Month October 2017

Pigsy as a Late Addition to JTTW and Revelation of Monkey’s Lustful Nature in an Early Ming-Era Play

Jim R. McClanahan 2 Comments

1) Did you know Zhu Bajie (豬八戒, “Pig of Eight Prohibitions”, a.k.a., “Pigsy”), the lecherous swine spirit, was a later addition to the JTTW story cycle? He does not appear in the 13th-century precursor of the novel, while a variant of Sha Wujing (沙悟淨), the complacent water spirit, appears in said precursor and even in Xuanzang’s historical biography from the 7th-century (this is even before the development of Monkey!).[1] But all three of Tripitaka’s demonic disciples appear in an early Ming dynasty (14 to 15th-century) operatic stage play (zaju, 雜劇) by Yang Jingxian (杨景賢) titled Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記). Regarding Pigsy (fig. 1), acts thirteen to sixteen of the twenty-four act play describe him taking human form, tricking a woman into marrying him, and later kidnapping her, forcing Monkey to take her place in order to defeat the monster (readers will surely recognize this as being identical to Zhu Bajie’s early adventures in chapters eighteen and nineteen of the original novel) (Dudbridge, 1970, pp. 197-198; Ning, 1986, pp. 69-78 & 151-157). Such a complex tale no doubt took time to develop before it was included in the play, and since it doesn’t appear in the 13th-century precursor, I suggest Pigsy’s addition to the story cycle most likely took place during the 14th-century.

Click the image to open in full size.

Fig. 1 – (Left) A depiction of Pigsy by Deviantart user Tianwaitang (see the original drawing). Fig. 2 – (Right) A postcard depicting 
Monkey’s battle with Princess Iron Fan (larger version).

2) Did you know the aforementioned play depicts Sun Wukong as a lustful monster? Act nine describes him kidnapping the princess of the Golden Cauldron Kingdom (Jinding Guo, 金鼎國) to be his wife (compare this with Pigsy kidnapping his wife as mentioned above). She is, however, freed by Heavenly King Li Jing (李天王), and the Bodhisattva Guanyin (觀音) eventually traps Monkey under Flower Fruit Mountain (Dudbridge, 1970, p. 195; Ning, 1986, pp. 63-66 & 145-146). In act seventeen, the four monks are leapt upon by lasciviousness maidens in the Country of Women (女國). Tripitaka resists, while Pigsy and Sandy succeed in bedding their respective partners. Monkey tries but is unfortunately stopped by his golden headband.

My lustful nature was about to be aroused, when suddenly the golden hoop on my head constricted, and the joints and bones up and down my whole body began to ache. The throbbing reminded me of a bunch of vegetables. My head hurt so my hair stood up like radish-tops, my face turned as green as smart-weed sprouts, my sweat beaded up like the moister on an egg-plant soaked with sauce, and my cock fell as limp as a soft, salted cucumber. When she saw me looking for all the world like chives sizzling in hot oil, she came around, suppressed her itch and set me free (Ning, 1986, p. 90; see also Dudbridge, 1970, p. 198).

Act nineteen sees Monkey resort to seduction in an attempt to gain access to Princess Iron Fan’s magical weapon (fig. 2). Upon meeting her, Monkey recites a poem chocked full of saucy innuendo: “The disciple’s not too shallow / the woman’s not too deep. / You and I, let’s each put forth an item, / and make a little demon” (Ning, 1986, p. 141). The princess, however, proves immune to his advances, and after an exchange of heated words, she brandishes a sword against him. This is when Sun threatens to rape her: “You Hussy! If I should lay my hands on you, I won’t beat you or scold you, just guess what I’ll do!” (Ning, 1986, pp. 141-142). Ning (1986) ties Monkey’s lustful nature in the play to longstanding Chinese myths involving ape spirits abducting and raping human woman (pp. 143-145). [2]

Notes:

1) For the evolution of Sha Wujing, see Dudbridge, 1970, pp. 18-21.
2) See also Wu (1987) for descriptions of said ape tales.

Sources:

Dudbridge, G. (1970). The Hsi-yu chi: A study of antecedents to the sixteenth-century Chinese novel. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Ning, C. Y. (1986). Comic elements in the Xiyouji zaju. (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 8612591)

Wu, H. (1987). The earliest pictorial representations of ape tales: An interdisciplinary study of early Chinese narrative art and literature. T’oung Pao LXXIII, pp. 86-112.

