forest.
Strong bows, stiff crossbows, feathered arrows,
short clubs, snake-spears, all seemed to snatch away men's souls.
And in the midst of them all the Great Sage's single wish-granted staff
turned and turned again against the gods of Heaven.
He fought till no bird crossed the sky above,
and in the mountains tigers and wolves fled their dens.
Sand rose, stones flew, heaven and earth went dark;
dust rolled, the whole universe grew dim.
All that could be heard was the clamor of arms enough to startle Heaven and Earth,
the killing fury of it enough to shake gods and ghosts alike.

The battle lines had been drawn up at dawn and the slaughter raged until the sun dropped behind the western hills. By then the One-Horned Ghost King and the demon kings of the seventy-two caves had all been taken by the heavenly host. Only the four lieutenants and the troop of monkeys escaped, hiding deep beneath Water-Curtain Cave.

As for the Great Sage, with one rod he held off the Four Heavenly Kings, Li the Pagoda-Bearer, and Prince Nezha all together in the sky. They had been hacking at one another a long while when he saw evening coming on. At once he plucked a fistful of hairs, chewed them, spat them out, and cried, "Change!"

They became hundreds and thousands of Great Sages, each wielding a Golden-Hooped Rod. In that instant he drove back Prince Nezha and defeated the five heavenly kings.

With the victory in hand, the Great Sage gathered back his hairs and hurried into the cave. At the Iron-Plate Bridge he found the four lieutenants and the monkeys kneeling to welcome him. The whole crowd gave three sobbing cries and then three bursts of laughter.

The Great Sage said, "Why do you laugh and cry at the sight of me?"

The four lieutenants answered, "This morning we led our forces against the Heavenly Kings. The demon kings of the seventy-two caves and the One-Horned Ghost King were all taken by the gods, while we barely escaped with our lives. That is why we ought to weep. Yet now we see the Great Sage return victorious and unhurt, and that is why we ought to laugh."

The Great Sage said, "Victory and defeat are common matters in war. The old saying has it: kill ten thousand men and lose three thousand of your own. Besides, the captains taken away were tigers, leopards, wolves, badgers, foxes, and the like. Not one monkey of my own kind was harmed. Why grieve over it? Though I scattered those fellows by using the art of divided bodies, they will surely pitch camp at the foot of my mountain and remain there. Let us keep a tight watch, eat our fill, sleep soundly, and gather our strength. At dawn old Sun will use a mighty art and seize those heavenly generals to avenge you all."

So the four lieutenants and the troop of monkeys drank several bowls of palm wine and went peacefully to sleep.

The Four Heavenly Kings, once they had withdrawn their forces, reported their gains. Some had captured tigers and leopards, some lions and elephants, some wolves and foxes and badgers. Not one monkey spirit had they managed to seize. Even so, they set their camp again, pitched the main stockade, rewarded the generals who had earned merit, and ordered all the troops assigned to the heavenly net and earthly mesh to stand firm at every post, shaking bells and crying the watch while they kept Flower-Fruit Mountain under close siege, waiting only for the morning battle.

Each went off to guard his station with full care. This was exactly the case:

The demon monkey's rebellion shook both earth and sky;
the nets were spread and the meshes drawn tight by day and night.

But what measures were taken when dawn came will be told in the next chapter.