Original Text
Xu Sheng was a man from Yanzhou Prefecture. He followed his elder brother Xu Cheng to Fujian to engage in trade, but their goods had not yet been fully procured. A fellow traveler mentioned that the Great Sage was highly efficacious and proposed they go to his temple to offer prayers. Xu Sheng, not knowing who the Great Sage was, went along with his brother. Upon arriving at the temple, they saw a complex of halls and pavilions connected in an exceedingly grand and magnificent manner. Entering the main hall to pay their respects, they beheld a divine statue with a monkey's head and a human body—it was none other than Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. All the travelers showed profound reverence, none daring to display any sign of weariness or disrespect. Xu Sheng, being of a forthright and stubborn nature, secretly scoffed at the vulgarity of the common folk. While the others burned incense and offered prayers, Xu Sheng quietly slipped away.
After returning, his elder brother reproached him for being disrespectful to the spirits. Xu Sheng said, "Sun Wukong is merely an allegory written by Qiu Chuji; why must one show such devout faith in him? If he truly possessed divine power, whether by blade or thunderbolt, I would willingly accept any punishment!" The innkeeper, hearing him speak the Great Sage's name so boldly, turned pale with fright and waved his hands repeatedly, as if fearing the Great Sage might overhear. Seeing their terrified reaction, Xu Sheng argued even more loudly, and those who heard him covered their ears and fled. By midnight, Xu Sheng indeed fell ill, suffering from a severe headache. Someone advised him to go to the Temple of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven to confess his sins, but Xu Sheng refused. Shortly after, the headache eased somewhat, but then pain struck his thigh, and by morning, a large, festering sore had developed, causing his entire leg to swell, leaving him unable to eat or sleep. His brother prayed on his behalf, but to no avail. Some said that if one incurred divine punishment, one must personally offer prayers. Xu Sheng remained utterly unconvinced. After more than a month, the sore gradually healed, but another erupted, causing even greater agony. A physician came to cut away the rotting flesh, and blood filled an entire bowl. Fearing others would claim his illness stemmed from irreverence, Xu Sheng deliberately suppressed his groans. Another month passed before the sore finally subsided, but then his elder brother fell gravely ill. Xu Sheng said, "Why must this be? Even those who revere the gods fall sick, which proves my illness was not caused by Sun Wukong." Hearing this, his brother grew even angrier, reproaching him for not praying to the gods on his behalf. Xu Sheng replied, "Brothers are like hands and feet. Earlier, when my own limbs festered, I did not pray; how then can I change my principles now that my 'hands and feet' are afflicted?" Thus, he merely summoned a physician and prescribed medicine for his brother, ignoring his pleas to pray, and after taking the medicine, his brother suddenly died.
Xu Sheng was filled with deep grief. He bought a coffin and buried his elder brother, then went straight to the temple, pointed at the statue of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, and reproached him, saying, "My brother fell ill, and you claim it was because of your wrath, leaving me unable to defend myself. If you truly possess divine power and can bring him back to life, I will bow to you as my master and dare not speak a second word. Otherwise, I will treat you as you treated the Three Pure Ones in the Chechi Kingdom, overturning your statue to relieve my brother's doubts in the underworld." That night, Xu Sheng dreamed that someone summoned him, and he arrived at the Great Sage's shrine, where he looked up and saw anger on the Great Sage's face. The Great Sage rebuked him, saying, "Because of your insolence, I pierced your calf with a Bodhisattva's blade, yet you not only failed to repent but also uttered many idle words. I should have sent you to the Tongue-Pulling Hell, but considering your unwavering integrity, I will spare you for now. Your brother's illness was caused by your own invitation of a quack doctor, which shortened his life. What has that to do with anyone else? If I do not display a little divine power today to show you, I fear it will only give more cause for the arrogant to slander me." Then he ordered a messenger in blue robes to go to the Palace of Yama to seek a decree. The messenger reported, "After a man has been dead for three days, his name is recorded in the ghost registry and submitted to the Heavenly Court; I fear it is beyond redemption." The Great Sage took a square board, wrote something on it—what it was, none could tell—and had the messenger take it away. After a long while, the messenger returned, accompanied by Xu Cheng, and both knelt in the hall. The Great Sage asked, "Why are you so late?" The messenger replied, "Yama dared not decide on his own, so he took the Great Sage's decree to the heavens to consult the Southern and Northern Dippers, hence the delay." Xu Sheng hurried forward to bow and thank the Great Sage for his grace. The Great Sage said, "Quickly return with your brother. If you can devote yourself to goodness, I will bestow blessings upon you." The two brothers, filled with mixed sorrow and joy, supported each other and went back. Xu Sheng awoke from his dream, finding it strange. He quickly rose, opened the coffin, and saw that his brother had indeed revived. He helped him out, deeply feeling the boundless power of the Great Sage. From then on, Xu Sheng submitted to the Great Sage with heartfelt sincerity, believing in him even more devoutly than ordinary people. However, the capital they had for their business had been halved due to the illness, and his brother was not yet fully recovered, so they often faced each other in worry.
