Chapter Summaries

Xuanzang led Wukong and the others into the Old Temple, where Wukong reacted to a woodcutter’s song and a cave that seemed to stir painful memories. They entered the silent palace and found an old, white-haired man waiting on a lofty seat.

• Xuanzang led Wukong, Sanzang, and Great King Linggan through the mountain gate after an aged voice invited them in.
• As the group crossed the mountain trail, Sanzang taunted Wukong for falling silent, but Wukong followed Xuanzang when his master called.
• Wukong recognized a woodcutter’s song in the woods and became distraught, so Xuanzang took his hand and recited lines from the Heart Sutra to comfort him.
• At the cave entrance, Sanzang provoked Wukong, but Xuanzang stopped him and asked him to knock; the door opened before he could do so.
• Xuanzang took Wukong into the palace, where the group found an old, white-haired man seated atop the Jade Terrace.

Wukong reunited with his master, Subhuti, who revealed that he was also Golden Cicada Child and had fabricated Jiang Liuer’s past. Xuanzang demanded to know why Subhuti had arranged Sanzang’s trials, and Subhuti began to tell the group a story.

• Wukong recognized the old man on the Jade Terrace as his master and called him “Master.”
• Subhuti identified the place as Mount Lingtai Fangcun and warned that baleful qi was clouding Sanzang’s mind.
• Subhuti revealed that his name was Subhuti and that he was also Golden Cicada Child, startling Wukong, Sanzang, and Great King Linggan.
• Subhuti greeted Xuanzang and said he had not expected them to meet again.
• Xuanzang asked whether Subhuti had fabricated Jiang Liuer’s past, and Subhuti admitted that he had.
• Xuanzang challenged Subhuti over why he had arranged Sanzang’s trials, and Subhuti offered to tell them a story.

Subhuti told Wukong how he received his name, overcame his anger, and became a disciple of the World-Honored One. He then revealed that Golden Cicada Child was his Daoist name, leaving Sanzang to wonder why a Buddhist disciple wore Daoist robes.

• Subhuti explained that his family’s possessions vanished at his birth, and a diviner combined three auspicious names to call him Subhuti.
• Subhuti recounted how he grew vicious and angry, drove away his family, and left home for the mountains.
• The Mountain God directed Subhuti to the Jetavana Vihara, where he saw the World-Honored One, repented, and entered monastic life.
• Subhuti said he attained non-contention samadhi and became known as First in Understanding Emptiness.
• Sanzang asked why Subhuti wore Daoist robes, and Subhuti revealed that Golden Cicada Child was his Daoist name.

Subhuti recounted how doubt over emptiness led him to seek the World-Honored One, wander in search of his mind, and eventually attain enlightenment at Mount Lingtai Fangcun. He revealed that Wukong had entered his Mindscape as a young monkey, and explained that meeting him inspired the name Wukong.

• Subhuti recalled how flowers appeared in his cave and a voice told him he understood emptiness but had not awakened to it.
• The World-Honored One explained that Subhuti’s doubt came from his own mind and urged him to seek emptiness.
• Subhuti wandered for years, studied the Dao with an old priest, and attained enlightenment in his Mindscape, naming the place Mount Lingtai Fangcun, Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars.
• Subhuti told Sanzang and Wukong that the mountain and cave were manifestations of his Mindscape, which Wukong had entered on his own.
• Subhuti recalled that meeting Wukong brought him enlightenment, and explained that he named the stone-born monkey Wukong.

Subhuti explained that naming Wukong bound him to form and drew them both into a tribulation, while his harsh expulsion had been an attempt to protect Wukong from inner demons. He revealed that he had planned to seek Wukong after realizing his mistake, but Guanyin summoned him to the Ullambana Assembly five hundred years ago.

• Wukong embraced Subhuti and asked why his master had driven him away and forbidden him to claim their relationship.
• Subhuti told Wukong that giving him a name bound his nature of emptiness to form and made them destined calamities for each other.
• The dust-lit radiance showed Wukong boasting of his transformations before Subhuti's disciples, whose praise and laughter had become inner demons meant to undermine his Dao.
• Subhuti explained that he had expelled Wukong to protect him from the inner demons and keep them from following their master-disciple bond.
• Subhuti revealed that the tribulation had clouded his judgment and that he understood too late that he had harmed Wukong while believing he was saving him.
• Subhuti said he had intended to find Wukong after realizing the truth, but Guanyin Bodhisattva summoned him to the Ullambana Assembly five hundred years ago.