The Monkey King’s Spiritual Training and Historical Daoist Internal Alchemy

Jim R. McClanahan 1 Comment

Last updated: 09-22-23

Did you know that Monkey’s early spiritual training is connected to historical Daoist internal alchemy? In chapter one, after becoming a student of the Patriarch Subodhi in the Western Cattle-Gift Continent (India), Sun receives a private lesson in which his master reveals the secret of immortality in a poem chocked full of esoteric Daoist imagery:

This bold, secret saying that’s wondrous and true:
Spare, nurse nature and life—there’s nothing else.
All power resides in the semen, breath, and spirit;
Store these securely lest there be a leak.
Lest there be a leak!
Keep within the body!
Heed my teaching and the Way itself will thrive.
Hold fast oral formulas so useful and keen
To purge concupiscence, to reach pure cool;
To pure cool
Where the light is bright.
You’ll face the elixir platform, enjoying the moon.
The moon holds the jade rabbit, the sun, the crow;
The tortoise and snake are now tightly entwined.
Tightly entwined,
Nature and life are strong.
You can plant gold lotus e’en in the midst of flames.
Squeeze the Five Phases jointly, use them back and forth—
When that’s done, be a Buddha or immortal at will!” (Wu & Yu, 2012, p. 120).

顯密圓通真妙訣，惜修性命無他說。
都來總是精氣神，謹固牢藏休漏泄。
休漏泄，體中藏，汝受吾傳道自昌。
口訣記來多有益，屏除邪慾得清涼。
得清涼，光皎潔，好向丹臺賞明月。
月藏玉兔日藏烏，自有龜蛇相盤結。
相盤結，性命堅，卻能火裡種金蓮。
攢簇五行顛倒用，功完隨作佛和仙。

The cryptic methods advocated in the poem find their origins in dogmatic Daoist internal practices that emerged during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) (Kohn, 2008, p. 177). When Subodhi warns Monkey to “Store these [bodily substances] lest there be a leak,” he is referring to the first of three stages in the forging of an immortal spirit body. It involves transforming chaste semen (jing, 精) into pneumatic energy (qi, 氣) and guiding it to the brain, where it is purified and then circulated throughout the body, resulting in the formation of a spiritual pearl in the Cinnabar Field (dantian, 丹田), or the body’s spiritual furnace located in the lower abdomen (Kohn, 2008, p. 178).

“You can plant gold lotus e’en in the midst of flames. / Squeeze the Five Phases jointly, use them back and forth” refers to the second stage, involving the inhalation and guidance of yang energy through various organs (the “five phases”) in the body to bolster the spirit (shen, 神) (fig. 1). This nurturing of the pearl causes it to sprout like a seed and blossom into a golden lotus (“amidst flames”) in the spiritual furnace (fig. 2). The lotus is considered the early stages of an immortal “spirit embryo” (shengtai, 聖胎) (fig. 3) (Kohn, 2008, pp. 178-179).

The third stage involves the nurturing of said embryo to maturation with spiritual energies and eventually guiding it upwards and out the “Heavenly Gate” (tianguan, 天關), or the top of the crown. This results in a fledgling immortal spirit body that must be trained over an additional three year period in which it learns to travel far and wide apart from the physical vessel (pp. 179-180). “When that’s done, be a Buddha or immortal at will!” refers to the eventual freedom of the immortal spirit.

Fig. 1 (top left) – A sage combining jing, qi, and shen (精炁/氣神, lit: “semen, pneumatic energy, and spirit”; a.k.a. the “Three Treasures,” Sanbao, 三寶) (larger version). Image from the Anthology of Immortals of Complete Perfection (Quanzhen qunxian ji, 全真群仙集). Fig. 2 (top right) – A visualized lotus in the cinnabar field (larger version). Fig. 3 (bottom) – A sage nurturing his spirit embryo with inhaled qi energy (larger version). Image from the Anthology of Immortals.

Kohn (2008) notes that adepts who succeed in their training gain supernatural powers, “including the ability to be in two places at once, to move quickly from one place to another, to know past and future, to divine people’s thoughts, and so on” (p. 180) (fig. 2). I feel this is important information considering all of the powers that Monkey exhibits throughout the story.

Various facets of the aforementioned Song-era practices, such as the breathing methods from stage two above, have a much older pedigree. While JTTW describes Sun secretly performing “breathing exercises before the hour of Zi and after the hour of Wu” (i.e. after noon and before midnight) (Wu & Yu, 2012, p. 121), the hours are switched in historical practice. The Wondrous Record of the Golden Casket on the Spirit Immortals’ Practice of Eating Qi (Shenxian shiqi jin’gui miaolu, 神仙食氣金櫃妙錄, 4th-century; Wonderous Record hereafter) explains:

“[A]lways practice after midnight [and before noon] in the period of living qi [yang energy] … In this qi-practice, the time after noon and before midnight is called the period of dead qi [yin energy]. Do not practice then” (Kohn, 2008, p. 84).

