no luck in his search for the way of the Immortals, and having spent eight or nine years in vain, suddenly came to the great Western Ocean, where he thought beyond the sea must be the home of the Immortals. Then he got on a raft as before, and sailed as far as the borders of the Western continent, where he landed and searched for a long time.
Suddenly he saw a high mountain most beautiful, covered with forest and jungle. Fearing no wolves, snakes, tigers, or leopards, he went straight to the mountaintop. While looking about, he heard a sound far in the forest like the voice of man. He at once plunged into the forest and listened. It was a man singing, and the song he sang was this:
When chess I play the haft is burnt,
The trees are felled all one by one.
I pass the clouds and slowly mount
I sell the wood and buy my wine
I laugh with joy and cry self saved
The way to heaven in harvest moon.
I sleep at foot of Tree of Life.
When I awake ‘tis heavenly day.
Old trees I know, steep hills I climb,
Beyond the pass make for the plain.
With hatchet cut the withering vines,
A bundle make of all my lot,
Then sing away on road to mart.
I buy my pints of daily rice,
And then, why grudge I have no more?
My price is fair, my price is fair.
Why should I worry to increase
My fame or shame? Quite calm I live,
Whoe’er I meet Immortal is,
We sit and talk of heavenly themes.
The Monkey King, on hearing this, was full of joy and said, “An Immortal hides himself here.” He rushed forward, and behold, it was only a woodman lifting his axe and cutting wood. The king went up to him and said, “Venerable Immortal, I kneel down before you as your disciple.” The woodman hastily threw aside his hatchet and knelt likewise. “I am ignorant, and with insufficient food and clothing, undeserving to be a man, how much less am I an Immortal.” The king said, “If you are not an Immortal, how can you speak the language of Immortals?” “What language of the Immortals did I use?” asked the man. The king said, “I heard you say that your companions are Immortals, and when you meet you sit and talk of heavenly themes. Heavenly themes are true words of wisdom and religion. If you are not one of the Immortals, what are you?” The woodman laughed and said, “The truth is, this song is called “The Fragrance that Fills the Hall” and one of the Immortals taught it me. He lives next door to me and he told me to sing it whenever I was in trouble and the trouble would vanish. It is because I was in need that I sang this song and did not expect anyone to hear me.” The Monkey King said, “Since you live next door to an Immortal, why do you not follow him and learn how not to become old?” The man answered, “All my life my lot has been bitter. My father died when I was young, my mother is a widow and depends on me alone. I must cut my two bundles of wood and carry them to the market for sale, and then buy rice for my mother’s food. I therefore cannot leave my mother.” The Monkey King said, “From what you say you are one of the superior men, full of filial piety, and surely you shall have a share of immortality. Please show me where the Immortal lives, so that I may pay my respects to him and learn from him.” “It is near, quite near. This place is called the Heart of the Living Mountain. In the mountain there is the Slanting Moon and Three Star Cave. In that cave there is an Immortal called the Fountain of Wisdom, and innumerable disciples taught by him have gone forth. He has some thirty or forty students now. You follow that small path and go southward for seven or eight li, and there is the place.” The Monkey King laid hold of the woodman and said, “Venerable Brother, you come with me. I shall not forget your kindness.” The woodman said, “What a stupid man you are! I have already told you where to find him. I must cut wood and look after my mother. If I go with you I shall be neglecting my business, and who will look after my mother? You go by yourself!”
The Monkey King had to leave him, and went his way out of the forest for seven or eight li, and there surely was the cave. There he stopped and looked round—it was so beautiful. The door of the cave was closed and all was quiet with no one about. Raising his head he suddenly saw a stone on which was engraved the words “The Heart of the Living Mountain, the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars.” The Monkey King was full of delight, and looked at the cave for some time, not daring to knock. He climbed to the top of a fir tree that was close by, and began chewing the fir tops. Shortly after he heard the noise of a door opening. It was the door of the cave. Out of it came an Immortal Student who cried out, “Who is making a noise here?” The Monkey King dropped down from the tree, went up to him respectfully and said, “I am in search of Truth and Immortality, and therefore of all places I would not make a noise here.” The Immortal Student smiled “and said, “Are you a Seeker after Truth?” The king replied, “I am.” The Immortal Student said, “My teacher has just gone up and mounted the platform to preach, and without giving me the reason why, he told me to come and open the door as a Truth Seeker had come, and I was to welcome him. I suppose it is you.” The Monkey King smiled and said, “Yes, I am the one, I am the one.” The Immortal Student said, “Follow me inside.”
The Monkey King adjusted his clothes and moved on respectfully after the student far into the Cave of The Slanting Moon and Three Stars through corridor after corridor, between high places of carnation marble, vermillion mansions, and precious gates of indescribable beauty, right up to the inner sanctum and there saw Wisdom sitting above. On either side of him were ranged his thirty disciples, standing on a platform below.
Greatest learning of Immortals,
Unstained Purity,
Western Heaven’s greatest wonder,
Wisdom’s Fountain.
Nor birth nor death experienced he,
Perfect Model.
Forces complete, godlike are all
His myriad mercies.
Silent, unseen, work all the forces
As need requires.
Instincts grow from roots of True Model
Without forcing.
His years like Heaven’s endless are,
Glorious his form.
Lasting Wisdom throughout all kalpas,
Teacher of the Law.
Seeing him the Monkey King fell on his knees and knocked his head upon the ground innumerable times, and said, “Master, I want you to accept me as your disciple.” The Master said, “Tell me where you are from and what your name is, and then you can perform the disciple ceremony.” The Monkey King said, “I am from the Continent of the East, the Country of Aolai, the Mountain Garden and the Cave with the Water Screen.” The Master cried, “Turn him out. He is a sower of discord, a false disciple. How can he bring forth any good fruit?” The Monkey King grew alarmed, went on knocking his head without stopping, saying, “What your disciple says is strictly true. I am an honest man.” The Master said, “If you are honest, how can you say that you come from the East Continent? Between us and that place there are two great oceans and the Southern Continent. How could you come here?” The Monkey King knocked his head and said, “I sailed across the seas, came ashore and traveled overland in search of Immortals for over ten years before I arrived here.” “Since you have traveled so long and so far let it be. What is your surname?” The Monkey King replied, “I have none.” The Master said, “What surnames had your parents?” The Monkey King replied, “I never had parents.” “Since you had no parents, did you grow like fruit on a tree?” The Monkey King replied, “Although not grown on a tree, I grew from a stone. I only remember that in the mountain orchard there was a fairy stone. One year the stone split open and I was born.”