Subhuti watched the past unfold as Tathagata named him Golden Cicada Child and declared that he faced an unspoken tribulation on the path to attaining the Dao. At the Ullambana Assembly, Golden Cicada Child asked Zhen Yuanzi how to overcome the tribulation, and Zhen Yuanzi identified it as being unable to let go but admitted he did not know how to overcome it.

• Tathagata described how he had subdued Wukong and sealed him beneath Five Elements Mountain, while Subhuti silently returned to the assembly ranks.
• Tathagata asked Subhuti whether he had realized emptiness, and Subhuti admitted he had found it only to lose it again.
• The Bodhi seed in Subhuti's palm cracked open into a golden cicada, and Tathagata named him Golden Cicada Child and told him he faced a tribulation that could not be spoken of.
• Tathagata sent Golden Cicada Child to meet the Ancestor of Earth Immortals, Great Immortal Zhenyuan, at the Ullambana Assembly.
• Golden Cicada Child asked Zhenyuan about the tribulation, and Zhenyuan said it meant being unable to let go but could not explain how to overcome it.

Subhuti revealed that Golden Cicada Child entered the great tribulation by accepting rebirth in the Eastern Land and a journey to retrieve the scriptures, hoping to save Wukong and all living beings. After dying in each of his first nine lives before reaching the end of the journey, he still never saw Wukong.

• Golden Cicada Child asked Tathagata for a way to save Wukong, and Tathagata explained that the great tribulation threatened the Three Realms.
• Tathagata warned Golden Cicada Child that entering the tribulation for Wukong alone would destroy them both, but offered a path through seeking and spreading the Tripitaka Scriptures for all living beings.
• Golden Cicada Child agreed to enter the tribulation for himself, Wukong, and all living beings, despite losing his memories and cultivation, and Tathagata told him to wait on Spirit Mountain.
• Two hundred years later, Tathagata declared that Golden Cicada Child had defied his teachings and sentenced him to be reborn in the Eastern Land.
• After the vision ended, Subhuti told Wukong that he had died saving others in each of his first nine lives while seeking the scriptures, but had never seen Wukong.

Subhuti revealed the deaths of his nine previous lives and explained that Guanyin had guided him toward another rebirth. Golden Cicada Child asked Guanyin to shape his next life so he would fear water and learn to protect himself, believing only then could he continue.

• Water spread across the Cave Abode and showed nine visions of monks dying while saving others or serving the sick.
• Subhuti said the nine figures were his previous lives, all of whom had died in water and been drawn to the Flowing Sand River by the Journey to the West.
• Sanzang asked what would happen to him as Great King Linggan grew tense, but Subhuti showed the Underworld and explained that Guanyin had come to guide him.
• Golden Cicada Child asked Guanyin to send him into another rebirth, though Guanyin warned that he had already completed nine lives.
• Golden Cicada Child asked Guanyin to weave a dream that would teach his next life to fear water, cherish life, heed advice, and know when to advance or retreat.

After Subhuti confessed that his attachment had shaped Sanzang’s fate, Sanzang accepted that he could not become Xuanzang and asked Great King Linggan to eat him. Wukong tried to stop the swallowing and fought the transformed king, who revealed himself as an inner demon and used familiar faces and Xuanzang’s voice to torment him.

• Subhuti admitted that his obsession had made him the calamity and apologized to Sanzang for twisting his fate and jeopardizing the scripture journey.
• Sanzang concluded that his helplessness had been part of Subhuti’s dream, bowed to Xuanzang, and offered himself to Great King Linggan.
• Wukong hesitated briefly, then attacked, but Great King Linggan swallowed Sanzang before he could intervene.
• Great King Linggan grew stronger after swallowing Sanzang and fought Wukong, who demanded that he spit Sanzang out.
• Great King Linggan spread black water and summoned hands bearing familiar faces, then spoke to Wukong in Xuanzang’s voice and claimed to be his master.

Great King Linggan trapped Wukong and his masters in the Tongtian River, forcing Wukong to choose whom to save while taunting him with guilt and doubt. Wukong managed to reach Xuanzang and Subhuti, but Great King Linggan ended by claiming neither master wanted him.

