The Patriarch told Sun Wukong to greet his fellow disciples and found him an empty room to stay in. From then on, Wukong followed his fellow disciples to learn life skills, study classics, write characters and burn incense, and did some chores like sweeping and carrying water in his spare time.
Seven years passed quickly. One day, after the Patriarch finished his sermon, he asked Wukong what skill he wanted to learn. Sun Wukong didn’t care what the Patriarch said about praying to gods and buddhas, meditating and cultivating. As long as he heard that he couldn’t live forever, he refused to learn. Bodhi Patriarch was very angry about this.
The Patriarch jumped down from the high platform, holding a ruler in his hand and pointing at Sun Wukong. He said: “You monkey, you don’t want to learn this or that. What do you want to learn?” After saying that, he walked over and hit Wukong three times on the head, then turned his back and walked into the inner room, closing the door behind him. The disciples saw that the master was angry and felt very scared. They blamed Sun Wukong one after another.
Sun Wukong was neither afraid nor angry, but rather very happy in his heart. That night, Wukong pretended to fall asleep, but as soon as it was midnight, he quietly got up, went out of the front door, and waited until the third watch, then circled around to the back door. He saw the door half open and half closed, and was overjoyed. He thought to himself: “Haha, I guessed my master’s intention correctly.”
