Now it is said that when the Jade Emperor returned from the Fairy Peach Celebration at Yao Chi and the guards of the Palace of Heaven all came forth to greet him, Yuan Gong was nowhere to be seen. And a memorial was submited by Mi Heng, the Royal Attendant of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs, stating in bold and ceremonious characters as follows:

"The Lord of White Cloud Cave has illegally opened secret books. It has already been seven days since he absconded to earth with the Ru Yi Ce."

The Jade Emperor was ashen faced. "This Ru Yi Ce is one of Heaven's most secret writings," he thundered, fear and trembling in his voice. "It is forbidden to the world below because the hearts of men and women are not suffiently righteous. Their getting this book will surely bring harm to people. And with that thief being just a lowly creature born of beasts, his breaking one of Heaven's regulations cannot be forgiven!"

Then from below came the sound of the alarm drum at Heaven's gates, and the hundred spirits were called to assemble. The Jade Emperor personally ordered the Thunder God, Feng Long, to dispatch his subordinates the Lord of Thunder, Lei Gong, and the Lightning Mother, Shan Mu, to descend to earth in a flash, apprehend Yuan Gong and bring him to the Cultural Affairs Bureau to be punished as seen fit by them in joint deliberation with the Lord of the Pole Star, the Bei Dou Jun.

Now just as all of this was transpiring who should arrive at the gates of Heaven but Yuan Gong; of course he eavesdropped and overheard everything.

"That loudmouth Mi Heng," he hissed, "why doesn't he nod off? Instead of being a good fellow he's telling on me, stirring up an affair. Well, let me wrap up the Ru Yi Ce and put it back in the jade box. But until I get the chance to do that I'll have to claim my innocence!" And feeling his sleeve as he walked along he discovered with a great fright that it was empty. Of couse! He had left it on his stone bed and forgotten it there, so he hurriedly directed his magic cloud back to White Cloud Cave. The herd of his ape offspring crowded around for news, but Yuan Gong was in no mood to talk about anything! Stretching out his arms he ran directly to the stone bed, grabbed the Ru Yi Ce and returned immediately to Heaven's Gate. Just then he suddenly encountered the sagely Lord of Thunder and Lightning Mother and their coterie of subordinates who were just then flying out in their Thunder Chariots. The Lightning Mother thrashed out wildly with one of her bolts, which flew and swirled like a fiery whip and danced upon the ground like a golden snake.

"This old lady is really fierce!" exclaimed Yuan Gong, greatly frightened; "She's a fighter all right!" And just then, as he was about to grab his pellets for the male and female swords and take his chances in a fight, he saw the subordinate dieties of the Bureau of Thunder all continuously beating a drum with the sound of a mighty avalanche, and forks of lightning were flashing all around him. They had Yuan Gong surrounded by a wall of fire, almost burning his skin and hair; in terror he covered his ears and shut his eyes.

"Gentlemen!" he cried out, " if you've got something to say, please say it and don't rough me up!"

The Thunder Lord spoke: "We have been ordered by imperial command to take the 'Ru Yi Ce' from you and we must report to his Excellency, whether we succeeed or fail!"

"I've got it, I've got it," blurted out Yuan Gong in a stready stream of words. But secretly he thought: "If the Lord of Heaven ordered me to be brought in, why should they have to bring me to the Cultural Affairs bureau? Why it's my old home! All I, Old Yuan, need do is toss it out of my gown and I'll be clean!"

At this he put most of his terror aside, but seeing the soldiers of the Thunder Lord still behind him he dared not refuse to go along. And so the Spirit Official Xie Xian placed an iron collar with a chain around Yuan Gong's neck and they tode off together in a Thunder Chariot. In a while they entered the Gates of Heaven and went directly to the Bureau of Cultural Affairs. It's like this: If the Green Dragon and the White Tiger can walk together in peace, anything, auspicious or threatening, is possible!

Now, the Royal Attendant Mi Heng had long before ascended the throne of justice; this can be seen from this poem:

Now, after a while all we see are fringed war flags and parasols, all following the Lord Of the Pole Star. And how do we know? Again, we have a 'Xijiangyue' poem to go by:

At this point the Royal Attendant of the Cultural Affairs Bureau came down the stairs, bowed deeply and allowed the Star Lords to sit in the most honored places. Then the Lord of Thunder and the Lightning Mother carried in Yuan Gong and handed him over to the Royal Attendant; they then returned to the Bureau as ordered. Now our white ape had been annoyed by the Thunder and Lightning Officials and had been irritated, and by the time he arrived at the bureaus he was groggy and dreamy. At his sides were officials and soldiers who dragged him to to the foot of the stairs and forced him to kneel.