• Great King Linggan transformed the Three Star Cave into the raging Tongtian River and let the current sweep Xuanzang and Subhuti away.
• Wukong escaped the twin hammers and rushed to save Xuanzang, while Great King Linggan's black hands dragged Subhuti underwater.
• Wukong used a Life-Saving Hair to shield Xuanzang, then fought through the black hands and reached Subhuti with the Golden Cudgel.
• Great King Linggan taunted Wukong about Jiang Liuer being inside his belly and blamed him for the suffering of Xuanzang and Subhuti.
• Wukong rejected Great King Linggan's accusations, but Great King Linggan told him that none of his masters wanted him anymore.

Wukong resisted Great King Linggan’s attempt to make him believe everyone had abandoned him, rejecting the false phantoms and calling on his junior brothers. As the sutra chanting filled the river, Great King Linggan screamed and Wukong calmly mocked his agitation.

• Great King Linggan surrounded Wukong with black water and false visions of people who seemed to reject him, while urging him to hold Xuanzang and Subhuti tightly.
• Wukong heard his junior brothers calling for him, realized Great King Linggan’s trap, and let go of Xuanzang and Subhuti.
• Wukong exposed and dispelled the false phantoms of himself, his senior brothers, Subhuti, Sanzang, Xuanzang, and his monkey children.
• Wukong declared that his junior brothers were still with him, then sang to Great King Linggan.
• Wukong’s junior brothers answered by chanting sutras, and Great King Linggan covered his ears and screamed while Wukong told him to stop getting worked up.

Wukong fought Great King Linggan beneath the Tongtian River, using his Golden Cudgel and a song to overwhelm the river demon. He left Great King Linggan beaten and embedded in the shattered stone riverbed.

• Great King Linggan laughed when the chanting stopped, but Wukong prepared to sing and fight him himself.
• Wukong summoned his armor and struck Great King Linggan on the head, sending him crashing through the river currents.
• Great King Linggan attacked with his Nine-Petal Red Copper Hammers and black water, but Wukong evaded his blows and struck him repeatedly.
• Wukong broke through Great King Linggan's black hands and water attacks, leaving him unable to understand why Wukong could fight freely in the river.
• Wukong turned Great King Linggan's black water strands into a golden net, hauled him close, and struck him down into the stone riverbed.

Wukong subdued Great King Linggan beneath the Tongtian River and used the Golden Cudgel and golden net to force black water from him. After the seventh stroke, Great King Linggan spat blood, and Wukong stopped.

• Great King Linggan formed thousands of black-red water spears and hurled them at Wukong, but they shattered against Wukong’s armor.
• Wukong struck Great King Linggan with the Golden Cudgel, then used it to haul him from the broken riverbed and pin him down.
• Wukong shrank the cudgel and tapped Great King Linggan’s forehead twice while reciting verses.
• Wukong turned the golden net into a rope, bound Great King Linggan to his knees, and struck his back with a paddle-shaped cudgel while reciting.
• Great King Linggan expelled black water and threads with each stroke, then spat bright red blood; Wukong halted the paddle midair.

Wukong returned from the river illusion to the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars, where he reunited with Xuanzang and Subhuti as Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Little White Dragon arrived. Sanzang knelt before Wukong and asked him to continue the Buddhist verses he had chanted, leaving Wukong facing his request.

• Great King Linggan shed his fishlike form as the black river vanished and the cave reappeared around Wukong, Xuanzang, and Subhuti.
• Wukong greeted Subhuti as his master, then Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Little White Dragon crashed through the ceiling and reunited with Xuanzang.
• Bajie discovered there were two versions of his master and learned that Subhuti was Wukong's master too.
• Subhuti helped the kneeling Sanzang to his feet, and Sanzang asked who had chanted the Buddha's name.
• Wukong said he had chanted the verses, and Sanzang knelt again to ask him to complete them.

Xuanzang asked Wukong how he would teach him, and Wukong took Subhuti’s Ruler to instruct the kneeling Sanzang with twelve blows and Buddhist verses. After Sanzang repeated the teachings, Wukong struck his bald head once more, abruptly silencing him.

• Xuanzang asked Wukong how he would teach him, while Sanzang remained kneeling before them.
• Wukong respectfully borrowed the Ruler from Subhuti and approached Sanzang.
• Wukong struck Sanzang twelve times, reciting verses about emptiness and awakening as Sanzang endured the blows.
• Subhuti recalled teaching Wukong as a young monkey and watched him now teach Sanzang.
• Sanzang repeated the verses while trembling and bleeding, and Wukong struck his head with a final, harder blow that stopped his chanting.

Wukong’s punishment seemed to bring Sanzang to enlightenment, but the realization caused Sanzang to begin disappearing. Subhuti revealed that he was the one unable to let go, transformed into Golden Cicada Child, and challenged Xuanzang to wager for control of their shared body.

