he suddenly heard the roar of water. The Great Sage paused in midair to look and discovered that it was the high tide of the Great Eastern Ocean. The moment he saw this, he thought of the Tang Monk and could not restrain the tears from rolling down his cheeks. He stopped his cloud and stayed there for a long time before proceeding. We do not know what will happen to him as he goes away; let’s listen to the explanation in the next chapter.
TWENTY- EIGHT
At Flower-Fruit Mountain a pack of fiends hold assembly;
At the Black Pine Forest Tripitaka meets demons.
We were telling you about the Great Sage, who, though he was banished by the Tang Monk, was nevertheless filled with regret and nostalgia when he saw the Great Eastern Ocean. He said to himself, “I haven’t come this way for five hundred years!” This is what he saw as he looked at the ocean:
Vast, misty currents;
Huge, far-reaching waves—
Vast, misty currents that join the Milky Way;
Huge, far-reaching waves that touch the pulse of Earth.
The tide rises in salvos;
The water engulfs the bays—
The tide rises in salvos
Like the clap of thunder in Triple Spring;
The water engulfs the bays
As violent gales that blow in late summer.
Those old, blessed dragon-drivers
1
Would travel no doubt with knitted brows;
Those young, immortal crane-riders
Would surely pass by anxious and tense.
No village appears near the shore;
Few fishing boats hug the water.
Waves roll like a thousand year’s snow;
Wind howls as if autumn’s in June.
Wild birds can come and go at will;
Water fowls may stay afloat or dive.
There’s no fisher before your eyes;
Your ears hear only the sea gulls.
Deep in the sea fishes frolic;
Across the sky wild geese languish.
With a bound, our Pilgrim leaped across the Great Eastern Ocean and soon arrived at the Flower-Fruit Mountain. Lowering the direction of his cloud, he stared all around. Alas, that mountain had neither flowers nor plants, while the mist and smoke seemed completely extinguished: cliffs and plateaus had collapsed and the trees had dried and withered. How had it all become like this, you ask. When Pilgrim disrupted Heaven and was taken captive to the Region Above, this mountain was burned to total ruin by the Illustrious Sage, Erlang God, who was leading the Seven Bond-Brothers of Plum Mountain. Our Great Sage became more grief stricken than ever, and he composed the following long poem in ancient style as a testimony. The poem says:
I view this divine mountain and tears fall;
I face it and my sorrows multiply.
The mountain, I thought then, would not be harmed;
Today I know this place has suffered loss.
Hateful was that Erlang who vanquished me,
That heinous Little Sage who oppressed me.
In violence he dug up my parental tombs;
With no cause he broke up my ancestral graves.
All Heaven’s mists and fog are now dispersed;
The whole land’s wind and clouds both dissipate.
None can hear a tiger’s roar on eastern peaks;
Who sees a white ape howling on western slopes?
The northern gorge has no trace of fox or hare;
All deer have vanished from the southern glen.
Green rocks are burned to form a thousand bricks;
The bright sand’s changed to a pile of dirt.
Tall pines outside the cave have fallen down;
Green cedars before the cliff are thin and scarce.
Chun, shan, huai, kui, li,
and
tan 2
all are scorched;
Peach, pear, prune, plum, almond, and date are gone.
How could silkworms be fed with no mulberry?
Midst few bamboos and willows birds
TWENTY- EIGHT
At Flower-Fruit Mountain a pack of fiends hold assembly;
At the Black Pine Forest Tripitaka meets demons.
We were telling you about the Great Sage, who, though he was banished by the Tang Monk, was nevertheless filled with regret and nostalgia when he saw the Great Eastern Ocean. He said to himself, “I haven’t come this way for five hundred years!” This is what he saw as he looked at the ocean:
Vast, misty currents;
Huge, far-reaching waves—
Vast, misty currents that join the Milky Way;
Huge, far-reaching waves that touch the pulse of Earth.
The tide rises in salvos;
The water engulfs the bays—
The tide rises in salvos
Like the clap of thunder in Triple Spring;
The water engulfs the bays
As violent gales that blow in late summer.
Those old, blessed dragon-drivers
1
Would travel no doubt with knitted brows;
Those young, immortal crane-riders
Would surely pass by anxious and tense.
No village appears near the shore;
Few fishing boats hug the water.
Waves roll like a thousand year’s snow;
Wind howls as if autumn’s in June.
Wild birds can come and go at will;
Water fowls may stay afloat or dive.
There’s no fisher before your eyes;
Your ears hear only the sea gulls.
Deep in the sea fishes frolic;
Across the sky wild geese languish.
With a bound, our Pilgrim leaped across the Great Eastern Ocean and soon arrived at the Flower-Fruit Mountain. Lowering the direction of his cloud, he stared all around. Alas, that mountain had neither flowers nor plants, while the mist and smoke seemed completely extinguished: cliffs and plateaus had collapsed and the trees had dried and withered. How had it all become like this, you ask. When Pilgrim disrupted Heaven and was taken captive to the Region Above, this mountain was burned to total ruin by the Illustrious Sage, Erlang God, who was leading the Seven Bond-Brothers of Plum Mountain. Our Great Sage became more grief stricken than ever, and he composed the following long poem in ancient style as a testimony. The poem says:
I view this divine mountain and tears fall;
I face it and my sorrows multiply.
The mountain, I thought then, would not be harmed;
Today I know this place has suffered loss.
Hateful was that Erlang who vanquished me,
That heinous Little Sage who oppressed me.
In violence he dug up my parental tombs;
With no cause he broke up my ancestral graves.
All Heaven’s mists and fog are now dispersed;
The whole land’s wind and clouds both dissipate.
None can hear a tiger’s roar on eastern peaks;
Who sees a white ape howling on western slopes?
The northern gorge has no trace of fox or hare;
All deer have vanished from the southern glen.
Green rocks are burned to form a thousand bricks;
The bright sand’s changed to a pile of dirt.
Tall pines outside the cave have fallen down;
Green cedars before the cliff are thin and scarce.
Chun, shan, huai, kui, li,
and
tan 2
all are scorched;
Peach, pear, prune, plum, almond, and date are gone.
How could silkworms be fed with no mulberry?
Midst few bamboos and willows birds
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