"The captured book thief is present!" they announced.

Yuan Gong lifted his head for a look, but he could see only the rows of fringed flags arranged so boldly with such severe looking spears and staffs guarding the court. When he peeked he did not feel so afraid of the upright interrogation officials on the right side of the Royal Attendant, but he greatly feared the one on the Attendant's left, in black clothes and holding a jade tablet for notes, whom he recognized clearly as the Lord of the Pole Star. This fright was great, for always the Palace of the South Star in Sagittarious meant life, while that of the North Star denoted death! For even if you are fated to live as short a life as Yan Hui or Yang Wu, if you should beg the Lord of South Star to write a few marks in his book, the King of Hell will not dare consider you even if you live for a hundred and ninety years. But if the Lord of the Pole Star should be angered and caused to write something in his tablet you will loose your life directly, and even a thousand pardons from the Jade Emperor will not save you! How should such a presence be anything but terrifying? At this point Yuan Gong, not waiting for the presiding official to begin speaking, threw up his arms and offered up the treasured 'Ru Yi Ce' and kowtowed continuously, only acknowledging his deadly sin.

"Vile creature!" thundered the Lord of the Pole Star; "you broke the heavenly seals without authorization, and by yourself stole Heaven's secret teachings. This is even worse than a guard stealing what he is paid to protect! It is proper to plan an execution!" Yuan Gong then pleaded for his life, and kowtowed without stopping. Then the Royal Attendant Mi Heng spoke.

"Did you or did you not steal Heaven's Books", he asked; "tell us honestly!"

"I, Old Yuan," answered the accused, "have never in my life lied! Those magical transformation charms from the 'Ru Yi Ce' are arranged so neatly on the walls of White Cloud Cave. If one talks about leaking secrets, well, they haven't seen the face of any stranger."

"This creature is really honest", thought the Lord of the Pole Star, "or at least naive." And again he shouted: "Why did you carve the secret text onto the stone walls?"

"It's often said," answered Yuan Gong, "that the Emperor of Heaven is not selfish, so I didn't believe that he could have any secrets. If he did have secrets, they shouldn't have been written down. But as they are indeed written down they should be handed down throughout the ages. The Jade Emperor's storing them in a box and my carving them on the walls are one and the same thing!"

The Royal Attendant objected: "The beast should stop using such strong words in pleading his innocence!"

Yuan Gong hurriedly kowtowed in acknowledgement of his mortal sin and continued: "I, old Yuan, have been naive all my life and I can only explain my actions upon the basis of the facts! How dare I argue strongly!"

"It is said", continued the Royal Assistant, "that the jade box is a treasure of the Palace of Heaven, and that there are three prohibitions aginst its being opened. For one, it cannot be opened without permission of the universal Creator himself. Second, it can't be opened without permission of the Mystery Queen of Ninth Heaven. Third, it can't be opened without the Jade Emperor's permission. You hairy creature, just who authorized YOU to open it?"

"At first," answered Yuan Gong, "in fact, I tried to open it quite a few times without success. So I swore an oath to my teacher, the Mystery Girl, Queen of Ninth Heaven, as follows: 'Please protect your disciple who is fated to practice Daoist magic. I'll always protect these secrets ad I'll never dare do wrong.' Then the lid immediately came off the box. If it had not in fact opened at last, I, old Yuan, would have given up. And I wouldn't have called a jade worker to grind or crack it open, either. Having known that Heaven's rules were so strict, the Mystery Girl shouldn't have helped me commit this crime. All my life I have hated the narrow ways of the world, which often condemn people to prison on the grounds of the shakiest connection to a crime. I can't imagine how Heaven, so broad in its outlook, wants to cast me into prison or worse for merely looking at a three-inch-long booklet, and doesn't consider my well cultivated soul. To the contrary, I am on trial for my life, accused of the crime of booktheft, an which I feel is beyond regret. I simply will not resign myself to accepting death as a just punishment, as I've done nothing wrong! Kill me if you like but my eyes will not close!"