• Wukong declared that Sanzang deserved thirty blows whether he asked the truth or stayed silent, and Bajie questioned his count.
• Sanzang understood the principle of letting the mind arise without abiding, but the Blood-Red Mole flashed and he lost his clarity, spat blood, and collapsed.
• Sha Wujing found that his immortal energy passed through Sanzang, and Subhuti explained that Sanzang had attained enlightenment and was about to cease to exist.
• Subhuti admitted that he was the one who could not let go, and Sanzang faded into red motes that gathered at Subhuti’s brow.
• Subhuti transformed into Golden Cicada Child, who proposed a wager with Xuanzang for their shared body; Xuanzang agreed, and Wukong objected.

Golden Cicada Child told Wukong that both Xuanzang and his fellow seeker had become unavoidable trials, then began debating the meaning of the unabiding mind with Xuanzang beneath a bodhi tree. The debate was unresolved, and Golden Cicada Child’s challenge left the golden carp glowing crimson.

• Golden Cicada Child told Wukong that neither Xuanzang nor his fellow seeker could escape the trial, and Xuanzang said it was still too early to face it.
• Bajie, Little White Dragon, and Sha Wujing comforted Wukong, who gathered himself and trusted that Xuanzang would find a way to save both masters.
• Golden Cicada Child transformed Three Star Cave into a clearing beneath a bodhi tree and invited Xuanzang to debate.
• Xuanzang argued that nonabiding meant relinquishing attachment rather than extinguishing the mind, and the carp’s red glow faded to gold.
• Golden Cicada Child challenged Xuanzang to identify the knower behind his account of nonabiding, and the carp turned crimson.

Xuanzang answered Golden Cicada Child’s questions about self, karma, compassion, and seeking scriptures by explaining dependent arising and the absence of a permanent self. Golden Cicada Child challenged his account of karmic continuity, and Xuanzang began distinguishing the nature of clinging from dependent arising before being asked about the third nature.

• Xuanzang argued that consciousness arose from contact between faculties and objects, without an enduring knower or self.
• Xuanzang explained that compassion and helping others arose naturally, and that scriptures were signposts to be abandoned once the Way was understood.
• Golden Cicada Child challenged Xuanzang, asking what preserved karmic seeds and linked successive thoughts if no self existed.
• Golden Cicada Child accused Xuanzang of clinging to a subtle self by treating the stream of consciousness as his essence.
• Xuanzang said that delusion had no substance but still had power through dependent arising, and explained how impressions and seeds ripened into actions and results.
• Golden Cicada Child asked Xuanzang what the third nature was after Xuanzang distinguished the conceived-and-clung-to nature from the dependent-arising nature.

Xuanzang told Golden Cicada Child a story about a meticulous painter who could not capture Guanyin’s true likeness. The painter let a filthy beggar into his pristine studio to see a true portrait, then obeyed when the beggar ordered him to leave and close the door.

• Xuanzang began telling Golden Cicada Child the story of a painter renowned for his Guanyin portraits, though the painter believed their eyes looked more like a fiend’s than a Bodhisattva’s.
• As Xuanzang continued, the painter prepared one last portrait but could not bring himself to paint its eyes before a beggar carrying a carp arrived at his door.
• The beggar claimed he had a true portrait of Guanyin and said the painter could see it only if he entered the painter’s immaculate studio.
• The painter first refused, then relented after the beggar said Guanyin could not dwell only in clean places, and let him enter with the muddy, smelly fish basket.
• The beggar studied the unfinished painting, ordered the painter outside, and told him to close the door.
• Outside the golden line, Bajie joked about the painter, Little White Dragon said mortals could not see Tathagata through appearances, and Wukong laughed.

Xuanzang told a story about a painter who encountered Guanyin in a form that contradicted his ideals and finally painted what he saw. He explained the story through the three natures, then grabbed the carp in the pool.

• Xuanzang narrated how a painter hesitated outside his studio, then found it transformed and a woman with a fish basket inside.
• The woman challenged the painter to depict her as he saw her, whether he considered her Guanyin, a demon, or dirty.
• The painter overcame his fear and painted the barefoot, fish-basket-bearing woman amid a turbid sea.
• The painter finished the image and found the immaculate studio restored, while the woman had vanished.
• Xuanzang explained the story as conceived nature, dependent arising, and perfectly accomplished nature.
• Xuanzang bent down and grabbed the carp in the pool.