Pilgrim heard all this clearly in the hollow of the hill, thinking to himself, “Since Old Monkey’s birth in the stone box, my body has been unmarried and chaste. [K. Bodhi has no tree, and the bright mirror has no stand.¹] When did I ever get paired up with a wife? When did I ever have five sons? It must be because the King of the Lesser Moon is taken with my master, who must be thinking about me. So in order to keep him here, he’s slandering me by making up a little play about my having become a high official, a husband, and a father in order to make my master change his mind and give up any thoughts about the West. I’d better bide my time and see just what he is up to.”

Suddenly the Tang Monk said, “I’ve had enough of watching plays. Ask Kingfisher-Green Cord Lady to come.”² At once two attendants brought out a jade teapot, the grain of which resembled flying clouds, and a teacup with pictures of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers.³ [K. Does not divert from the word “tea.”] A few moments later Lady Kingfisher-Green Cord made her appearance. [C. Lady Kingfisher-Green Cord does not make her appearance until now, but no sooner has she appeared than she dies. Why? If Kingfisher-Green Cord did not die, the Mind-Monkey would not be awakened.] She was indeed an extraordinary beauty, unrivaled in a thousand years, whose fragrance reached miles away.

From his hollow on the hillside Pilgrim thought to himself, “In the human world, when people talk about how beautiful a woman is, most often they compare her to the Bodhisattva Guanyin. I, Old Monkey, have not seen the Bodhisattva Guanyin any too often, but still I’ve seen her ten or twenty times. But judging from appearance, the Bodhisattva would have to come in second to this woman! [K. Dangerous! The Great Sage is almost bewitched again.] Let me see what my master does when he sees her.”

Lady Kingfisher-Green Cord had only just sat down, when he saw that Eight Vows and the Sand Monk had come in behind her. [K. Eight Vows and the Sand Monk are added to make the description blurred and perplexing.] The Tang Monk responded angrily, “Last night Zhu Wuneng was peeping into Xiaochu Palace [K. Mentions the Palaces of the Sixty-Four Hexagrams in passing. In Xiaochu [the Taming Power of the Small], the old yang meets the eldest daughter, the inner trigram is strong and the outer trigram penetrating. Xun is associated with wood, and the color associated with wood is green, hence kingfisher-green (blue-green). Xun is also a straight cord, hence cord.⁴] and frightened my beloved consort. I have already sent you away. Why are you still here?”

“As the ancients said,” Eight Vows replied, “ ‘Even the greatest anger does not last through the night.’⁵ Squire Chen, please forgive me this time!”

The Tang Monk said, “If you do not leave, I’ll write a bill of divorce to expel you with.” [C. Expelling Eight Vows anticipates the case below.]

“If Squire Chen wants to drive us away, we’ll just leave,” the Sand Monk said. “When a husband divorces his wife, he needs to write a declaration of divorce. But if a master wants to expel a disciple, there’s no need to produce any such document.”

“He might just as well,” Eight Vows said. “There are so many instances of master and disciple as husband and wife nowadays. [K. A joke, but it gets to the heart of the matter.] We just don’t know where you would like us to go, Squire Chen.”

The Tang Monk said, “You return to your wife, and Wujing, you go back to the Flowing Sand River.”

“I won’t go back to the Flowing Sand River to live,” said the Sand Monk. “Instead I’ll go to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits and become a fake Pilgrim.”⁶ [K. Ties to the previous book.]

The Tang Monk said, “Wukong has become the Grand Councilor [C. Mentioned again.] [K. An echo of the previous text.], but where is he now?”

“He is not the Grand Councilor anymore,” said the Sand Monk. “He took up with another master, and they are going to the West as before.” [K. Ties to the previous text. Note the importance of this sentence.]

“In this case, the two of you are bound to bump into him on the road,” the Tang Monk said. “By all means, do all you can to prevent his coming to the World of the Green to bother me.” [K. Wonderful.] He then asked for a writing brush and an inkstone and began to write the declaration of divorce. [C. Why does he dismiss Eight Vows? Because the actions of the Demon of Desire derive from desire, and Zhu Eight Vows is precisely the root of desire.]

Wuneng is a thief in my group. If I retain this thief, I will be coddling him. If I do not coddle the thief, the thief will have no dwelling place. The thief has no attachment to me, so I am naturally clean. If I and the thief join together, we will both become thieves. If I and the thief go separate ways, we will both benefit. Wuneng, I have no feelings of attachment to you. You should make your departure as soon as possible.

