Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 264

The Prolonged Journey
St Paul's Convent School, Sarkar, Manjori - 12
F
ar away in an alp, there existed a monastery named the Thunderclap Monastery. It wasn’t any
conventional monastery, it was home to the Omniscient Buddha!
The Buddha sought for a believer from the Land of the East to come to the Western Continent, in order
to retrieve the True Scriptures, the scriptures that were powerful enough to redeem the most sinful of
sinners, these scriptures were named ‘Tripitaka’. Bodhisattva Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, volunteered
to assist someone to accomplish the task.That someone was Xuan Zang.
Tragically, Xuan Zang was the son of a young scholar, who was murdered by a ferryman. His mother
would have committed suicide if she weren’t pregnant with him. Immediately after Xuan Zang was born,
he was tied up to a plank of a boat with a blood-written message and was pushed into the river.
Fortunately, the abbot of a temple spotted him and learned his tragic story through the letter. The abbot
decided to adopt him and raise him as a monk. Growing up, Xuan Zang was unacquainted with his
parentage. However at the age of 18, he encountered his mother, and devised plans to avenge his father’s
murder. Upon knowing that the murderer was executed on the spot of murder, they noticed a body floating
up the stream. It was Xuan Zang’s father! He happened to be rescued by the Dragon King of the River. His
family was ultimately reunited.
However, the overwhelming circumstances didn’t cease Xuan Zang’s devotion to Buddhism. Instead of
moving back home, he was inclined to his religion and chose to be a monk.
The news of this unconventional act of Xuan Zang’s dispersed all over China, it even came to Emperor
Tang Taizong’s attention. Upon receiving the news, Tang Taizong dispatched three of his men to assign
Xuan Zang to participate in the Grand Mass. Guanyin eavesdropped their conversation and considered
recruiting Xuan Zang for the pilgrimage.
Nonetheless, a pilgrim to the West independently, is virtually not worth considering. The Buddha
wouldn’t entrust Boddhisattva Guanyin with such a vital role on his quest, if she actually left Xuan Zang
alone with a countless number of lurking demons. Fortunately, she flew over the exact way Xuan Zang
would have to take to India with her disciple, Moksa, to scrutinise the potential perils. The rivers,
mountains and lands were in unfavourable conditions, with masses of demons. Therefore, she manipulated
four demons to join forces with her beforehand. These legendary demons were Yulong, Zhu Bajie, Sha
Wujing and Sun Wukong.
Throughout the course of the Grand Mass, Guanyin was observing Xuan Zang. Guanyin finally used the
chance to openly recruit him when he was approaching the Emperor. Being recruited for such a paramount
operation, was undoubtedly a golden opportunity for Xuan Zang, which embarked the Journey to the
West.
Now that the morally justified monk was recruited, the first priority of this operation would be
assembling all the members together. After escaping a demon’s den with the help of a god called the Gold
Star of Venus, Xuan Zang firstly encountered the Five Phases Mountain, the mountain where the Monkey
King, Sun Wukong was trapped under for 500 years by the Buddha himself. Xuan Zang had to scale the
mountain to take off the seal placed on top, so that Sun Wukong could completely disintegrate the
mountain from inside to finally leave.
Sun Wukong was an immortal, but impulsive, foolhardy and mischievous monkey who was notorious for
not following the heaven’s rules, which is why the Buddha trapped him there to practice penance for 500
years in the first place. Guanyin simply manipulating him was surely not going to inhibit him from deserting