So by practicing during the prescribed hours, Monkey absorbs the yang energy that he needs to fuel his immortality.

Update: 08-18-23

Above, I described how the cultivation of an immortal spirit involved refining cosmic energies in the dantian (丹田) into a seed-like pearl, then a lotus, and finally a “spirit embryo” (聖胎). Well, thanks to a tumblr post by user ruibaozha, I now have a better understanding of how Buddhist “lotus births” influenced this imagery. Shahar (2015) explains:

As early as the first centuries CE, redemption in Amitabha‘s Pure Land has been imagined in floral terms. Those who trust in the Buddha’s grace are resurrected from divine lotus blooms. Flower-like beings, they emerge from the sacred lotus blossoms into a realm of purity and happiness:

When beings of this [superior] type are about to die, the Buddha of Measureless Light [Amitabha] appears before them, accompanied by a great crowd of attendants. Then, these beings follow this Buddha and go to be reborn in his land. They are reborn naturally and miraculously in the center of a lotus made of the seven precious substances, and they dwell in the state from which there is no falling back. They come to possess wisdom and courage, supernormal powers and spiritual mastery.

Floral regeneration became a favorite topic of Buddhist art across Asia. Redeemed souls were visually rendered as newborns wrapped in lotus blooms. Some artists faithfully followed a given Pure Land text. The ca. fifth-century Amitabha Visualization Sutra enumerated nine ranks of rebirth in the paradise of the west, from “the upper birth of the upper rank,” through “the middle birth of the upper rank,” downward to the “lower birth of the lower rank.” A seventh-century Dunhuang mural depicted them all in the form of babies emanating from nine lotus blossoms. Other artists focused on the process by which the flower is transformed into a divine being. They created a series of images recording the mysterious metamorphosis of the lotus. Dating from as early as the fifth century CE, the Yun’gang and Longmen caves include numerous examples of these pictorial narratives, showing first a newborn’s head peeping from inside the corolla, then the gradual transformation of the petals into the limbs, and finally the release of a full-blown ethereal being, the divinity of which is indicated by a [halo] [fig. 4] (pp. 143-144). 

Fig. 4 – “Lotus rebirth as rendered at the fifth-century Yun’gang Caves. From Yoshmura Rei, Tianren dansheng tu (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 2009), p. 23” (larger version) (Shahar, 2015, p. 144).

If viewed through a Daoist lens, this image could represent the fledgling spirit embryo emerging from the lotus, being nurtured to fruition, and then freed to live out an eternity in blissful freedom.

Update: 09-22-23

Above, I quoted Kohn’s (2008) heavily edited translation of the Wonderous Record, which noted the prescribed times for the ingestion of qi energy. This source was apparently cited in the “Inner Chapters” (Neipian, 內篇) of Ge Hong’s Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi, 抱朴子, 4th-century). A longer quote appearing in Campany (2002) mentions the aforementioned time-based practices, lists the types of resulting spiritual powers, and warns of this path’s difficulty:

Now the circulation of pneumas should be done during the hours of live pneumas (shengqi 生氣[/炁]), not during the hours of dead pneumas (siqi 死氣[/炁]). This is why it is said that “transcendents ingest the six pneumas.” In one day and night there are twelve double-hours. The six double-hours from midnight to noon are those of live pneumas; the six from noon to midnight are those of dead pneumas. During the period of dead pneumas, circulating pneumas is of no benefit.

One who is adept at using pneumas can blow on water and it will flow against its own current for several paces; blow on fire, and it will be extinguished; blow at tigers or wolves, and they will crouch down and not be able to move; blow at serpents, and they will coil up and be unable to flee. If someone is wounded by a weapon, blow on the wound, and the bleeding will stop. If you hear of someone who has suffered a poisonous insect bite, even if you are not in his presence, you can, from a distance, blow and say an incantation over your own hand (males on the left hand, females on the right), and the person will at once be healed even if more than a hundred li away. And if you yourself are struck by a sudden illness, you have merely to swallow pneumas in three series of nine, and you will immediately recover.

