Wu Cheng'en Quotes

Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted" - Sylvia Plath's epitaph (from Wu Cheng'en's novel Journey to the West aka. Monkey, translated by Arthur Waley)

Nothing in this world is difficult, but thinking makes it seem so. Where there is true will, there is always a way.

A team of horses cannot overtake a word that has left the mouth.

After Supper the Master dismissed all except Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha the Monk. He took them out with him and said, "Look at that wonderful moolight. It makes me long for the time when I can return home.

If you want to have a future, don't do anything with no future in it.

Hero is he alone who vies with powers supreme!

What you must do," said Monkey, "is lure the monster from its hiding place, but be certain it is a fight you can survive.

If a man has been your teacher for a day, you should treat him as your father for the rest of his life.

With passions stilled and one's nature firm, all destinies are in harmony; When the full moon of contemplation is reached you will be pure.

Wife indeed!" laughed Monkey. "You haven't got a wife now. There are some sorts of Taoists that are family men; but who ever heard of a Buddhist priest calmly talking about his 'wife'?

The earth is black in front of the cliff, and no orchids grow. Creepers crawl in the brown mud by the path. Where did the birds of yesterday fly? To what other mountain did the animals go? Leopards and pythons dislike this ruined spot; Cranes and snakes avoid the desolation. My criminal thoughts of those days past Brought on the disaster of today.

The adept does not show himself;     He who shows himself’s no adept.

When man has a virtuous thought,     Heaven will grant him support.

Wherever you go," said the Patriarch, "I'm convinced you'll come to no good. So remember, when you get into trouble, I absolutely forbid you to say that you are my disciple.

The boatman then gently guided the raft across. They saw a dead body floating. At the sight of this, the Master was greatly frightened. But Sun smiled and said, "Master do not be alarmed! That corpse is none other than your own." Zhu Bajie said, "It is you, it is you!" Sha the Monk clapped his hands, and also said, "It is you, it is you!" The boatman also remarked "It was yours, I congratulate you." The three pilgrims congratulated him, and they quietly crossed over the Could Ferry in safety. The Master's shape was changed, and he jumped ashore on the other side with a very light body.

The hundred flavors of rare dainties     Are no more once you’ve eaten your fill.     You may accumulate private savings     But not in your stomach private hoardings!

But “a single strand does not make a thread nor can one hand clap.

Monkey now produced his staff and the two of them did their best to kill each other, like the affectionate in-laws they were.

There is no water like the water out of your own well.

The wide earth may harbor vicious affairs,     But high Heaven will a good man vindicate.     Footloose they’re safe on Tathāgata’s way,     Certain to reach Mount Spirit’s paradise gate.

Never pour the Elixir of Life as if it were an ordinary liquid. He who entrusts the secret of the dark forces to unworthy ears is making his jaws do unnecessary work and talks his tongue dry to no purpose.

Don’t go away! Have a taste of old Monkey’s rod!

A bird in the hand is worth three in the Bush.

Although the book is exceedingly strange, expending undoubtedly several hundred thousand words [an astonishingly accurate word count], but its general importance may be stated in one sentence: it is only about the retrieving or releasing one’s mind (). For whether we folks act like demons and become Buddha are all dependent on this mind.

Each of them also had a white lacquered tablet hanging on his belt; on one was the inscription Shifty-and-Freaky, and on the other, Freaky-and-Shifty.

你自小时走到老，老了再小，老小千番也还难；只要你见性至诚，念念回首处，即是灵山。

那玉清元始天尊、上清灵宝天尊、太清道德天尊、五炁真君、五斗星君、三官四圣、九曜真君、左辅、右弼、天王、哪吒，

Why did you go towards the monster when he wanted to eat you up instead of running away? Now he's swallowed you. Today you're still a monk, but tomorrow you'll be a turd.

All Men Are Brothers)

Nothing in the world is difficult"..."it is only our own thoughts that make things seem so.