Now when the Royal Attendant Mi Heng heard these words about the world's ways being narrow his mood suddenly changed, and he thought of the time when he himself had been imprisoned by Liu Biao merely because he was mentioned in a letter of Sun Ce's. And his character being strong and upright, seeing Yuan Gong's hurt feelings and excited speech, his sobbing and his running nose, he became sad through and through and addressed the Lord of the Pole Star.

"What this hairy critter is saying makes sense," he proclaimed. "In speaking of his mission to spread the Dao there lies a motive. Moreover as he is the Mystery Dowager Queen's student, I would like to trouble my Lords to all stand behind a memorial to the Jade Emperor, proposing that Yuan Gong be allowed to reform himself. I don't know how my Lords feel about this..."

"The accused," answered the Lord of the Polestar, "has been your subordinate all along; everything is up to you. But as this is a trial, and hundreds of gods are already thouroughly knowledgable about the case, perhaps we should draw up a formal record of this interrogation and then offer up a memorial to the Emperor."

"My Lord's words are so fitting," answered Mi Heng. At this point the clerks were commanded to bring paper, brush and inkstone to Yuan Gong. Now, our white ape knew that the Attendant had a mind to toss aside the charges, and was too happy to even stand. He hurriedly took up the pen and wrote as follows:

The Lord of the Pole Star finished reading the deposition and laughed: "Through this scrap of writing you actually make yourself look clean in body!"

"Not only am I, Old Yuan, clean in body," shouted our ape, jumping up and down excitedly, "but clean in mind as well! I am a serious and honest type of individual who calls a spade a spade, not the sort that passes off two and two as five!"

The Royal Attendant and his assistants laughed heartily. Then he and the Lord of the Pole Star got up, escorted Yuan Gong to the spirit paradise above the clouds and memorialized as follows to the Jade Emperor:

"Although Yuan Gong's crime is serious, his words are cause to pity him. Moreover, the One who created the world out of chaos Himself uttered these four lines:

Now, one word for fate is Yuan, the same pronunciation as the accused's surname although the character is different. Perhap's Yuan Gong was fated, so the jade box opened by itself. Since he doesn't have an evil heart, for the sake of the Mystery Queen we should be inclined to leniency, to forgive hime and set him free."

Now the Jade Emperor granted this petition and he cancelled the sentence of death. But he struck the title "Lord of White Cloud Cave" from Yuan Gong's name, changing it to "White Ape God" and dispatched him to guard the stoney walls of White Cloud Cave. And then he issued an imperial edict to the Judges of the Fates of Souls and to the Earth God, to drive away from that place all of the ape children and grandchildren of Yuan Gong, along with all of their cohorts, to prohibit their coming within ten li of the cave and to allow only a solitary Yuan Gong to reside there. And should Yuan Gong teach his blastphemy to the people of earth, to cause disasters or make trouble, they would all be punished together.

After Yuan Gong had thanked him for his kindness and mercy the Jade Emperor ordered that a lantern be brought to the penitant ape. This incense burner was known as the Magic Lamp of Wishes; when Yuan Gong cultivated himself in the cave the smoke would issue forth naturally and without pause and would float right up to Heaven's gate. But if Yuan Gong should perchance go out of the cave, the fragrant smoke would cease. Clearly, by use of this pure little fire, Yuan Gong's wild and impulsive heart could be controlled, and as a result he wouldn't dare do anything rash.

Yuan Gong again thanked the Jade Emperor for his kindness and mercy, and memorialized as follows:

"Although White Cloud Cave, my home on Mt Dream-of-the-Clouds, is remote and isolated, it is by no means far from the mortal world. Now, I hear that the Spirit Official Zhang Kai can make a five-li fog, and I would like to borrow it to cover the cave entrance. That way we can avoid scrutiny by outsiders."

The Jade Emperor granted the petition. "If you desire a fog," he laughed, "you needn't trouble the Spirit Official at all!" He thereupon called the Guard of Heaven's Vault to select and bring forth a weird and priceless treasure. And the name of this treasure was the Mother of Fog.

