Princess Iron Fan and Sun Wukong

When the pilgrims came to the Flaming Mountains, eight hundred li of fire burned without a break, and the local people told Sun Wukong that only Princess Iron Fan of the Plantain Cave on Mount Cuiyun could put it out with her fan. Wukong came to ask for it, and Princess Iron Fan, still angry that Guanyin had taken Red Boy, drove him off with her sword and then waved the fan a few times and blew him more than fifty thousand li away.

Having borrowed the Wind-Stilling Pill from the bodhisattva Lingji, Wukong came back to the Plantain Cave and stood unmoved in the gale. Princess Iron Fan shut her door and would not come out; Wukong turned into a small insect, got into her belly and forced a fan out of her — a false one, for when he fanned the Flaming Mountains the fire rose several yards higher. Wukong then took Niu Mowang’s shape and tricked the true fan away, and Princess Iron Fan, discovering it, had her husband fetch it back.

When the heavenly soldiers and the strongmen of the Buddhist gate had Niu Mowang surrounded at last, she brought out the true fan and taught Wukong to wave it forty-nine times. Rain fell over the Flaming Mountains, and once the pilgrims had crossed, Wukong returned the fan to Mount Cuiyun.