Where liana coils around kudzu

Travelers cannot move between East and West;

Where kudzu coils round liana

Merchants may not ply between North and South.

In this forest

You could spend half a year,

Not knowing whether sun or moon was out,

Or travel for miles

And never see the stars.

Where the outlook is to the North the view is unbounded;

On Southern slopes the bushes are in flower.

There are thousand-year-old locust trees,

Ten-thousand-year-old junipers,

Pines that endure the winter cold,

Mountain peaches that bear fruit,

Wild peonies,

And hibiscus,

All growing in a close-packed profusion,

So wild that not even a god could paint it.

Bird-song could be heard:

Parrots shrieking,

Cuckoos calling,

Magpies in the branches,

Crows feeding their mothers,

Orioles with their aerial dance,

As the mynas adjust their voices.

Quails singing,

Swallows chirping,

Mynas imitating people,

And thrushes that could recite sutras.

Then there were:

Great beasts swishing their tails,

Tigers gnashing their teeth.

Aged foxes and raccoon-dogs disguised as ladies,

Ancient gray wolves at whose baying the forest shook.

Had the Pagoda-carrying Heavenly King come here

His power to suppress demons would have been of no avail.

The Great Sage Sun was unafraid. Clearing the way ahead with his cudgel, he led the Tang Priest into the depths of the forest.

They had been travelling in this carefree style for many hours without seeing any sign of a way out of the forest when the Tang Priest called out, “Disciples, we have been through no end of steep and dangerous mountain woods on our journey West. Thank goodness we have found this purity and elegance and a smooth path. The rare and unusual flowers here are truly delightful. I intend to sit here for a moment to let the horse have a rest. I am, besides, famished. Go and beg me some meat-free food from somewhere.”

“Master,” said Monkey, “please dismount while I go begging.” This the venerable elder did. While Pig tied the horse to a tree Friar Sand put the luggage down, brought out the begging-bowl and handed it to Monkey.

“Sit still here, Master,” Monkey said, “and don't even say the word 'fear'. I'll be back in a moment.” While Sanzang sat upright in the shade of the pines Pig and Friar Sand amused themselves looking for flowers and fruit.

Let us tell of the Great Sage who somersaulted into mid air, brought his cloud to a hall and looked back. All he could see coming from the pine forest were auspicious clouds and auras that coiled and spread all around. “Good, good,” he found himself saying. Do you know why? He was expressing his admiration for the Tang Priest, the reincarnation of the Venerable Golden Cicada and a holy man who had cultivated his conduct for ten successive lifetimes, which explained there was such an aura of good omen above his head.

“Five hundred years ago, when I made havoc in heaven,” Monkey thought, “I wandered to the very corners of the oceans and ran wild at the end of the sky. I led a host of spirits and called myself the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. We subdued dragons and tigers, and I took us off the registers of death. I used to wear a triple golden crown and a coat of golden mail, and with my gold-banded cudgel in my hands and my cloud-treading shoes on my feet I had 47,000 demons under me. They all used to call me Lord Great Sage. I really was someone in those days. But ever since being rescued from Heaven's punishment I've been a small-time nobody as his disciple. I reckon that as the master has such an aura of auspicious clouds over his head things are sure to turn out well for us on our way back to the East and I'm bound to win the true achievement.”

As Brother Monkey was congratulating himself along these lines he saw a column of black vapor rising from the South of the forest. “That black vapor means evil for sure,” he thought with alarm. “No black vapors could come from our Pig or Friar Sand.”

While the Great Sage was still trying to make out exactly what the vapors were coming from, Sanzang was sitting in the forest clarifying his mind and contemplating the Buddha-nature as he recited the Mahaprajnaparamita Heart Sutra when suddenly he heard a high-pitched cry of “Help!”

“This is all very well,” said Sanzang with astonishment, “but who could that be calling so deep in the forest?” It must be someone terrified by a wolf, a tiger, a leopard or some other wild beast. I shall go to take a look.” The venerable elder rose to his feet and walked through the thousand-year-old cypresses and even more ancient pines, holding on to vines and creepers, as he went close enough to see a woman tied to a big tree. The top half of her body was bound to the trunk with creepers and her lower half buried in the ground. Sanzang stopped to ask, “Why are you tied up here, lady Bodhisattva?”

It was quite obvious that the wretched creature was an evil monster, but with his mortal eyes in a worldling's body Sanzang was unable to perceive this. The monster's response to the question was to weep copiously. Just look at the tears rolling down her peachy cheeks. She was so lovely that fish would have sunk and wild geese fallen out of the sky at the sight of her; the beauty of her sorrowing and sparkling eyes would have made the moon hide away and put the flowers to shame. Sanzang did not dare go any closer to her as he opened his mouth to ask, “What crime have you committed, lady Bodhisattva? Tell me so that I can rescue you.”

The evil spirit then quickly put together a pack of lies as she replied, “Master, my home is in the country of Pinpo, which is some seventy miles from here. Both my parents are at home, and they are very great lovers of goodness. All their lives they have been on good terms with their relations and devoted to their friends. At the Clear and Bright Festival they invited all their relations and members of their own family to pay their respects at and sweep the ancestral graves. A whole procession of carrying-chairs and horses all went to the graves in the wilds outside the city. Here we set out our offerings and had just burnt the paper models of horses when a band of brigands sprang upon us with the sound of gongs and drums. They charged us shouting 'kill!' My parents and relations all got hold of horses and carrying-chairs and fled for their lives. Because I am so young I was too frightened to run: I just collapsed and was carried back to the mountains by the brigands. The top chieftain wanted me for his lady, the number two chieftain wanted me for his woman, and the third and fourth ones both fancied me for my looks. There were seventy or eighty of them all quarrelling over me and none of them would give way. So they tied me up here in the forest and broke up the band. I've been here for five days and five nights now and I'm only just alive now. I'll soon be dead. Goodness only knows which ancestor however many generations back accumulated the virtue that brought you here to me today, reverend sir. I beg you in your great mercy to save my life. I won't forget your goodness to me even when I lie dead under the nine springs of the underworld.” When she had finished speaking her tears flowed like rain.

As Sanzang really did have a merciful heart he could not help weeping and sobbing himself. “Disciples,” he shouted. Pig and Friar Sand were still looking for flowers and fruit in the forest when suddenly they heard their master's anguished cry.

“Friar Sand,” said the idiot, “the master's found a relation here.”

“What nonsense, brother,” said Friar Sand with a smile. “In all the time we've been going we haven't met a single good person, so where could any relation of his have come from?”