Now, originally the world above had the Four Mothers, and they were its most precious things. The first was the Mother of Vital Force, and she carried all of Heaven's 'Qi', which is at the core of the never-ending universes upon universes as they revolve. This force is what the Teacher Maitreya carries in his cloth bag. There is a poem that bears witness:

The second was the Mother of Wind. She stored the windy draughts of all eight directions. How do we know that? Well, think about it. Ravaging is the Eastwind, fierce the Westwind, and cold the Northwind. Longlasting is the wind of the Southwest, mild is the wind of the Northeast, great is the wind of the Southeast and harsh is that of the Northwest. These eight winds all rest in the Pouch of Wind carried by Fei Lian, the God of Wind. And here is a poem for proof:

The third is the Mother of Cloud. When the world was created out of chaos she came from the vital essence of mountains and rivers. Round like a parasol, her cloud is of five different colors. If the season brings a good harvest it is yellow; if war comes it turns green. For a funeral the cloud turns white; a black cloud means flood and a scarlet one, famine. If all five colors appear at once, this is a guaranteed good omen! This Mother of Cloud hides darkly behind her vapor screen; again, here is a poem for proof:

The fourth treasure is the Mother of Fog; she wears a gown eight or nine feet long, almost like a drape. This garment is known as the Curtain of Fog. If she opens what appears to be a cooking pot just a hair, out it blasts and hotly rises up. If she opened it completely the resulting fog would cover a hundred li and obscure the entire universe. When it is completely out it is then sucked back in, as if by a pump. That is the way fog is deployed, recovered and stored.

Now, in days of old when the Yellow Emperor, Xuan Yuan, lived, there was a feudal lord named Chi You, entirely lacking in moral cultivation. He managed to get hold of this Curtain of Fog and could cause, control and harvest great fogs at will. He alone could also manufacture swords, spears and giant bows. Proudly then did he think himself without rival in the world. Wanting to steal the Yellow Emperor's realm, he drummed up his people to war. The Yellow Emperor met Chi You in battle upon the plain of Zhuo Lu, but his army lost its bearings in a fog, couldn't tell east from west and for three days was unable to secure a victory. But, fortunately, the Mystery Girl of Ninth Heaven descended to earth and resented a plan, in the form of an Yin charm, to the Yellow Emperor. And she created a chariot, called the Compass Cart, that always pointed south. And on this chariot stood a wooden man whose arm and finger pointed straight ahead. No matter if your chariots would go left or right, this wooden man would point always to the south.

With such help the Yellow Emperor immediately devastated Chi You's forces, pursued, caught, and beheaded him, and the ground onto which his blood ran turned into salt. And this is precisely the salt pool which is north of the present-day city of Qingyangfu in modern Shaanxi Province. Because Chi You invented armaments and the evil of his crimes weighed so deeply and heavily upon fate, 10,000 generations of folk down to this very day have eaten his blood in the form of their daily salt. But to get back to the tale, when victory was achieved the fog was gathered up by the Mystery Girl of Ninth Heaven, presented to the Jade Emperor and stored in the Vault of Heaven. And once again we have a poem:

On the other hand, later folk also have a poem that says:

This blastphemous poem argues that the Mother of Vital Essence, the Wind Pouch, the Cloud Parasol and the Curtain of Fog, these four items of treasure, are preposterous illusions. But perhaps, in attributing these marvels to mere material processes, the writer of this poem was indeed like a frog sitting in a well looking at Heaven. A member of an uninformed, superficially minded group, indeed! If a mirror can be used to make a fire, if the giant clam of old could produce a flood, if a wild tiger can bring wind, and if there are even more strange, weird myriad things on earth that we cannot understand, how can we ever hope to understand Heaven's affairs? Let's not talk nonsense any longer!

Now it is said that the Jade Emperor, seeing that Yuan Gong wholeheartedly defended Daoist magic and was sincere and truthful, and what's more was a disciple of the Mystery Girl of Ninth Heaven, took this Curtain of Fog and brought it to him, and advised as follows: "This folded curtain can only be opened about one foot; the resulting fog will cover ten li. You are not permitted to open it completely, for I am afraid of the trouble it will cause earthly residents." And he added: "From now on you must repent and do good, wholeheartedly cultivating yourself in accordance with Dao, and there will be a day when you will rise to Heaven. Otherwise, your pardon will be revoked, and you'll plunge eternally into the bottomless depths of hell."

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