However, people by nature are restless, and few are able to maintain the quietude to cultivate this way. Furthermore, to practice the most essential methods of circulating pneumas one must avoid eating very much, or eating flesh vegetables and meats, for these cause the breath to become strong and thus hard to shut off. Also one must avoid rage, for if one has much rage, then the breath becomes disordered, and if it is unable to spill over, then it will cause a fit of coughing.

Few are those, therefore, who can practice breath circulation! (p. 21)

夫行炁當以生炁之時，勿以死炁之時也。故曰仙人服六炁，此之謂也。一日一夜有十二時，其從半夜以至日中六時為生炁，從日中至夜半六時為死炁，死炁之時，行炁無益也。善用炁者，噓水，水為之逆流數步；噓火，火為之滅；噓虎狼，虎狼伏而不得動起；噓蛇虺，蛇虺蟠而不能去。若他人為兵刃所傷，噓之血即止；聞有為毒蟲所中，雖不見其人，遙為噓祝我之手，男噓我左，女噓我右，而彼人雖在百里之外，即時皆愈矣。又中惡急疾，但吞三九之炁，亦登時差也。但人性多躁，少能安靜以修其道耳。又行炁大要，不欲多食，及食生菜肥鮮之物，令人炁強難閉。又禁恚怒，多恚怒則炁亂，既不得溢，或令人發欬，故鮮有能為者也。

Sources:

Campany, R. F. (2002). To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents. United Kingdom: University of California Press.

Kohn, L. (2008). Chinese Healing Exercises: The Tradition of Daoyin. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.

Shahar, M. (2015). Oedipal God: The Chinese Nezha and His Indian Origins. Germany: University of Hawaii Press.

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vol. 1) (Rev. ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

The Origin of Sun Wukong’s Battle with Lord Erlang and Its Ties to Han Dynasty Funerary Rites and Folklore

Jim R. McClanahan Leave a comment

Did you know the battle between Monkey and Lord Erlang is tied to Han Dynasty funerary rights and folklore? Wu (1987) notes that, during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE), the people of Sichuan often buried their dead in stone tombs decorated with brave heroes, such as archers and crossbowmen, and fierce animals, such as tigers and hounds. Regarding the latter, the canines are sometimes depicted attacking or intimidating apes, which were considered emblems of disease or bad luck (fig. 1). Therefore, by portraying the subjugation of such evil forces, the carvings are thought to have served the ritual function of protecting deceased loved ones from dark influences on their wayward journey to the afterlife (pp. 100-101).

The idea of dogs overcoming apes should bring to mind Sun Wukong’s capture at the mouth of Lord Erlang’s loyal hound at the end of chapter six.

Fig. 1 – A Han Dynasty tomb rubbing of oversized dogs intimidating apes (larger version).

One recurring motif depicts an archer drawing his bow to fall an ape in a tree (fig. 2). This is based on a third-century BCE tale about the legendary Chu archer Yang Youji (養由基) shooting an elusive white ape held in the palace of the King of Jing. This in turn is based on an even older tale about the archer Yi (羿) bringing order to the primordial earth by killing nine of ten suns that took the form of monstrous crows. Han era tombs are known to portray Yi drawing a bow to shoot said birds flying around a tree, so it most likely influenced the motif of Yang shooting the ape in a tree (Wu, 1987, pp. 102-106). Despite his later connection with the three-pointed polearm, Erlang was also portrayed as an archer in early media.

Fig. 2 – A Han tomb decoration depicting an archer shooting at an ape (larger version).

Lord Erlang was originally worshiped during the Han as a hunting god and queller of mountain ghosts by the Qiang (羌) ethnic group of the western Sichuan region. His cult grew and absorbed other deities and heroes under his mantle. For instance, Wu (1987) writes:

The Er-lang cult became even more popular in Sichuan under the patronage of the Later Shu emperor, Meng Chang 孟昶 (r. 934-65), and in 965, when the Song dynasty conquered the kingdom, it adopted the cult, erecting temples for the god in the capital and throughout the country.

When the Er-lang cult became increasingly popular in Sichuan, the previous divine archers such as Yang Youji and Yi, (like many other legendary demon-quellers), were mologized into this new cult, and their defeat of an ape demon became an important part of the Er-lang legend. Er-lang’s traits in later stories and art works clearly disclose this transformation (pp. 107-108).

