Great have been my magic powers since childhood;
Changing with the wind, I show my might.
Nourishing my nature and cultivating the truth,
I have lived out the days and months,
Saving my life by jumping beyond the cycle of rebirth.
Once I searched sincerely for the Way
Climbing the Spirit Terrace Mountain to pick medicinal herbs.
On that mountain lives an ancient Immortal
One hundred and eight thousand years old.
I took him as my master,
Hoping that he would show me a road to immortality.
He said that the elixir is in one's own body —
It is a waste of effort to seek it outside.
I learned a great spell of immortality.
I could scarcely have survived without it.
Turning my gaze inwards, I sat and calmed my mind,
While the sun and moon in my body intermingled.
Ignoring the affairs of the world, I made my desires few,
When senses, body, and mind were purified, my body was firm.
Reversing the years and returning to youth is then easily done;
The road to immortality and sagehood was not long.
In three years I acquired a magic body,
That did not suffer like a common one.
I wandered around the Ten Continents and Three Islands,
The corners of the sea and the edge of the sky.
I was due to live over three hundred years
But could not yet fly up to the Nine Heavens.
I got a real treasure for subduing sea dragons:
An iron cudgel banded with gold.
On the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit
I was supreme commander;
In the Water Curtain Cave
I assembled the fiendish hosts.
The Great Jade Emperor sent me a decree
Conferring high rank and the title 'Equaling Heaven'.
More than once I wrecked the Hall of Miraculous Mist,
And stole the Queen Mother's peaches several times.
A hundred thousand heavenly soldiers in serried ranks
Came with spears and swords to put me down.
I sent the heavenly kings back up there in defeat,
Made Nazha flee in pain at the head of his men.
The True Lord Erlang, skilled at transformations,
Lao Zi, Guanyin and the Jade Emperor
Watched me being subdued from the Southern Gate of Heaven.
As he was given some help by Lord Lao Zi,
Erlang captured me and took to Heaven.
I was tied to the Demon-subduing Pillar,
And divine soldiers were ordered to cut off my head.
Though hacked with swords and pounded with hammers
I remained unharmed.
So then I was struck with thunder and burned with fire.
As I really do have magic powers,
I was not in the slightest bit afraid.
They took me to Lao Zi's furnace to be refined.
The Six Dings roasted me slowly with divine fire.
When the time was up and the furnace opened, out I jumped,
And rushed round Heaven, my cudgel in my hand.
No one could stop me making trouble everywhere,
And I caused chaos in the thirty-three Heavens.
Then our Tathagata Buddha used his Dharma power
And dropped the Five Elements Mountain on my back.
There I was crushed for full five hundred years,
Until Sanzang came from the land of Tang.
Now I have reformed and am going to the West
To climb the Thunder Peak and see the Buddha.
Enquire throughout the Four Seas, Heaven and Earth:
You'll find that I'm the greatest monster ever.