Sorrow gripped Eight Vows as he accepted the writ of divorce. The Tang Monk then wrote:

He who writes this statement of separation is Chen Xuanzang, the beloved younger brother of the King of the Lesser Moon. The Sand Monk is a demon. His countenance is gloomy, and he has not broken with his impure consciousness. He is therefore not my disciple. I expel him today and will not see him again until we are both in the Yellow Springs.⁷ Witness to this declaration of divorce is the King of the Lesser Moon. Another witness is the Kingfisher-Green Cord Lady.

Sorrow gripped the Sand Monk as he received the declaration of divorce, and the two of them made their way downstairs and went away.

The Tang Monk paid them no heed whatsoever, but smiled and said to the king, “I am sorry to have bothered you, brother.” He then turned to Lady Kingfisher-Green Cord, saying, “What have you been doing since this morning?”

“I have been feeling unhappy,” replied Lady Kingfisher, “and so I composed a ‘Song of the Roosting Crow.’⁸ I would like to sing it for you.” Then she straightened her sleeves and knitted her brows, beginning her melodious song:

The splendor of the moon on the double-eight day, only a few stars

Against the drip of water clock and the beat of watchman’s drum.

My heart’s dearest has closed off the Magpie Bridge;⁹

A sorrowful lady, I pass a sorrowful night.¹⁰

After she finished singing, she was so overwhelmed by sadness that she was unable to contain herself: “My Lord, our marriage has come to an end.” [K. Extraordinarily marvelous! Note the importance of this sentence.] She embraced the Tang Monk, overcome by her sorrow. The Tang Monk was bewildered and could only speak comforting words to her.

Lady Kingfisher wailed, “How can you be like this, when our separation is nearly upon us!?” Pointing with her hand, she said, “Look to the south, my Lord, and you will understand.”

The Tang Monk turned his head and saw a band of cavalry on flying horses galloping toward them, clustered round a yellow flag. [K. Dovetailed into the narrative. Extremely extraordinary and alarming. The yellow flag is introduced here to be a pattern for the following chapter.] The Tang Monk panicked.

Before long the tower filled up with cavalrymen. One, dressed in purple, respectfully carried the imperial decree. [K. Connects at distance.] He bowed to the Tang Monk, saying, “I, your servant, am the envoy from the New Tang.” He commanded the soldiers to help the Green-Eradication General change into his uniform and hastily set up the incense stand.¹¹

The Tang Monk knelt facing north while the official in purple, facing south, read the edict. When he finished, he presented the five-flowered emblem of authority to the Tang Monk. He said, “General, you cannot afford to delay, for the situation with the Western barbarians is urgent. You must mobilize your army this very day.”

“But you do not understand, sir,” said the Tang Monk. “I need to say farewell to my family.” This said, he withdrew and entered the rear chambers to look for Lady Kingfisher-Green Cord.

Lady Kingfisher, seeing that the Tang Monk had become a general and had to make his departure in haste, threw both arms around him and fell sobbing to the ground. “My Lord, how can I let you go? With poor health and a frail body, as a general you will have to rest mornings in windy mountains and sleep in river ravines at night. By then you will have not even half of a dear one to look after you. Whether to put on a shirt or take off a vest, you will only have yourself to care for you and protect you from the cold. [K. Extremely captivating, detailed, and woeful: a remote echo from the words of the fake Fair Lady Yu to Xiang Yu!] My Lord, you must remember these, my parting words: Don’t punish your soldiers too severely, lest they treacherously turn on you; don’t carelessly accept enemy soldiers who surrender, lest they raid your camp. Don’t enter any dark forest recklessly; when the sun goes down and the horses neigh, don’t continue to advance. In springtime don’t step on the flowers on the riverbank; in summer don’t stay where it is cool in the evening. When you feel forlorn, don’t think about today; when you feel happy, don’t forget my humble self. Alas, my Lord, how can I let you go? If I go with you, I fear that would violate your military discipline. But if I let you go, my Lord, don’t you know that the nights, with their mournful wind, will be so long? Better that I should let a strand of my soul accompany you in your general’s jade tent!”¹²

The Tang Monk and Lady Kingfisher, wailing loudly, embraced so tightly that they rolled themselves into a ball. They rolled here and there, until they rolled to the edge of a lake called Jade Fragmented.¹³ All he could see was Lady Kingfisher hastily throwing herself into the water. [K. The character “desire,” at this moment, begins to be completely severed from its root and stem: “When one sees the fallen blossoms, / One understands that the spring has departed.”]

The Tang Monk wept bitterly: “Lady Kingfisher, come back!” From outside, the envoy in purple galloped up and grabbed the Tang Monk. [K. Like flying petals or swirling snowflakes; extraordinary and alarming at every juncture. The tip of the brush seems not to have touched the paper.] The cavalry and infantry thronged around him, and they all made haste toward the West.

[C. Most extraordinary! Most extraordinary! Only now do we hear of the New Tang again. The author’s vision is so broad!]