Yellow Brow

Yellow Brow had been the chime-striking boy under the buddha Maitreya at the Thunder Sound Temple on Vulture Peak. While Maitreya was away at an assembly of Yuanshi Tianzun, the hall was left unwatched, and the boy stole two treasures — the golden cymbals and the acquired human-seed bag, also called the wrap-sack — and came down to the world as a demon on his own.

The boy took a stretch of hills in the Little Western Heaven, raised towers and halls there after the fashion of the Thunder Sound Temple, gathered spirits to play the parts of arhats and monks, called himself the Buddha, and sat in the hall waiting for the pilgrims.

Coming to the foot of the hills and seeing tier on tier of towers wrapped in coloured light, the pilgrims took it for Vulture Peak; Tang Sanzang dismounted and bowed to the ground. Wukong saw that the cloud-vapour was wrong and warned him repeatedly, and Tang Sanzang would not listen and went into the temple to worship.

Bajie and Sha Seng bowed with him, and the demon monks in the hall suddenly gave the word: a gale rose and all three were bound with ropes. Wukong had not bowed; seeing what had happened, he raised his staff and struck at Yellow Brow.

Yellow Brow took out the human-seed bag — the brocade wrap-sack — threw it into the air, and covered Wukong, staff and all, and bagged him, to be shut up in the rear hall with Tang Sanzang and the other two.

Wukong worked his powers inside the human-seed bag, found a gap and got free, mixed into the temple by night, untied the ropes and released Tang Sanzang, Bajie, Sha Seng and the horse. They were about to leave together when the escape was discovered, and all four were caught again and put back into the bag.

Yellow Brow then took a pair of golden cymbals and closed them tightly over Wukong. Wukong nearly stifled inside, and only when he had secretly asked the guardians of the five quarters, the six ding and six jia spirits and the local earth god for help could he get air through a hole; he still could not get out.

Wukong called down the star officers of the twenty-eight lodges to help him fight. Kang the Golden Dragon pierced one corner of the cymbals with the point of his horn, and Wukong shrank himself and escaped through it; the outer shell was still whole, and Yellow Brow did not notice that he had gone.

Wukong fought Yellow Brow together with the twenty-eight lodges and the guardians, and Yellow Brow spread the human-seed bag again and took the star officers and Wukong into it at once, so that all of them were held inside with no way out.

Wukong went for help again, brought the Little Prince Zhang and four divine generals with their troops, and when the two sides met they too were taken into the wrap-sack. Unable to win after so long, Wukong left the mountain alone to look into where Yellow Brow had come from.

The buddha Maitreya appeared at the foot of the hills and told Wukong that Yellow Brow was his own chime-striking boy and that the stolen golden cymbals and human-seed bag were old possessions of the Buddhist house, and offered to come and take him and recover the two treasures.

Maitreya set his trap in a melon field beside the road, took the shape of an old melon-grower, told Wukong to become a ripe melon, and sat down to wait for Yellow Brow.

Yellow Brow came to the melon field, picked a melon and ate it, and swallowed Wukong with it. Wukong punched and kicked and turned about inside him until Yellow Brow, unable to bear the pain, threw himself down and begged for mercy.

As Yellow Brow opened his mouth to gasp, Maitreya took back the human-seed bag and the golden cymbals, wrapped the boy in the cloth sack he carried, and took him back to Vulture Peak. The pilgrims were freed, packed their things, and went on west.