My new article examines the reasons why three Buddhist deities from Ming-Qing vernacular Chinese literature are exiled from the Western Heaven.
Master Golden Cicada (Jinchan zi, 金蟬子) (a.k.a. Tripitaka, Tang Sanzang, 唐三藏) from Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) - a Buddha disciple who is caught sleeping during the Tathagata's sermon.
Miao Jixiang (妙吉祥) from Journey to the South (Nanyouji, 南遊記, c. 1570s-1580s) - A Buddha disciple who kills a belligerent sage on the grounds of the Thunderclap Monastery.
Great Peng, the Golden-Winged King of Illumination (Dapeng jinchi mingwang, 大鵬金翅明王) from The Complete Vernacular Biography of Yue Fei (Shuo Yue quanzhuan, 說岳全傳, 1684) - An avian dharma protector who kills a stellar-spirit for farting during the Tathagata's lecture.
The article analyzes them together and notes parallels, even with concepts from Greek philosophy.
The motif might serve as a good idea for writers wanting to create an OC with an interesting backstory. I have, for example, previously used it to suggest a fictional origin for Sun Wukong as a hot-tempered Bodhisattva (see the 06-16-23 update here).
Anyone who has read Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) will know that the Tang monk Tripitaka (Tang Sanzang, 唐三藏; a.k.a. Xuanzang) is
“Who was the wizard whom we’d just called on?” Entreri bit off every word.
“Ah, the bird enthusiast?” Jarlaxle raised both white eyebrows, his smile wide and innocent.
Entreri nodded, his unblinking stare locked upon his companion’s ruby gaze. “Yes. What did you call him? Something… thologist?”
Those ruby eyes wanted to dart out of that awful stare that captured them, but Jarlaxle knew that even the slightest shift would give him away. He held out both hands helplessly – slowly and out very far from his body, the assassin noted.
“…Ornithologist?”
A buzz sounded from the mercenary's hip. Jarlaxle's smile faltered.
"By every layer of the infinite Abyss," Entreri cursed as he reached for Jarlaxle's belt pouch, but before he could touch it, the flap flew open, and out shot a gold flare straight up to pierce the night sky. Both companions watched with jaws agape, Entreri's balled fists shaking at his side and Jarlaxle absentmindedly buckling his pouch closed again.
When darkness finally managed to swallow up the flare's light, the assassin whirled on his companion and seized the mercenary by both shoulders.
"You. Never. Learn. Do you?!" Entreri spat, each word punctuated by a violent shake of the drow.
"Please, Artemis, spare me," Jarlaxle gasped, his face turning ashen again. "I think I'm having a relapse of earlier..."
"I don't care!" Entreri shouted in his companion's face before pushing him roughly away. Jarlaxle fell clumsily to his rump and immediately doubled forward, clutching his stomach. The pitiful sight dissolved the castigating words hanging at the tip of Entreri's tongue.
Still, the assassin could not contain his anger. Turning away from Jarlaxle, he roared his fury to the sky, his fists shaking with impotent rage at not being able to throttle the drow, who was already so impaired.
Neither of them expected an answer to Entreri's call. The cry that pierced the sky reverberated so deeply in both of their frames that the assassin's ire drained from him faster than would the heat from his body had he been plunged into an icy lake.
There, above them, was a majestic bird, and Entreri quickly picked out the hooked beak and sharp claws of a predator. By its sleek body and thick neck, he guessed it to be an eagle of some sort, except he hadn't heard of any eagles possessing such a varied plumage. Even bathing fully in Selûne's light, the beast's body was almost indiscernible, so deeply cerulean were its feathers. It was as though the creature was born from the night sky itself, Its august wings unfurling like a birthing shroud sewn with shimmering golden threads, their azure tips merging imperceptibly back into the night.
Then, Entreri realized, in the short few breaths that he'd spent admiring it, the creature had multiplied more than ten times, perhaps a hundred times, in size, and it was getting bigger at an alarming rate. Another cry from the bird, more a roar than a screech, hammered the assassin's frame with understanding. It wasn't getting bigger, it was getting closer.
The alarmed man spun to find his companion curled on his side, clutching his stomach and trembling. Entreri could no longer hear Jarlaxle's pained moans, for the air was dominated by a sound that reminded him of a desert sandstorm.
