Chapter 45: At the Three Pure Ones Abbey the Great Sage leaves his name; At the Cart Slow Kingdom the Monkey King shows his power.
In which Sun Wukong uses his influence in Heaven to make it rain
I was thinking that I want a fancam of Sun Wukong slaying his enemies to the song Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels. Am I the only one? Let’s keep reading.
“…they all recited in unison the scroll of True Scriptures of the Yellow Court”: This is in fact a real book. This text was received ~from an inmortal~ by Lady Wei Huacun, the founder of Shanqing School of Daoism). It’s a meditation book, basically.
“Pilgrim stood up at once and, lifting up his tiger-skin kilt, filled the flowerpot with his stinking urine”: 😭😭😭 No words.
“You, priests of the Tang court, why do you think that we honor the Dao and seek to destroy Buddhism? It was because in years past, the monks of this dynasty attempted to pray for rain, and they could not produce even a single drop.”: Sorry, I don’t think that’s a reason to destroy Buddhism. If anything, to subscribe less to its teaching but people in this town are so dramatic.
They, hidden or seen, can't be fathomed; / They, flying or soaring, can't be described: I don’t know why imagining all the dragons together made me think of this video.
This chapter is another satyre of the politics of Ming Dynasty. The Daoists were indeed making it rain and all was good, but here comes Sun Wukong, who is the favourite (unwillingly) of the Jade Emperor, and he makes it rain this time, he makes things happen to his will.
By the way, if you want to learn more about the persecution of Buddhism in China, read this Wikipedia article. Buddhism was for a long time considered a foreign religion and some monasteries were very rich, so what happens in this chapter and the previous one is something that could have likely happened.