It should also be noted that Erlang was at some point associated with the historical engineer Li Bing (李冰, c. 3rd-cent. BCE) and the official Zhao Yu (趙昱, c. 6th/7th-cent CE), both of whom were worshipped for defeating flood demons (Wu, 1987, p. 107). I suggest this may have led to his cult being connected to that of Yu the Great (大禹), the flood-queller par excellence in Chinese folklore. This is important because Tang Dynasty legends state Yu battled a simian water demon and eventually imprisoned it under a mountain (see Andersen, 2001). Sound familiar? This may have been another avenue in which Erlang was associated with quelling ape demons.

One anonymous 13th-century album leaf ink painting portrays Erlang seated in a kingly fashion and watching as his spirit soldiers round up and execute ape demons (fig. 3). An anonymous 15th-century scroll reproduces the scene in color (fig. 4 & 5).

Fig. 3 – (Top L) – The 13th-century painting depicting Erlang and his soldiers rounding up and executing ape demons. A captive ape can be seen on the bottom left between the two soldiers (larger version). Fig. 4 (Top R) – A detail from the 15th-century painting showing the ape, his humanoid wives, and their gibbon-like children being rounded up (larger version). This section is located in the last four-fifths of the scroll. Fig. 5 (Bottom) – A detail showing Erlang near the front of the same scroll (larger version).

The image of the deity as a queller of ape monsters culminated in an anonymous Yuan-Ming Dynasty play called The God Er-lang Locks up the Great Sage-Equal to Heaven (二郎神鎖齊天大聖, Er-lang Shen suo Qitian Dasheng). Much like JTTW, the god is sent to capture a magical primate, in this case an ape, who has stolen immortal food and wine from heaven (Wu, 1987, pp. 108-109). This no doubt influenced Monkeys mischief in heaven and subsequent battle with the deity.

Sources:

Andersen, P. (2001). The Demon Chained Under Turtle Mountain: The History and Mythology of the Chinese River Spirit Wuzhiqi. Berlin: G-und-H-Verl.

Wu, H. (1987). The Earliest Pictorial Representations of Ape Tales: An Interdisciplinary Study of Early Chinese Narrative Art and Literature. T’oung Pao LXXIII, pp. 86-112.

Flower Fruit Mountain as the Center of the Universe

Jim R. McClanahan Leave a comment

Did you know that Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) presents Flower Fruit Mountain as the center of the universe? Chapter one describes the mountain in a poem, the end of which reads:

[…]
This is indeed the pillar of Heaven, where a hundred rivers meet—
The Earth’s great axis, in ten thousand kalpas unchanged (Wu & Yu, 2012, p. 101).

正是百川會處擎天柱，萬劫無移大地根。

Eliade (1959) notes that “communication [between heaven, earth, and the underworld in world religions] is sometimes expressed through the image of a universal pillar, axis mundi, which at once connects and supports heaven and earth” (p. 36).

Why is this important? Because the novel describes how Monkey was born from a stone that “had been nourished for a long period by the seeds of heaven and earth and by the essences of the sun and moon” (Wu & Yu, 2012, p. 101). As a pillar of heaven, the height of Flower Fruit Mountain positions the boulder where heaven meets earth, allowing there to be a passage of energies between the two plains of existence through the stone, like electricity through a fuse. This might explain why Sun is so powerful.


Fig. 1- A complex diagram of Mount Sumeru and the associated heavens above and hells below it. If this portrayed Flower Fruit Mountain, Sun Wukong’s boulder would have been located where the summit meets the first heaven (larger version).

As I explain here, the author of Journey to the West supplanted traditional Buddhist geography by placing China in the Southern Jambudvipa Continent and moving India to Western Godinyia. So by making Flower Fruit Mountain the axis mundi, it supplants Mount Sumeru as the center of the cosmos (fig. 1). Admittedly, there is a discrepancy between the literary narrative and the religious cosmology since the book states Flower Fruit Mountain is located “at the border of the small Aolai Country [傲來國], which lies to the east of the East Purvavideha Continent [東勝神洲]” (Wu & Yu, 2012, p. 102). By definition, the mountain can’t be in the center of the world if it’s located to the east of the easternmost continent.

But discrepancies are bound to arise when you tell and augment a story cycle for hundreds of years. Flower Fruit Mountain is mentioned in the 13th-century precursor to the Journey to the West titled The Story of How the Monk Tripitaka of the Great Country of T’ang Brought Back the Sūtras (see Wivell, 1994).

Sources:

Eliade, M. (1959). The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (W. R. Trask, Trans.). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

Wivell, C.S. (1994). The Story of How the Monk Tripitaka of the Great Country of T’ang Brought Back the Sūtras. In V. Mair (Ed.), The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (pp. 1181-1207). New York: Columbia University Press.

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vol. 1). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.