With no regard for the mercenary who'd begun to retch, nor for the putrid substance that was spilling out of him again, the assassin grabbed his companion underneath the armpits and began dragging him bodily towards the end of the woods. He chanced to look up, seeing nothing but a darkness that even his magically-enhanced vision could not penetrate. Only his finely-honed instincts saved both of them then, for without even knowing why, Entreri tossed his companion forward while kicking himself back. He ended up rolling many more paces than he'd intended, for a great wind buffeted him as though he were no more than a tumbleweed. Nonetheless, he was grateful, for he'd gladly accept his new bruises and scratches in lieu of failing to avoid the gargantuan talons that dug long troughs deep in the hard earth. As he catapulted himself up from his stomach and back onto his feet, the assassin couldn't help but gawk, for in place of the formerly rocky ground were three deep trenches, the least of them wider than the streets on which he'd grown up.
Entreri shook his head and forced his mind away from envisioning himself as little more than bloody detritus in one of those troughs. Across the crevasses, he spotted his companion, feebly dragging himself towards the forest's edge.
Gritting his teeth, Entreri charged at Jarlaxle, another cry from the monster overhead nearly knocking his legs out from underneath him. When the assassin finally caught up to his companion and seized him by the back of the collar, words thundered across the sky, and Entreri briefly wondered if his lifelong scorning of the gods was less than prudent. He could offer no explanation for the voice, other than that a greater deity had shouted directly at them from their empyrean domain. Still, his body didn't allow his mind any of its resources, as he pulled, hauled and threw the both of them into the cover of the trees.
Once in the "shelter", Entreri regretted his choice immediately, for the thick trunks swayed like mere reeds in the breeze. Still-green leaves were whipped from swaying branches, which came crashing down around the pair. The cyclone ringing louder in his ears than his elevated heartbeat, Entreri dragged his companion to the thickest tree in proximity, tucking both of them as compactly as he could underneath the arching roots. He wanted to squeeze his eyes closed and curl up like his companion had, but he growled and settled for squeezing the skeletal hilt of Charon's Claw. He hardly knew why he bothered, for even the mighty Claw seemed no more threatening than a toothpick to the monstrous avian. Based on what little he'd seen of it, Entreri knew that they were to it as mice were to an elephant.
He couldn't have predicted what transpired next. A tremor so great shook the ground beneath them that Entreri wondered if Toril itself was splitting apart, followed by a gust that peeled the bark off of the trees. The sturdy trunk above them bent away before finally uprooting completely. Again, it was the assassin's finely-honed instincts that saved him and his companion, for he drove Charon's Claw into the tremulous earth until more than half the blade was buried, his strong grip their only anchor as their bodies whipped helplessly like flags of surrender in the relentless gust. Layers from his thick glove peeled away before his eyes in the seemly unending gale, as they did from his vambraces. He didn't bother to try to catch his heavy cloak when it, too, capitulated to the vicious onslaught, nor did he protest when his shoulderguards left his service abruptly. He winced as he felt his skin abrading, but his only other response was to draw the mercenary closer. Jarlaxle hadn't made any sounds, and it wasn't solely the perilous circumstance that prevented Entreri from considering the implications of his uncharacteristically quiet companion.
Entreri felt his body painfully strike the ground before he'd realized that the windstorm had passed. As he lifted his head, he found himself pinned, inexorably, with absolutely no chance of escape, by a stare that rendered his own steely gaze feeble by comparison. Staring down an ivory beak that was thicker than he was tall were two orbs, blacker than the deepest depths of the Underdark. Yet, within those bottomless spheres, shined an acuity that put the edge of his keen dagger to shame.
Not mice to an elephant, Entreri realized grimly. Ticks to an elephant.
He didn't know how many thin breaths he drew, paralyzed under the god-like being's gaze. He'd forgotten about his companion, until the drow stirred and managed to weakly lift his head up. Entreri felt rather than heard Jarlaxle's soft gasp, but judging from the sharpening of the light in the monster's eyes, both of them had sensed it.
"INSIGNIFICANT MORSELS," the creature boomed, its voice causing both companions to cringe away, "EVEN THE BIRD-FRIEND WAS NOT SO IMPRUDENT AS TO BE IMPUDENT BY SUMMONING ONE OF MY STATURE WITHOUT THE PROPER OFFERING! YET I SEE NEITHER ELEPHANT NOR MOOSE, NOT EVEN SO MUCH AS A SINGLE ROTHÉ!”
The gigantic beak clacked, and Entreri couldn't help but imagine his own body falling away in two neatly-cut pieces from it.
"SPEAK! I SHALL GIVE YOU ONE CHANCE TO HUMOR ME, BUT ONE CHANCE ONLY, AND KNOW THAT IT IS GRANTED FROM THAT YOU BOTH LOOK TOO RANGY TO MAKE EVEN A SATISFACTORY MEAL FOR MY BROOD!”
