The story of Ruyi Jingu Bang

When Yu the Great ordered the waters, a divine iron was put into the Eastern Sea to measure the depth of the rivers and the sea. When the work was done the iron stayed in the treasury of the Eastern Sea dragon palace: thirteen thousand five hundred catties in weight, gold bound at both ends and black iron between, lying quietly in the depths of the treasury.

Coming home from his studies, Sun Wukong went straight into the Eastern Sea dragon palace for a weapon that would suit him. The dragon king brought out a great sabre, then a nine-pronged fork, then a painted-shaft halberd; Sun Wukong weighed each of them, found them all too light, and would not take them.

The dragon queen and the dragon princess remembered the divine iron in the treasury that had never been moved, and said it had been giving off rosy light and auspicious vapour for days. The dragon king led Sun Wukong to the treasury, and on the iron were carved the words: “Ruyi Jingu Bang, weight thirteen thousand five hundred catties.”

Sun Wukong went up to the iron and said it would be better if it were shorter and thinner to hold, and it shrank at the word. He took it in his hand and told it to grow smaller still until it fitted him, and gladly kept it; later he shrank it to the size of an embroidery needle and hid it in his ear.

He then pressed the dragon kings for armour: the Eastern Sea gave a phoenix-winged purple-gold cap, the Southern Sea a suit of chain-linked golden mail and the Northern Sea a pair of cloud-treading shoes of lotus fibre. Fully armed, Sun Wukong bowed his thanks and left the crystal palace.

Drunk one day, his soul was drawn into the underworld, and the judges meant to hold him by the register of souls. He drew out the golden staff, fought his way into the Hall of Judgement, drove back the Ten Kings, demanded the register of life and death, struck out every name of the monkey kind, and left with the staff over his shoulder.

When the amnesty failed, the Jade Emperor sent the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King with Nezha and the host below. In the melee Nezha took three heads and six arms; Sun Wukong did the same and drew out the Ruyi Jingu Bang, holding off all six of Nezha’s weapons with one staff, and the heavenly soldiers began to lose ground.

When Erlang Shen came to Mount Huaguo, Sun Wukong met the three-pointed double-edged blade with the golden staff. The two chased each other through their transformations from the foot of the mountain into the sky; then Taishang Laojun threw the Diamond Bracelet down from the gate of heaven onto Wukong’s crown, and Erlang’s hound came up and seized his calf and pulled him down.

While he was pinned under Five Elements Mountain the book says nothing of where the staff was, until Tang Sanzang peeled the seal away and Sun Wukong was free again; from then it reappeared with him, and on the road west he opened the way with it wherever monsters came.

When the quest was complete, Sun Wukong was invested as the Victorious Fighting Buddha. Journey to the West closes with the investitures, and the golden staff was never returned to the Eastern Sea.