音，

听讲，

跳树攀枝，采花觅果；抛弹子，邷么儿，跑沙窝，砌宝塔；赶蜻蜓，扑蚆蜡；参老天，拜菩萨；扯葛藤，编草帓；捉虱子，咬圪蚤；理毛衣，剔指甲；挨的挨，擦的擦；推的推，压的压；扯的扯，

争名夺利几时休？早起迟眠不自由！骑着驴骡思骏马，官居宰相望王侯。只愁衣食耽劳碌，何怕阎君就取勾？继子荫孙图富贵，更无一个肯回头！

my master was kidnapped by your household’s demon chieftains. Return him early, and I’ll spare your lives! If you don’t, I’ll overturn your den and reduce you spirits to pus and blood!

To count a few gulls makes the journey happy. In the reedy bend, under the willow bank, My wife and children smile with me. The moment I fall asleep, wind and waves are quiet; No glory, no disgrace, and not a single worry.

After following it for nearly two miles he came across two she-monsters drawing water from a well. How did he know that they were monsters? Each of them had on her head an extremely unfashionable hair-style held up by bamboo slivers that stood one foot two or three inches high.

I was very fond of strange stories when I was a child. In my village-school days, I used to buy stealthily popular novels and historical recitals. Fearing that my father and my teacher might punish me for this and rob me of these treasures, I carefully hid them in secret places where I could enjoy them unmolested. As I grew older, my love for strange stories became even stronger, and I learned of things stranger than what I had read in my childhood. When I was in my thirties, my memory was full of these stories accumulated through years of eager seeking. l have always admired such writers of the T'ang Dynasty as Tuan Ch'eng-shih [author of the Yu-yang tsa-tsu] and Niu Sheng [author of the Hsuan-kuai lu]. Who wrote short stories so excellent in portrayal of men and description of things. I often had the ambition to write a book (of stories) which might be compared with theirs. But I was too lazy to write, and as my laziness persisted, I gradually forgot most of the stories which I had learned. Now only these few stories, less than a score, have survived and have so successfully battled against my laziness that they are at last written down. Hence this Book of Monsters. I have sometimes laughingly said to myself that it is not I who have found these ghosts and monsters, but they, the monstrosities themselves, which have found me! ... Although my book is called a book or monsters, it is not confined to them: it also records the strange things of the human world and sometimes conveys a little bit of moral lesson.

How did he know so readily, you ask, that they were female fiends? Because he saw that each of them had a chignon on her head about fifteen inches tall and adorned with tiny bamboo strips. It was a most unfashionable style! Our

Even the vegetable kingdom knows that excellence comes from an environment of excellence (e.g. what the lotus relies on is pure, so impurity cannot stain it; what the cinnamon depends on for its existence is lofty, and thus it will not be weighed down by trivia), how can humans who understand the great relations not search for well-being by following well-being?

The Handsome Monkey King had enjoyed this insouciant existence for three or four hundred years when one day, while feasting with the rest of the monkeys, he suddenly grew sad and shed a few tears. Alarmed, the monkeys surrounding him bowed down and asked, “What is disturbing the Great King?” The Monkey King replied, “Though I am very happy at the moment, I am a little concerned about the future. Hence I’m distressed.” The monkeys all laughed and said, “The Great King indeed does not know contentment! Here we daily have a banquet on an immortal mountain in a blessed land, in an ancient cave on a divine continent. We are not subject to the unicorn or the phoenix, nor are we governed by the rulers of mankind. Such independence and comfort are immeasurable blessings. Why, then, does he worry about the future?” The Monkey King said, “Though we are not subject to the laws of man today, nor need we be threatened by the rule of any bird or beast, old age and physical decay in the future will disclose the secret sovereignty of Yama, King of the Underworld. If we die, shall we not have lived in vain, not being able to rank forever among the Heavenly beings?

Rude, undiscriminating creature!" roared Pigsy. "How dare you call me gristly! I'll have you know I'm universally considered positively mouthwatering. Anyway, the only thing you're going to eat is my rake!

You can walk from the time of your youth till the time you grow old, and after that, till you become youthful again; and even after going through such cycle a thousand times, you may still find it difficult to reach the place you want to go. But when you percieve, by the resoluteness of your will, the Buddha-nature in all things, and when every one of your thoughts goes back to its very source in your memory, that will be the time you arrive at the Spirit Mountain.

Nothing in the world is difficult," said the Patriarch, "it is only our own thoughts that make things seem so.

Sun aimed the rod at its head, and one stroke caused its brain to burst out like ten thousand red petals of peach blossoms, and the teeth to fly out like so many pieces of white jade.