ld people come from if they did not have parents to rear them?”

“That is something, Your Highness,” said Sanzang, “that I do not know. But I have in this box here a treasure called the King-maker who knows everything that has happened or will happen for five hundred years long ago, five hundred years in the present era, and five hundred years in the future after that, making fifteen hundred years in all. He will be able to tell us all about not knowing the kindness of being reared by parents. He has made me wait here for a very long time.”

“Bring him out and let me see him,” said the crown prince. As Sanzang opened the lid of the box Brother Monkey jumped out and started rushing around on both sides of it. “A tiny speck of a man like that couldn’t possibly know anything,” said the prince.

As soon as Monkey heard this objection to his size he used his magic powers to stretch himself till he was three feet four or five inches tall, to the amazement of the soldiers, who said, “If he went on growing at that rate it would only be a day or two before he smashed through the sky.”

Once Brother Monkey was back to his original size he stopped growing. Only then did the prince address him: “King-maker, this old monk says that you know all the good and evil things of the past and the future. Do you use tortoise-shell or milfoil for your divinations? Or do you do it by interpreting sentences from books.”

“I don’t use anything,” said Monkey. “All I need is my three inches of tongue to know everything about everything.”

“You’re talking nonsense again,” said the prince. “Even since the olden days the Book of Changes has been the best book for predicting the good and bad things that will happen in the world. It tells you what to avoid. That’s why predictions can be made with tortoise-shell or yarrow. Why should I believe a word you say? You’ll be making unfounded predictions of blessings and disasters to stir up trouble.”

“Be patient, Your Highness,” said Monkey, “until you’ve heard what I have to say. You are the eldest son of the monarch of Wuji. Five years ago there was a disastrous drought in your country that caused your people terrible suffering. The king your father and his ministers prayed devoutly for rain, but not a drop fell until a Taoist wizard came from the Zhongnan Mountains who could summon up winds and rain and turn stone into gold. Because the monarch was too fond of the wizard he took the wizard as his sworn brother. Is this all true so far?”

“Yes, yes,” said the crown prince, “go on.”

“When the wizard disappeared three years later who was then on the throne?”

“You’re quite right that there was a wizard,” said the prince, “and that His Majesty my father took him as his sworn brother. They slept in the same room and ate from the same table. Three years ago they were enjoying the beauty of the palace gardens when he used a gust of magic wind to seize my father’s gold-bordered white jade scepter and carry it back with him to the Zhongnan Mountains. My father still misses him. Without him my father has no interest in any relaxation, and the palace gardens have been completely shut for the last three years. If the king isn’t my father I’d like to know who else he could be.”

Monkey smiled, and kept on smiling without answering when the prince asked more questions. “Damn you,” said the furious prince, “what do you mean by just grinning at me?”

“I have a great deal more to say,” Brother Monkey finally replied, “but this is hardly the place to talk with so many people around.” Realizing that there must be something behind this remark the prince dismissed his soldiers with a wave of his sleeve. The officers in attendance passed the order on at once, sending the three thousand soldiers and their horses to pitch camp outside the monastery gates. Now that there was nobody else in the hall of the monastery the prince took the best seat. The venerable elder stood beside the prince with Monkey standing next to him. All the monks of the monastery withdrew.

Monkey then stopped smiling as he stepped forward and said. “Your Highness, it was in fact your very own parent that was carried away by the wind, and it is the rain-making wizard who now sits on the throne.”

“Nonsense,” said the prince, “nonsense. Ever since the wizard went away my father has kept the weather well regulated, the country strong and the people contented. But you say that he isn’t my father. As I’m of such tender years I’ll spare you; but if His Majesty my father heard you uttering such treason he’d have you arrested and hacked into ten thousand pieces.” He then shouted at Monkey to go away.

“What did I say?” Monkey asked the Tang Priest. “I said he won’t believe me. Oh, well. The only thing I can do now is to give him that treasure in the hope of obtaining a passport so that we can carry on towards the Western Heaven.” Sanzang handed the red box to Monkey, who took it, shook himself, made it disappear—it was, after all, one of his own hairs transformed—and put it back on his body. He then presented the white jade scepter with both hands to the prince.

“A splendid monk you are, I must say,” exclaimed the crown prince on seeing it. “Five years ago you came here as a Quanzhen wizard to trick my family out of its treasure, and now you’ve come back as a Buddhist monk to present it to me.”

“Arrest him,” the prince shouted, and as the order was passed on Sanzang pointed to Monkey in his terror and panic and said, “You wretched Protector of the Horses. All you can do is cause gratuitous trouble in which you get me involved.” Monkey rushed forward to stop him.

“Shut up,” he said, “or you’ll give the game away. I’m not called King-maker. I have a real name.”

“Come here,” shouted the angry crown prince. “I want your real name so that I can hand you over to the legal authorities for sentence.”

“I am this elder’s senior disciple,” said Monkey. “My name is Sun Wukong. As I’m going with my master on his way to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven, we took shelter here last night. My master was reading sutras late last night, and he had a dream in the third watch. In this dream His Majesty your father told my master that the wizard had murdered him by pushing him into the eight-sided well with glazed tiles in the palace gardens. The wizard then turned himself into such a good likeness of your father that none of the officials at court could tell the difference. You were too young to know any better and banned from the harem. The garden was closed. This was because he was afraid that the truth would get out. His Majesty your father came last night specially to ask me to put the fiend down. I was worried in case the present king wasn’t really an evil spirit, but when I took a look from up in the air I saw that he definitely is. I was just going to grab him when you rode out of the city to go hunting. The jade hare you hit with your arrow was me. I led you to this monastery to meet my master. Every word I have told you is the truth. You can recognize that white jade scepter; so why don’t you bow in gratitude to the father who reared you and avenge him?”

At these words the crown prince was deeply distressed, and he said to himself in his grief, “Perhaps I shouldn’t believe what he says, but it does seem to be rather convincing. But if I do believe him, however can I face my father in the palace?” He was indeed

Caught upon the horns of a dilemma,

Wondering what on earth he ought to do.

Seeing that he was unable to make up his mind, Monkey went up to him and said, “No need for all these doubts, Your Highness. Why don’t you ride back to the capital and ask Her Majesty the queen how the love between her and your father is compared with three years ago. That’s the only question that will prove that I’m telling the truth.”

That changed the prince’s mind for him. “That’s it,” he said, “I’ll ask my mother.” He sprang to his feet, put the scepter in his sleeve and was just about to go when Monkey tugged at his clothes and said, “If all your men and horses go back it’ll give the game away and make it much harder for me to succeed. You must ride back alone and not draw attention to yourself or make a fuss. Don’t go in through the main gate; use one of the back gates instead. And when you enter the women’s quarters in the palace to see your mother, don’t shout or make a lot of noise. You must keep your voice down and talk very quietly. That fiend probably has tremendous magical powers, and once the cat is out of the bag your mum’s life won’t be worth tuppence.”

The crown prince accepted these instructions with great respect, then went outside the monastery gates to give these orders to his officers: “Stay encamped here and do not move. I have some business to attend to. Wait till I come back and then we shall all return to the capital together.” Watch him:

Giving his orders to the army to encamp,

He rides back to the city as if on wings.

If you don’t know what was said when he met the queen, listen to the explanation in the next installment.