One day, Xu Sheng happened to be wandering outside the city walls when a man in a brown garment looked at him and said, "What sorrows weigh upon you?" Xu Sheng, who had been suffering in silence with no one to confide in, recounted his misfortunes in detail. The man in brown said, "There is a fine place you might visit for a while, enough to dispel your gloom." Xu Sheng asked, "What place is that?" The man in brown merely replied, "It is not far." Xu Sheng then followed him. After they had gone about half a li beyond the city, the man in brown said, "I possess a minor art that can take us there in an instant." He bade Xu Sheng clasp his arms around his waist, and with a slight nod, Xu Sheng felt clouds rise beneath his feet as they soared aloft, traveling hundreds of thousands of li in the blink of an eye. Terrified, Xu Sheng shut his eyes tight and dared not open them. After a short while, the man in brown said, "We have arrived." Xu Sheng opened his eyes and suddenly beheld a world of crystal and glass, radiating wondrous light from every direction. Startled, he exclaimed, "What place is this?" The man in brown replied, "This is the Celestial Palace." They strolled onward, feeling themselves ascend higher and higher. In the distance, they saw an old man, and the man in brown said joyfully, "Meeting this elder is truly your good fortune!" He then raised his hands in salute to the old man. The old man invited them to his dwelling, where he brewed tea and offered it to his guests, but only set out two cups, leaving none for Xu Sheng. The man in brown said, "This is my disciple, who has come from a thousand li away to trade, and has sincerely visited this immortal abode to beg for a small gift." The old man ordered a young servant to bring out a tray of white stones, shaped like sparrow eggs, clear and translucent as ice, and told Xu Sheng to help himself. Xu Sheng thought to take them back to use as wine counters, so he picked six. The man in brown deemed Xu Sheng too modest, so he took another six for him, wrapped them all together, and instructed Xu Sheng to place them in his waist pouch. Then, clasping his hands, he said, "That is sufficient." With that, they took leave of the old man and departed. Again, Xu Sheng clasped the man in brown's waist, and in a moment, they descended to the ground. Xu Sheng bowed and asked for his immortal name. The man in brown laughed and said, "What you just witnessed was the so-called somersault cloud!" Xu Sheng then realized with a start that the man in brown was none other than the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven. He begged the Great Sage for his protection, and the Great Sage said, "The one you just saw was the Star of Wealth, who has already granted you twelvefold profit. What more do you seek?" Xu Sheng bowed again, and when he rose to look, the Great Sage had vanished without a trace. Xu Sheng returned to the inn and joyfully told his brother of the matter. He untied his waist pouch and examined it with his brother, only to find that the white stones had melted into the pouch. Later, they transported their goods back to their hometown by cart and indeed reaped several times the profit. From then on, whenever Xu Sheng went to Fujian, he would invariably pray to the Great Sage. Others' prayers often went unanswered, but whatever Xu Sheng sought was always granted.
The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: In former times, a scholar passed by a temple and painted a pipa on the wall before departing; when he returned, he found that people all declared the pipa to be extraordinarily efficacious, and the temple's incense offerings flourished greatly. In matters under heaven, it is not necessary that there be a real person involved; if people believe it to be efficacious, then it is efficacious. Why is this so? When such thoughts arise in people's hearts, spirits may find a place to dwell. A man as upright and resolute as Xu Sheng should indeed receive the protection of the gods—how could there truly be a Great Sage Equal to Heaven who hides an embroidery needle in his ear, transforms by plucking a single hair, and somersaults into the azure clouds! Yet Xu Sheng later fell under the spell of evil arts, showing that he did not truly hold fast to his own faith and integrity.
Commentary
This is a legend concerning Sun Wukong from Journey to the West as it circulated in Fujian. From this tale, we can see that during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Journey to the West was more widely and deeply disseminated in the south than in the north. Regarding the authorship of Journey to the West, even a learned scholar like Pu Songling believed at the time that its author was not Wu Cheng'en, but rather "the allegory of the Elder Qiu." Although the story is absurd, it can still be regarded as historical material for the spread of Journey to the West.
This chapter consists of two short tales: the first recounts Xu Sheng's journey from skepticism to wholehearted belief in the Monkey King's divinity; the second tells of Xu Sheng following the Monkey King to the heavens, where the Star of Wealth bestowed upon him twelve small pebbles, signifying a grant of twelve portions of fortune. From the later commentary by the Historian of the Strange, it is evident that Pu Songling merely used the Monkey King as a pretext to craft his own stories, for he himself neither believed in the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, nor that illness resulted from disrespect to the gods, nor in the notion of the Star of Wealth granting fortune—"In worldly affairs, there need not be a real person; if the people deify him, then he becomes divine. Why is this? Because where the hearts of the multitude gather, something may take refuge there."