It turns out that Pilgrim, in the disguise of Fair Lady Yu—having dashed through the Jade Gate in haste with his mind fixated on how far it might be to the World of the Future—had not taken the time to resume his original form. Upon hearing the words of the Six Robbers, he all of a sudden came to himself and hurriedly rubbed his face, shouting, “You Six Robbers, have a look at my staff.” [K. Forgetting his original face, he is humiliated by the Six Robbers; resuming his original face, he kills them with one blow of his staff. The demon of qing will be wiped out, and Pilgrim is gradually embarking on the road to enlightenment.]

The Six Robbers were frightened, their courage shattered; they knelt at the roadside and pitifully implored him, “Great Sage! Compassionate Bodhisattva! Back then under the dried vines and old trees [K. Ties together this and the previous book.¹], we were wrong to have blocked the way of your master and to have enraged Your Reverence, Great Sage, so that we six brothers met untimely deaths all at once. At that moment, our wretched souls hastened to the World of the Ancients. [K. Forms an interesting parallel with “There are bandits even in the World of the Ancients” at the beginning of chapter 6.] But the World of the Ancients refused to accept us because of our reputation as robbers, so we made our way here and settled down temporarily. We have been making a perfectly honorable living by brigandage, without doing anything that is even half improper. We beg you, Great Sage, to release us alive!”²

“If I let you go,” said Pilgrim, “you would not be able to let me go.” [C. Mentioned.] At that, he drew out his staff, smashed them into meat patties, and went on his way, intent on finding the hidden passageway. [K. Future-projecting artery (of the story).]

All of a sudden a pair of pageboys in dark (qing) robes drew Pilgrim to a halt, saying, “Great Sage, Your Lordship has come at just the right time, just the right time! Our King Yama fell ill and died. The Jade Emperor is too preoccupied with a certain construction project [K. Links back to the construction of the new Palace of Divine Mists and anticipates the borrowing of the purple-gold gourd at the end of chapter 9.] to appoint his successor, paying no heed to the fact that the Underworld has no ruler. Now, if Your Lordship, Great Sage, could for our sakes temporarily take over for even half a day, we would be tremendously grateful.”³

The Great Sage thought, “If I waste half a day here, I won’t be able to meet with the First Emperor until tomorrow morning. [K. Sticks close to this future-projecting artery (of the story).] What if the master should be killed by the monster? What then? [C. Mentioned.] The best way is turn down these pageboys.”

He called to them, saying, “My sons, if it were anything else, I could do it, but if it is a matter of taking the place of Lord Yama, that is definitely something I cannot do. I am certainly upright, but sometimes I can become violent in nature, often causing harm to others. [K. Consciousness of one’s own weaknesses is the key to returning to the root and origin.] Suppose someone were to file a complaint in the Underworld. The plaintiff would come forward; his accusation might sound convincing. I could become furious and smash the defendant to bits with my staff. It would be all right should there be no witness coming forward with irrefutable proof to the contrary. But should some witness with hard evidence come forward to kneel and state that the accusation was false and the defendant was pitifully wronged, what could I do?” [C. What a realistic self-description. Only this kind of impatient nature could ensure his impartiality. His adjudication of the Qin Hui case is not a whit amiss.]

“You are wrong, Great Sage,” the dark-robed boys said. “All matters of life and death will be in your hands, so who should you fear?” Unconcerned about whether Pilgrim was willing or not, they dragged him through the Pass of Life and Death,⁴ shouting, “All personnel from every palace, come out and pay your respects to the true King Yama we have found!” [C. Why should Pilgrim Sun be the true King Yama? Please meditate on this. The “Colophon to the Portrait of King Yama” by Huang Luzhi: the king’s family name is Huo (Fire) or, as some would say, Xin (Mind).]⁵

Given no alternative, Pilgrim took his place in the main courtroom. Thereupon, a judge attached to this court, Xu Xian, presented the jade seal of office to him and invited him to assume the authority. Below the steps in front of him⁶ were 80,004,600⁷ confounded masterless and homeless ghosts with red hair or blue teeth. There were seven-foot-tall judges assigned to the palace, judges with tattooed bodies, judges who were general inspectors, judges who determined the length of lives, judges on cases related to the sun, judges on cases related to the moon, judges on cases related to hibiscus,⁸ judges on cases related to water, judges who were iron-faced, judges who were white-faced, judges slow to grant reincarnation, judges quick to sentence to death, judges who uncovered cases of adultery, judges who came to the aid of the righteous, as well as female judges and others, a total of 5,000,016. A roster with all their names was presented, and all shouted, “Long life!” [K. This passage parallels the earlier novel’s episodes about Emperor Taizong’s visit to the Underworld and Pilgrim’s experiences at the Palace of Lord Yama,⁹ but not even one sentence is copied verbatim. Truly a great piece of writing.] The Nine Kings of the Underworld also came to pay their respects, and Pilgrim sent them all on their way.

