Golden-Winged Great Peng and Rulai

After the great peng had taken the Lion Camel Kingdom and, with the green lion and the white elephant, carried off the pilgrims, Sun Wukong escaped the Yin-Yang Vase and hurried to Vulture Peak to ask Rulai to subdue them. In the hall Rulai spoke of how, when he had attained his sixteen-foot golden body on the snow mountain, the peacock had swallowed him whole; he had broken out through her back, refused to leave by the lower way, and afterwards honoured the peacock as the Buddha’s mother, Mahamayuri.

The great peng had been born of the same womb as the peacock, and so in the Buddhist genealogy stood as uncle to Rulai. Rulai came above the Lion Camel Kingdom with Ananda, Kasyapa and the bodhisattvas, and had Manjushri and Samantabhadra take back the green lion and the white elephant.

The great peng spread his wings to flee, ninety thousand li at a beat, and whichever way he went he came down again on Rulai’s palm. Rulai had him fold wing and claw, promised him the offerings of the beings of the four continents for food, and only then did the great peng crouch below the lotus throne and return with the buddhas to Vulture Peak.