Guanyin

The bodhisattva Guanyin lives in the Purple Bamboo Grove on Mount Putuo in the southern sea, attended by Moksa, the Boy of Wealth, the dragon girl and others, and travels constantly between Vulture Peak and the human world at Rulai’s command.

When Rulai gathered the assembly at the Thunder Sound Temple and said he wished the Tripitaka carried east, he looked round the bodhisattvas and asked who would go to the eastern land to find a pilgrim. Guanyin stepped forward at once and accepted; Rulai, pleased, gave her the brocade cassock, the nine-ringed staff and the three golden, tightening and restraining bands.

With the charge in hand, Guanyin left Vulture Peak with her disciple Moksa and travelled by cloud. Passing the Flowing Sand River she saw a monster raising waves; Moksa went forward and fought him, and hearing that they were of Guanyin’s house the monster explained that he had been banished for breaking a crystal cup and was pierced through the breast by flying swords every day.

Seeing that he was willing to change, Guanyin laid her hand on his head and gave him the precepts and the name Sha Wujing, telling him to wait at the Flowing Sand River for the pilgrim, go west with him to redeem his fault and so attain the fruit; Sha Seng waited there from then on.

Leaving the Flowing Sand River she came to the Cloud Ladder Cave on Mount Fuling and met the Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, who had been reborn by mistake in a sow’s womb as the boar Zhu Ganglie. She laid her hand on his head, gave him the precepts and the name Zhu Wuneng, and told him to keep a fast and wait for the pilgrim; only later did he go to Gao Village.

On the road she also saw the third prince of the Western Sea dragon king hanging in the air awaiting execution for having burned the bright pearl in his father’s hall. She petitioned the Jade Emperor on his behalf and had him sent to wait at Eagle Grief Stream on Coiled Snake Mountain, to become a white horse and carry Tang Sanzang west.

Travelling east, Guanyin came to Five Elements Mountain and found Sun Wukong pinned beneath it after his havoc in heaven five hundred years before. She asked how it had come about, and Wukong said he was willing to turn from his ways; she promised him that when the pilgrim came the seal would be peeled away and he would be released to go west and redeem himself, and then travelled on east.

Having awakened Sha Seng, Bajie, the white dragon horse and Wukong, Guanyin at last found at Chang’an in the great Tang the eminent monk Xuanzang, the reborn Golden Cicada, and quietly moved him to accept the emperor’s charge and go west to India for the scriptures. She then returned to the southern sea, and the pilgrimage set out.

When the pilgrims reached Black Wind Mountain the black bear spirit stole the brocade cassock. Wukong asked Guanyin’s help; she took the shape of Lingxuzi while Wukong became a pill of elixir, and when the black bear had swallowed the pill Wukong caused him such pain that Guanyin could hold him with the restraining band and take him as the guardian spirit of Mount Luojia.

At the Fire Cloud Cave by Withered Pine Ravine, Red Boy called out the samadhi fire and for a time Wukong could not stand against it. He went again to the southern sea, and Guanyin subdued Red Boy with the sweet dew of her vase, her lotus throne and the heavenly blades, and took him as the Boy of Wealth to attend at her side.

At the Wuzhuang Temple on Mount Wanshou, after Wukong had pushed over the ginseng-fruit tree he searched everywhere for a remedy and at last fetched Guanyin. She poured the sweet dew of her vase over the roots; the broken roots joined again, and the branches and fruit gradually came back.

At the Heaven-Reaching River, the Great King of Numinous Response was in fact a goldfish from Guanyin’s lotus pond that had listened in on her teaching, gained powers, and fled into the river, demanding a boy and a girl in sacrifice every year. Hearing of it, Guanyin came herself, let down a bamboo basket with a spell, and carried the goldfish away in it.

At the kingdom of Zhuzi the king had long been ill; Wukong diagnosed the cause and found that Sai Taisui, who had carried off the queen of the Golden Sage Palace, was Guanyin’s own golden-haired hou. Guanyin came at the news, subdued it and took it back, and the kingdom’s troubles were resolved.

Early in the pilgrimage Guanyin also set up a manor with the Old Mother of Mount Li, Manjushri and Samantabhadra, and took the shapes of a mother and daughters to test the pilgrims. Bajie let himself think of marriage, blundered into the arrangement in the night, and woke hanging from a tree.

After Wukong had been driven back to Mount Huaguo, the Six-Eared Macaque took his name and injured his master. When Sha Seng came to the southern sea to complain, the true Wukong was before Guanyin; she went with the two of them to Mount Huaguo to identify him, and afterwards recited the band-tightening spell to test which was which.

When the pilgrims had passed the eighty-one ordeals and reached the foot of Vulture Peak, crossed the Cloud-Reaching Crossing and shed their mortal frames, Guanyin waited with the other bodhisattvas at the Thunder Sound Temple to receive them, and reported to Rulai how she had awakened the four and escorted them through the ordeals.

Rulai judged their merits on Vulture Peak by the ordeals they had passed and invested Tang Sanzang, Wukong, Bajie, Sha Seng and the white dragon horse each in his own attainment, with Guanyin standing by as witness. The quest complete, she returned to the Purple Bamboo Grove on Mount Putuo and cultivated as before.