The story of Earth Book

In the common account of Zhenyuanzi’s origins, the Earth Book was formed from the placental membrane of the world and came into his hands. He carried it back to the Wuzhuang Temple on Mount Wanshou and kept it there with the ginseng-fruit tree.

That account has Zhenyuanzi seal the mountain gate of the Wuzhuang Temple with the Earth Book, whose pages, spread out, join to the earth-veins of the country around. In ordinary times it stayed in the temple and never went out with the boys.

In Journey to the West, Zhenyuanzi was invited to the Miluo Palace to hear the doctrine and, before going, told Qingfeng and Mingyue to knock down two ginseng fruits with the golden mallet for Tang Sanzang. Seeing that the fruit looked like a three-day-old infant, Tang Sanzang refused absolutely, and the two boys shared them.

Zhu Bajie overheard the boys talking about the fruit and pressed Sun Wukong to steal some from the garden. Wukong took the golden mallet, caught three fruits in the fold of his robe, and shared them with Bajie and Sha Seng.

Qingfeng and Mingyue counted the fruit and quarrelled with the pilgrims. Unable to bear the abuse, Wukong went back into the garden, drew out the golden staff and pushed the ginseng-fruit tree over, roots and all, and the pilgrims left the Wuzhuang Temple that night.

Zhenyuanzi came back, overtook them, spread his sleeve in the art of the world within a sleeve, swept the four of them and the horse into it, and brought them back to be tied to the pillars of the temple. Wukong got free by his arts several times and was caught again each time.

Wukong agreed to look for a way to heal the tree, went first to the immortal isles of the sea, and at last fetched Guanyin. She poured the sweet dew of her vase over the roots; the ginseng-fruit tree stood again, and the fruit that had fallen into the earth returned to the branches.

Zhenyuanzi held a ginseng-fruit feast to thank Guanyin and became sworn brother to Sun Wukong. When the pilgrims left the Wuzhuang Temple the Earth Book was still with Zhenyuanzi; in this episode the book itself never appears, and only the art of the world within a sleeve is described.