At that time, the court registrar, by the name of Cao, knelt before the dais and presented the Register of Life and Death. Pilgrim received it and, flipping through the pages, thought secretly to himself, “The day before yesterday I beat to death a group of boys and girls. [K. To tie in the previous text.] I wonder whether it has been recorded in their register.”

He turned another page. “If by any chance it is recorded there that Sun Wukong killed a certain number of boys and girls, should I refrain from dealing with it or issue a warrant?”

While hesitating, he suddenly realized something. “Phooey! When I, Old Sun,¹⁰ was here some years ago, I crossed out all the entries for everyone surnamed Sun. [K. Woven into the previous book.] Thanks to that generous act of mine, there are no records of either merit or demerit for those young monkeys. [C. Good correspondence to the earlier novel.] Moreover, of the things done by Old Monkey myself, what little ghost would dare to report them, and which judge would dare to record them?” He leafed through the register casually and then threw it down the steps. Court Registrar Cao picked it back up and, holding it respectfully in both hands, stood by a pillar on the left.

Pilgrim beckoned to Registrar Cao. “Fetch me some fiction to kill time with.” [K. Why not just ask his esteemed husband, Xiang Yu, to recite another plain tale? Not to be compared to reading A New Account of the Kunlun Mountains in the Water-Curtain Cave.]

The registrar replied, “My Lord, our work here is very hectic; there will be no time for reading fiction.” He then presented an almanac with a yellow cover, saying, “My Lord, your predecessors in this office read almanacs.” [K. The Yama kings passed their days reading almanacs: how disturbing!]

Pilgrim turned the pages to have a look. He found that it began with the Twelfth Month and ended with the First Month, and each month began with either the thirtieth or the twenty-ninth day and ended with the first.¹¹ [C. Pay close attention.] Surprised, he said to himself, “Strange! In the World of the Future, the calendars run backward.¹² [K. Where the calendars are numbered backward there is no time for reading fiction, yet where the calendar days are numbered forward people squeeze time from their tight schedules to read fiction. Talk of this makes one tremble.] I simply can’t understand it.”

He was about to have the person who made the almanac brought in so he could question him, when a judge ascended the dais to report, “My Lord, the case of Qin Hui, the grand councilor of the Song dynasty, should be interrogated during today’s evening session.”

“In his day, Qin Hui must have been an evil person,” Pilgrim thought to himself. “If he sees me in the form of a compassionate monk, how would he be willing to fear me?” He had the attending judges bring in the official court robes worn when trying cases. Pilgrim put on his head an imperial crown with a flat panel on top with nine tassels of jade jewels,¹³ on his body a robe with patterns of dragons coiling with each other, and on his feet a pair of pitiless iron-clad shoes. [K. Suddenly Pilgrim changed into Fair Lady Yu; now all of a sudden he has changed into King Yama. No wonder these days beautiful women are like Yama kings when they lose their temper!]

On the judge’s bench were an ink pad for the seal and a tin inkstone and two vermillion writing brushes hanging from a bronze brush rack. To its left were arranged a tube for the bamboo command slips for summoning infernal runners, a tube for bamboo command slips for summoning infernal judges, a tube containing bamboo command slips for summoning judges on duty, as well as three tubes containing bamboo command slips for summoning the nameless infernal messengers.

At once, he called up five groups of infernal judges. [K. Extravagant description of the awe inspired by Yama, which washes away the filth from the fake Fair Lady Yu—the antithesis of the episode in the Lodge of Heavenly Melodies.] One group had judges in green robes leading five hundred smart infernal ghost-magistrates with green faces, green skins, green teeth, green fingers, and green hair, for dismembering Qin Hui. [C. In anticipation.] One group had judges with yellow head scarves leading five hundred fierce ghosts, with golden faces, golden armor, golden arms, golden heads, golden eyes, and golden teeth, for extirpating Qin Hui’s ghost. One group had judges with red beards leading five hundred refined ghosts with red faces, red bodies, red robes, red bones, red gallbladders, and red hearts, to shame Qin Hui.¹⁴ [C. Red gallbladders and red hearts are enough to put Qin Hui to shame.] One group of judges had white bellies, leading five hundred smaller-size ghosts with white livers, white lungs, white intestines, white skins, and white mouths, to execute Qin Hui. The last group had judges with dark faces, leading five hundred outstanding ghosts with black robes, black kilts, black hair, black bones, black heads, black feet—black in everything but their hearts—to flog Qin Hui. Matching the five colors, according to the correlation of those colors with the five phases, they stood at attention in five directions,¹⁵ arranged in squads in front of the Hall of Great Awe.¹⁶

