Tower of Myriad Mirrors: A Supplement to Journey to the West (Michigan Classics in Chinese Studies) (14 page)

Dismal souls below the welt
³⁸
—when will they be saved?”

Thus, the emperor asked the monk Ch'en Hsüan-tsang

To call to wayward, sunken souls with golden bell and jade chimes
,

And chant with inky sleeves and banner black for souls to be reborn.

The Bodhisattva
³⁹
herself appeared to speak the Law

And find a priest who'd seek the Western Sage.

The priest rode to the border of China;

In the Tiger House
⁴⁰
he grieved that Heaven so molds men.

He climbed the Mountain of Two Frontiers, removed the Buddha seal
,

And took a disciple
⁴¹
at the foot of Five Phases Mountain.

At Stone Brook the yellow dragon swallowed his purple deer;
⁴²

In fragrant wood white walls became red will-o'-the wisps.
⁴³

Wind blew into fiery eyes, the road to the West was obscured;

But Ling Chi came aflying, and a hundred troubles vanished.
⁴⁴

The wise monkey cast line five of the hexagram Opposition;
⁴⁵

Defeated along the way, Pigsy bowed to the old priest.

Sunset at the River of Flowing Sand, hissing was heard a thousand miles;

He of mixed consciousness joined the return to pure awareness.
⁴⁶

The globefish was, after all, a thing in the pond;

Slowly morning bells gave way to the dulcimer of desire.
⁴⁷

When the ginseng tree was uprooted, the mournful monkey screamed;
⁴⁸

The White-boned Lady
⁴⁹
stood in a lush forest.

When Monkey left, the priest was changed to tiger;
⁵⁰

Then Bull became the second one to mourn.

A long night hung over Lotus-flower Jade Cave;
⁵¹

Before White Deer Mountain he saluted the Star of Longevity.
⁵²

The T'ang Priest whirled and danced in the mad wind;
⁵³

The ‘Brother of the Emperor’ sank in the Black Water.
⁵⁴

Taoism and Buddhism needn't always be at odds;

Poisoned blood, black and yellow all alike, is empty.
⁵⁵

Metal couldn't conquer metal, heart and spirit were blocked;
⁵⁶

Water met water, the old monk was exhausted.
⁵⁷

Two hearts darkened heaven and earth;

A pair of Sage Monkeys deceived Kuan-yin.
⁵⁸

A banana leaf put out the fire on the mountain slope;
⁵⁹

Horse loosed from willow green, slowly on they went.

Delayed days and nights at the Tower of Myriad Mirrors
,

Who knows when they'll see the Most Reverend of Heaven?

Ko-ch'iang-hua's song had ended. She leaned over her
p'i-p'a
and breathed a long sigh that floated off into the distance.

When Monkey in the fold of the hill heard the Tower of Myriad Mirrors mentioned, suspicion arose in his mind. He thought, “The
Tower of Myriad Mirrors business happened to me just yesterday. How could she possibly know?” His temper flared. His anger grew. All he wanted was to strike Little Moon King dead so he could find out what was going on. And if you don't know what finally happened, heed the explanation in the next chapter.

1
The Palace of Crying Ospreys is named for the first song in the
Shih Ching
. The song is about a marriage between a gentleman and a fair lady.

2
The
p'i-p'a
is a four-stringed instrument similar to the lute in appearance.

3
T'ai-hua is the name of a mountain in Shensi Province,

4
Tung-t'ing is the name of a lake in Hunan Province.

5
This song provides a brief, if opaque, summary of Chinese history from the mythical beginning of the universe to the early T'ang period. It shows that all of human history is nothing but amassed desire.

6
Once during the reign of the sage-emperor Yao, ten suns arose, causing great damage to the earth and leaving the people prey to starvation and pestilence. Yao commissioned the archer Hou I to shoot down nine of the suns. Pursuing clouds probably refers to Ch'ang O's flight to the moon. See note 8 in
chapter 2
.

7
Wu-huai and Ko-t'ien were kings who ruled over Mt. T'ai at the dawn of time. Silver bamboo has occasionally been used as a metaphor for rain, and auspicious leaves for snow; and if such is the case here, the images might be intended to evoke the harmony with nature that prevailed during those arcadian reigns.

8
Besides its literal meaning, “dragon and snake” is sometimes used as a figure for men of outstanding talent, and sometimes as a metaphor for twisting, writhing things like cursive-style calligraphy or running water.

9
Crow and rabbit are usually associated with the sun and moon, respectively.

10
These are the four immortals of Mt. Sung: Mu Ch'ao-nan, Lin Ta-chieh, Sun Wen-wei, and Shih Mei-ch'iu.

11
Hsü Yu was a scholar to whom the sage-emperor Yao offered the throne. Hsü refused in favor of a life of reclusion

12
Shun, the sage-emperor who succeeded Yao to the throne.

13
In the fourteenth year of Shun's reign, while the ceremonial playing of bells and stone chimes was in progress, a great storm of wind and rain arose, scattering the musical instruments, destroying houses, and uprooting trees. Shun interpreted this as a sign that no man could hope to rule forever, and he presented Yü the Great, the elder from Tung-t'ing Lake, to Heaven as his successor. Yü did not actually succeed to the throne for another thirty-nine years.

14
T'ang the Successful seized the throne from the degenerate Chieh, last ruler of the Hsia dynasty, and founded the Shang dynasty. For the first eleven years of his reign a great drought was upon the land, so he sacrificed in the Mulberry Grove and brought rain.

15
Deer Terrace was the extravagant terrace built by the wicked Chou, the last ruler of the Shang dynasty. It was there that he perished, arrayed in gem-studded garments, in a fire set by his own hand.

