Maitreya and Sun Wukong

Seeking help to break the false Thunder Sound Temple, Sun Wukong called down star officers, divine generals and dragons, and every one of them was taken by Yellow Brow’s human-seed bag. He ran out of the valley alone and saw in a field a big-bellied melon-grower with a hoe on his shoulder, smiling and calling him over.

The grower showed himself as Maitreya and said that Yellow Brow was his own chime-striking boy, who had stolen the golden cymbals and the human-seed bag and come below while he was away visiting friends. Maitreya had Wukong become a ripe melon and sat waiting on the ridge in his farmer’s shape. Yellow Brow came up thirsty and asked for a melon; Maitreya handed him the one Wukong had become and watched him swallow it whole.

Wukong beat about inside him with the golden staff until Yellow Brow knelt begging for mercy; Maitreya took the moment to recover the human-seed bag and told Wukong to leap out of his mouth. When Yellow Brow had shown his boy’s shape, Maitreya carried him and both treasures away, and Wukong went back to the false temple to free the others.