Also summoned was a company of patrol officials with snowy white turbans, sinews and bones that protruded, faces like aloeswood, and eyes like bronze bells, to be in charge of the area beyond the curtain on the east, and another company of patrol officials wearing scarves dotted with blood, their sinews and bones protruding, with white complexion and noses like elephant’s trunks, to be in charge of the area beyond the curtain in the west. [C. See how he lists all the items one by one.] Judge Xu was put in command of them all.¹⁷ A group of six hundred ghosts with grass hair and flower faces, with throats like insects and bleary eyes, with hands of iron and heads of bronze were commissioned as guards for transporting criminals, all to be supervised by Judge Cui.¹⁸ Assembled also were a group of one hundred ghost couriers with heads and mouths of tigers, with horns and hoofs of oxen, with clothes of fish scales and complexions like young dragons, to carry letters and name cards [C. In anticipation.] [K. Anticipating the delivery of the letter.], a group of diviners wearing hats decorated with onion flowers to be in charge of receiving guests, a group of two hundred ghosts with disheveled hair to raise curtains and sweep the floors, and finally, a company of seven hundred musicians with feet like the talons of nine kinds of dragons and the heads of phoenixes.

Pilgrim then commanded the small-size ghosts to set up an iron flagpole for wind flags. The judges transmitted his edict, and those outside the curtains replied in unison. There was a roll of drumbeats, and the flagpole was raised with two huge, dazzlingly white flags with gold characters that read, “Justice and Vengeance, Rewards and Punishment.” When Pilgrim saw the flagpole erected, he immediately issued a proclamation:

It is hereby decreed by Sun, the Presiding Justice:

The Way of Heaven is vast and expansive, and the Penal Code is impartial.¹⁹ All those who record merits and indict evils should not let your private feelings interfere—otherwise you will cast yourself into the stern net of the law.

Issued on the ____ day of the Third Month. [K. Follow the Third Month.]

With the proclamation posted on high, there was a huge racket outside of the curtains and a roll of drums. Pilgrim issued a summons: “Let Qin Hui be brought in.”

The judge knelt to receive the summons, then dashed out of the hall and hung it on a column in the east. A great commotion was heard from outside the curtains, with a loud roll of drums. [C. Several rounds of drumbeats raise the reader’s spirits.]

Pilgrim called for the curtain to be rolled up. Several ghost messengers rushed in and raised the curtain decorated with fighting tigers up high. In formations like wild geese in the sky and glaring like eagles, the judges formed two lines, standing facing each other. Outside was another roll of drums; conch bugles were blown, and stone chimes with cloud patterns on them were struck. With a clatter of stone chimes, a white paper pennant was brought in, on which were the words, “Qin Hui, the thief who stole the Song.” [K. A strange title: how does it compare with the wine thief, the elixir thief, or the robber who stole the ginseng root?]²⁰

When he arrived at the front gate, the ghost officials there shouted, “Qin Hui, the thief of the Song, brought here as summoned.” The ghost officials stationed at the gate shouted acknowledgment in unison. There was another roll of drums, another blowing of conch bugles, and another striking of stone chimes.

In the hall, the judges with green teeth tolled the Evil-Apprehension Bell. There were drumrolls at the front gate, at the second gate, and outside the curtains as well. Smoke and dust rose in profusion.

The ghost officials at the front gate shouted, “Qin Hui enters!” The five groups of ghost judges inside the curtains, as well as the ghost officials outside, all shouted in unison, their voices like thunder.

Once the sound of the drums stopped, Pilgrim ordered Qin Hui to be released from his bonds, in preparation for a thorough interrogation. A thousand valiant ghosts, hitherto with no assignments, hurried to untie the ropes; they seized him and, with one pull, pulled him down onto the stone floor, kicking him several times. Qin Hui prostrated himself on the floor, not daring to make a sound.

Pilgrim then called out, “Welcome, Grand Councilor Qin!”

[C. These descriptions of Pilgrim’s pretended awe-inspiring air are in each instance hilarious!]