黄袍怪碗子山波月洞 · 26
Leaf 26 of the pilgrimage · 奎木狼 Kui, the Wood Wolf
Yellow Robe Monster 黄袍怪
In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a demon on the road west · nicknamed 奎木狼 “Kui, the Wood Wolf”
A star of the twenty-eight mansions who came down over an incense-maiden and stayed thirteen years; the end of it starts when his wife asks to hold the pearl.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 28
The Host at Wave-Moon Cave
波月擒僧With Wukong sent back to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, the monk walked into Wave-Moon Cave and the demon had him, politely, for the evening.
- ch. 28
Entrusting a Letter to the Monk
託書報父His wife was a human princess carried off thirteen years before; she let the monk go on one condition — that Treasure-Elephant Kingdom hear from her.
- ch. 29
The Rescue at Bowl-Child Mount
師弟上山The king read the letter and begged for his daughter; the pig and the monk's third disciple went up Bowl-child Mountain, and only one of them came back.
- ch. 30
A Tiger Presented at Court
化虎登朝The demon flew to the palace himself, denied being anything worse than a guest, and laid the monk's face into a yellow-striped tiger's in front of the court.
- ch. 31
The Fake Wife Swallows the Pearl
假妻吞珠Wukong came back, wore the princess's face, sat in the cave complaining of a pain in his heart, and swallowed the pearl her husband put into his hand.
- ch. 31
The Sons on the White-Jade Steps
階前墮子He had Bajie and Sha carry the demon's two small sons and dash them on the white-jade steps, so that nothing on earth was left holding the marriage together.
- ch. 31
Counting the Twenty-Eight Mansions
星府點名Beaten and pearl-less, the demon made for the gate of heaven; the Jade Emperor counted the twenty-eight mansions and named the one not at its post.
- ch. 31
Sent to Shovel the Furnace
兜率燒火He was not put to death: he was handed to Taishang Laojun to shovel his furnace, with his star kept over him until he had earned it back.
結局 The ending
He goes back to his constellation with a record against him, shovelling a Taoist furnace for the length of an offence, and the novel later uses him as though nothing had happened. The human half of the story closes worse: the princess is carried down to her father's city, and the two children she had with a demon are the reason her welcome is not a celebration.
The book itself: why the monkey was pinned, which translation — The 500 years · The translations · The 81 trials