Princess Iron Fan

Princess Iron Fan lived in the Plantain Cave on Mount Cuiyun. She was of the rakshasa kind and was called the Rakshasi. The plantain fan in her hand had been brought from behind Mount Kunlun; a wave of it could quiet the flames of the eight hundred li of the Flaming Mountains, and could also raise a gale. She had always kept it deep in the cave and did not show it lightly.

She married Niu Mowang and bore a son who lived in the Fire Cloud Cave on Mount Hao, styled himself the Holy Infant King, held the mountain as his stronghold, gathered the spirits of the hills under him, and was known across the country of Mount Hao.

When word reached Mount Cuiyun that Guanyin had subdued her son with the lotus throne and the golden bands and carried him to the southern sea, Princess Iron Fan was cut off from her child, and the grievance settled in her; anything she heard about the pilgrims galled her the more.

When the pilgrims came to the Flaming Mountains they saw eight hundred li of red flame going up and not a blade of grass growing, and the local people told them that only the Rakshasi’s plantain fan on Mount Cuiyun could end it. Sun Wukong therefore rode his cloud alone to Mount Cuiyun and went to ask for it.

Having given his name before the cave, Princess Iron Fan, remembering the old grievance, came out and fought him; sabres against staff for several passes, and then she took out the plantain fan, waved it into the wind, and blew Wukong ten thousand li away to the seat of the bodhisattva Lingji, where he obtained the Wind-Stilling Pearl to shield himself and so got clear.

With the pearl, Wukong returned to Mount Cuiyun and challenged before the cave again. Princess Iron Fan waved the fan several times and he did not move; seeing the fan fail, she shut the cave in haste. Wukong took the moment, turned into a small insect, went into her belly with the tea she drank, and churned and swelled inside until she agreed to lend it.

Unable to bear the pain, Princess Iron Fan had a fan brought out and handed over — but secretly exchanged it for a shrunken false one. Wukong took it and left, and at the Flaming Mountains spoke the words as he had been told; the fire, far from going out, burned the fiercer for the fanning, and he knew he had been deceived.

Having established the deception, Wukong went to look for Niu Mowang, who was by then living apart on Mount Jilei with the fox Princess Jade Face. Wukong called at the door, got nowhere by talk, and the two came to blows and fought a long while, each with his transformations.

Wukong then took Niu Mowang’s shape, went into the Plantain Cave and tricked the true fan out of Princess Iron Fan; Niu Mowang afterwards took Zhu Bajie’s shape and tricked it back. The fan changed hands several times as the two contended for it.

Niu Mowang and Wukong fought again and again in the hills, and the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li Jing and Nezha came down with the heavenly host, and the four vajra guardians and the Buddhist protectors closed in as well, hemming Niu Mowang about so that he could not escape.

Niu Mowang was taken at last by the gods together and brought bound before the Plantain Cave. Seeing her husband held there, Princess Iron Fan had nothing left to try; she brought out the true plantain fan and gave it up in both hands for Wukong to take.

With the true fan Wukong fanned the Flaming Mountains forty-nine times, and the fire went out and the country round grew cool. The pilgrims took their leave of Mount Cuiyun and went on west, and Princess Iron Fan stayed in the Plantain Cave and blocked the road no more.