We decided to have a little fun with #gushiwensday and do some prose for a change! Ming-dynasty vernacular prose, if you want to get technical, from Wu Cheng’en’s literary all-timer, Journey to the West.
from chapter 5
The Great Sage arrived squarely in the middle of the brawl.
“Make way!” he hollered. Drawing his iron staff, he shook it around—with it now as wide as a bowl and twenty feet long, he fought his way through.
Which of the Nine Luminaries could withstand him? Beaten back for now, they called from their ranks: “You reckless stablehand! You’ve committed the Ten Evils—stealing peaches and wine, turning the Festival of Immortal Peaches upside down, and moreover stealing Lord Laozi’s elixir pills, then making merry here with pilfered sacred wine. Isn’t it clear as day? You add sin upon sin!”
The Great Sage laughed and said, “Oh those few things, I admit—I admit! But the question for you is, what now?”
西游记·第五回
吳承恩
正嚷間，大聖到了，叫一聲：「開路！」掣開鐵棒，幌一幌，碗來粗細，丈二長短，丟開架子，打將出來。九曜星那個敢抵，一時打退。那九曜星立住陣勢道：「你這不知死活的弼馬溫，你犯了十惡之罪：先偷桃，後偷酒，攪亂了蟠桃大會，又竊了老君仙丹，又將御酒偷來此處享樂。你罪上加罪，豈不知之？」大聖笑道：「這幾樁事，實有，實有。但如今你怎麼？」
Gushiwensday
with one shake and then another it was as wide as a bowl and twenty feet long, and he went to it.