16
Kou-ch'en Rampart was the place at which the feudal lords rallied under King Wu for the campaign that ended the Shang dynasty and led to the establishment of the Chou.

17
When Fu-ch'ai, the last king of the Spring and Autumn period state of Wu, wished to attack the state of Ch'i, he was advised by Wu Tzu-hsü to exterminate the state of Yüeh instead. Ch'i, said Tzu-hsü, had not the use of a stony field to Wu as long as Yüeh existed. But Fu-ch'ai ignored the warning, and in time found cause to force Tzu-hsü to commit suicide. Twelve years later, when Wu fell to Yüeh, Fu-ch'ai's last words were, “Would that I had heeded the words of Tzu-hsü.”

18
The wife of King Tai of the Warring States period state of Chao killed herself with a sharpened hair clasp upon learning that her husband had been assassinated.

19
In 227 B.C., Tan, the crown prince of Yen, recruited Ching K'o to attempt the assassination of the King of Ch'in, later to become the First Emperor of Ch'in. Knowing how slight were the chances of success, the prince and his entourage dressed in white, the color of mourning, when they accompanied Ching K'o as far as River I. There, one of the number played a dulcimer tune in the mournful
pien-chih
mode. Ching K'o sang along and then shifted to the mode of
yü
, stirring all present with the martial feeling of the music.

20
Ching K'o's attempt at assassination failed, and in a short time Ch'in had defeated the other six states contending for supremacy.

21
After the conquest of the six states, the King of Ch'in then became the first in Chinese history to take for himself the title of emperor.

22
The song Hsiang Yü sang for Beautiful Lady Yü and his favorite horse, Dapple, on the eve of his defeat by the Han forces.

23
Four gray-haired gentlemen known as Master Tung-yüan, Ch'i Li-chi, Master Hsia-huang, and Mr. Lu-li, who fled the tyranny of the Ch'in dynasty to live in seclusion on Mt. Shang.

24
Chang Liang was one of Liu Pang's most trusted advisors. After Liu had established the Han dynasty, Chang Liang turned his attention to the esoteric mysteries of Taoism. Master Red Pine is a Taoist immortal.

25
I.e., the founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Pang. The ascension of Liu Pang's spirit high up into the sky symbolizes his rise in political career.

26
The Five Sacred Mountains are Mt. T'ai in the east, Mt. Heng in the south, Mt. Hua in the west, Mt. Heng in the north, and Mt. Sung in the center.

27
Tung Cho became
de facto
ruler in the chaotic atmosphere of the declining Later Han dynasty and wasted the empire with his cruelty and rapacity. Ts'ao Ts'ao eventually filled the power vacuum left with the assassination of Tung Cho in A.D. 192 and became in turn
de facto
ruler over the empire.

28
The period in Chinese history between the fall of the house of Wei in A.D. 265, ending the Three Kingdoms period, and the reunification of the empire under the Sui dynasty in A.D. 589.

29
In Chinese numerology six is the number of the greater yin, and nine, of the greater yang. The pulsing of yin and yang, the two primary cosmic forces, refers to the government instability that marked the Six Dynasties period.

30
Beacon fires were burned as signals in time of war, and these two lines allude to the turbulence during the transition from the Sui dynasty to the T'ang. In the third lunar month of A.D. 618, Yang-ti, the second emperor of Sui, was assassinated by retainers. At the time “Peach-plum Boys” was a popular reference to the sons of Li (the same character means “pear”) family that founded the T'ang dynasty. Jade Horse was a name for one of the carriages in the T'ang imperial procession. Hence, the line might be taken to mean that with the death of Sui Yang-ti the Li family aura was cast over the throne.

31
In A.D. 626 Li Shih-min (T'ang T'ai-tsung) murdered his brothers Chien-ch'eng, the crown prince, and Yüan-chi at Hsüan-wu Gate. The bow-shaped shadow may portray Shih-min's party awaiting their prey with weapons poised, and the pair of stars of the following line might be the two brothers, who were decapitated after being shot down.

32
These lines are obscure. They perhaps refer to the extermination of family members and followers of Li Chien-ch'eng and Li Yüan-chi. The Dragon is probably T'ang T'ai-tsung.

33
In chapter 10 of
Journey to the West
the Dragon King of the Ching River disobeys a decree from the Court of Heaven in order to win a wager. Consequently, he is sentenced by Heaven to be decapitated by Wei Cheng, an official in the court of T'ang T'ai-tsung. The Dragon King beseeches the emperor for help, a request that T'ai-tsung attempts to honor by engaging Wei Cheng in a game of chess at the appointed hour for execution. Wei Cheng dozes off for a moment, however, and kills the Dragon King in a dream.

34
This song gives a brief, if opaque, summary of events in
Journey to the West
up to the point where
The Tower of Myriad Mirrors
takes off.

35
I.e., Wei Cheng, who, as already noted, killed the dragon in a dream. Butterfly is a figure for dream by way of allusion to Chuang-tzu, who once dreamed he was a butterfly and couldn't decide upon waking whether he was then a butterfly dreaming it was Chuang-tzu.

36
T'ang T'ai-tsung, exhausted by the harassment of the Dragon King's ghost, is taken disembodied to the Underworld. There he appears before the ten kings of the Underworld to answer charges that he reneged on his promise to help the Dragon King (
Journey
, chapter 11

37
Ts'ui Chüeh, the Keeper of the Ledger of Life and Death in the Underworld, furtively adds two strokes to the characters for thirteen, the number of years of rule allotted to T'ai-tsung in the Ledger, thereby changing it to thirty-three. Thus T'ai-tsung, who properly should have died at that time, is given an extra twenty years of life.