如来佛祖靈山雷音 · 7
Leaf 7 of the pilgrimage · 释迦摩尼 Sakyamuni of the West
Sakyamuni Buddha 如来佛祖
In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a heaven-sent power who ends the fight · nicknamed 释迦摩尼 “Sakyamuni of the West”
He puts a monkey under a mountain with his hand closed, and gives the scriptures without writing them out with the other.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 7
Writing the Six-Word Seal
賭一掌He offers a bet the monkey cannot lose, wins it without changing his expression, and writes a six-syllable seal on the mountain's top.
- ch. 58
Naming the Four Monkeys
辨四猴He names the four kinds of spiritually gifted monkeys, which is the first time anyone in the book has been able to tell the two Wukongs apart.
- ch. 77
The Oath Kept in the Maw
收大鵬He lets his own uncle swallow him out of a promise he made in a former life, and keeps the promise while collecting the bird.
- ch. 98
The Scripture with No Letters
無字真經He authorises a blank scripture, on the grounds that the true words have no letters in them.
- ch. 100
Naming the Golden Cicada
認舊徒At the investiture he names the monk his own second disciple 金蝉子, sent east for not attending to the teaching, which is the reason there was ever a journey to write.
結局 The ending
He distributes the fruits at the end — a buddhahood, three arhatships, an envoyship and a dragon's pillar — and the novel's last word about the arrangement is that everyone accepted theirs, including the monkey who had once refused everything.
The book itself: why the monkey was pinned, which translation — The 500 years · The translations · The 81 trials