Answers to Questions Concerning Further Adventures on the Journey to the West

QUESTION: Journey to the West is not incomplete. Why should you supplement it?

ANSWER: This supplement to Journey to the West is to be inserted between the episode of the Palm-Leaf Fan in the Mountain of Flames and that of Cleansing the Heart/Mind and Cleaning the Pagoda. The Great Sage¹ devises various schemes to obtain the Palm-Leaf Fan in order to extinguish and cool the flames: this is merely an exertion of his physical strength. The forty-eight thousand years² [of human history] are nothing but the entanglement of the intertwining roots of qing [desire]. To be enlightened about the great Dao, one has to empty and destroy the roots of qing.³ [K. Mountain Man of Wuling⁴ says: The author is describing here what he has accomplished, but this is Buddhist cultivation after all. The sages are capable of being enlightened about the great Dao without having to empty and destroy the root of qing.⁵] To empty and destroy the root of qing, one first has to enter qing. When one enters qing one is able to see the emptiness of its roots. Then when one makes an exit from qing one is able to see the reality of the roots of Dao.⁶ What is added to the Journey to the West is the Demon of Desire [qing]. The Qing Fish [Mackerel] Spirit is none other than this demon.

QUESTION: In the original Journey to the West, there are hundreds, even tens of thousands, of demons, and every one of them wants to skin the Tang Monk and chop up his flesh. You, sir, have supplemented Journey to the West, and yet the Qing Fish bewitches only the Great Sage. Why is that?

ANSWER: Mencius said, “The sole concern of learning is to go after this strayed heart. That is all.”⁷

QUESTION: In the original Journey to the West, when a demon makes its appearance, its provenance is spelled out. Here, with the Demon of Desire, it is not introduced as the Demon of Desire at the beginning. Why is that?

ANSWER: This is the key to the supplement to the Journey to the West. When desire bewitches an individual, it is without shape or sound, without one’s recognition or knowledge. It may enter from feelings of sadness and misery, from leisure and enjoyment, from a moment of doubt, or from something seen or heard. Wherever it enters, it is as if it were endless, unchangeable, unable to be ignored, as if once it entered, there were no way to get it out. Realizing that desire is a demon is the first step in overcoming it. So, when the Great Sage was in the belly of the Qing Fish, he was unaware that there was a Qing Fish. Once he leapt outside of the Qing Fish, only then did he realize there was a Qing Fish. Moreover, when he leaps out of the Qing Fish, he does not know that the one who instantly kills the Qing Fish is still the same Great Sage. The deluded one and the enlightened one are one and the same.⁸

QUESTION: The World of the Ancients is about the past, whereas the World of the Future is about the future. Even so, how can one in the days of the Early Tang pass judgment over the soul of Qin Hui, a grand councilor of the Song [centuries later]?

ANSWER: Further Adventures on the Journey to the West is a dream of desire. It is like someone who, on the third day of the first month, dreams of fighting with someone on the third day of the third month, sustaining wounds in hand and foot. When the third day of the third month finally arrives, there is actually a fight, and what he sees is no different from what he had dreamed. The third day of the first month is not the third day of the third month, but one can see it in dream because there is nowhere the mind cannot reach. Because there is nowhere that the mind cannot reach, so it must not be allowed to go astray.

QUESTION: When the Great Sage became Fair Lady Yu in the World of the Ancients, how could he be so charming? In the World of the Future, when he became King Yama, how could he be so awe inspiring?

ANSWER: When the mind reaches into the future, it encounters utmost perils and obstacles. Had he not roused himself and applied all his strength, he would have suffered utter defeat. To kill the six robbers is to exterminate evil.⁹ To punish Qin Hui is to eliminate treasonous inclinations. To pay homage to King Wumu (Yue Fei) is to return to the upright. [K. Mountain Man of Wuling says, “This is where Confucianism and Buddhism converge.”] This is the basis on which the Great Sage extricated himself from the Demon of Desire.

QUESTION: In the World of the Green, the Great Sage discovers that the Tang Monk has become a general. Why is this so?

ANSWER: Not much needs to be said about this; just consider his titles: the Supreme General of Green-Eradication and the Elder-General.

QUESTION: Chapter 13,¹⁰ “In Ospreys Cry Palace, the Tang Monk Sheds Tears; Accompanied by the Pipa, Young Women Sing Ballads,” is permeated with sorrow, like the desolate wind and bitter rain. Why?

ANSWER: The root of all desires in the world is nothing but “sorrow.”

QUESTION: The Great Sage suddenly has a wife and children. Why?

ANSWER: Dream thoughts turn things upside down.¹¹

QUESTION: When the Great Sage escapes from the Demon of Desire, flags of five colors are all in chaos. Why?

ANSWER: According to the Scripture of Purity and Tranquility, “At the extreme of chaos and confusion one returns to the Root; at the exhaustion of desire [qing] one sees one’s basic nature [xing].”¹²

QUESTION: When the Great Sage encounters the peonies, he enters the realm of the Demon of Desire. When he becomes the Vanguard of the Assault Troops, he exits from the demonic world. How is this so?

ANSWER: To execute the Demon of Desire, he needs to chop it in half.

QUESTION: Can Heaven be chiseled?

ANSWER: This belongs to the author’s general design. If the Great Sage had not met those who chisel Heaven, he would not have entered the world of the Demon of Desire.

QUESTION: In the original text of Journey to the West, all the demons have heads of oxen and tigers, or they roar like ravenous beasts, or they have the appearance of wolves. In the fifteen chapters¹³ of Further Adventures on the Journey to the West, the forms assumed by the Qing Fish are young, graceful, just like a person. Why is this so?

ANSWER: The words precisely encapsulate the actions and appearance of the foremost demon since the beginning of history.

WRITTEN BY THE MASTER OF SILENT WHISTLE STUDIO (JINGXIAOZHAI ZHUREN)¹⁴