The assassin's dried lips parted, but his even dryer throat refused to emit a sound. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his companion shakily rise, dipping clumsily into a bow. Whether Jarlaxle was suffering from the same fear that crippled himself or the physical weakness from before, Entreri knew not, but when the mercenary fell back down onto his knees, the assassin's heart fell with him.
And so it ends, thought Entreri.
"I want one," he heard Jarlaxle whisper, and despite the danger inherent in breaking eye contact with the deadly predator, he had to ascertain with his own eyes whether his companion had lost the last of his wits.
He's completely gone, Entreri thought grimly, when he saw the grin and the nigh-maniacal glint in those ruby eyes.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" thundered the beast.
The drow clumsily struggled to his feet again, and this time, successfully performed his customary bow.
"My good madam," Jarlaxle began, his hat held to his chest, "I fear that my friend and I were tasked with the unenviable duty to inform your most exalted self that the esteemed Bird-Friend has passed on."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" the monster roared, and Entreri saved from vocalizing the same thing, for he was too busy shrinking away from the boom.
The corners of Jarlaxle's lips did quiver as he fought the urge to wince, but he managed to keep his expression steady. The drow nodded somberly.
"Alas, it transpired so quickly. We'd received a sending from the good man himself, and as we were on our way to call upon him, we'd received another sending, albeit this one was curtailed. His message was interrupted by some sort of magical interference, and all we were able to discern was his desire to convey his final well-wishes to his 'greatest of friends'."
The gigantic bird let out a deafening squawk. "INSOLENT INSECTS! YOUR IMPETUOUSNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS! YOU DARE LIE TO ME?
Jarlaxle's hands were already desperately waving in the air. "We would not dream of it, most esteemed one! Please consider this: it is not mere coincidence that you have graced us with your august presence. It was indeed the Bird-Friend's will!"
Without thinking, Entreri drew the wand from Jarlaxle's belt pouch, holding it out for his companion to take. However, the mercenary didn't take it, instead grandly swinging both arms to indicate the wand held in the assassin's fingertips.
"Good madam, do you recognize this?"
The ruffled feathers on that great avian head smoothed as the keen eyes studied the thin stick. Since Jarlaxle clearly had more urgent matters to attend to, Entreri considered personally uttering, “Ornithologist”, but his heart was in his throat. Just when the assassin was certain that he’d regurgitate his heart, the enormous creature finally responded.
"It seems that there is truth in your words. Bird-Friend never allowed that out of his sight."
Entreri began to breathe a sigh of relief, when another thunderous vocalization knocked the breath out of him.
"DO NOT TAKE ME FOR A FOOL, INSIGNIFICANT PESTS! I KNOW THE VILENESS OF YOUR FEATHERLESS, TWO-LEGGED KIND. DARE YOU TO THINK THAT I WOULDN’T DISCERN THAT YOU ARE NAUGHT BUT MERE THIEVES?”
Entreri wondered if those bottomless orbs were scouring his soul. Nonetheless, he kept his expression vague, and continued to stiffly hold onto the wand. He didn't like it, but had to swallow the reality that it was all in Jarlaxle's hands now.
Again, the assassin thought with disgust.
The mercenary was patting the air, his expression aggrieved. "Nay, good madam, I implore you, do not wrong us so! We bear the noblest of intentions, in conveying the message of a mutual friend. Were we the mere thieves of which you speak, would we have been able to call upon you?"
Jarlaxle had the avian's full attention now, and Entreri wondered if that would grant him enough time to attempt to escape while the monster snapped the drow up whole.
"It is no mere chance!" the drow continued. "Please consider, good madam, was Bird-Friend one who relied on coincidence?"
The large ivory beak parted, and every chord of muscle in Entreri's body tensed. However, to his surprise, the gigantic head cocked, and the beak clacked a few times. The air rushing from each clack felt like a massive ball of wet earth being slammed into his ribs, but the assassin gritted his teeth and held absolutely still.
Above them, Selûne had climbed higher, and Entreri saw the beads of sweat hanging off the back of his companion's smooth scalp. He forced his gaze upon one of those beads, his stare so intense that it was as though he was trying to evaporate it by sheer force of will alone. It was all he could do to prevent his sensibilities from unraveling in the implacable gaze of the monstrous predator.
Finally, after the assassin had to shift his gaze to many new beads, the gigantic bird spoke again. However, this time, its voice was akin to a flowing river, rather than a tumultuous waterfall.
"You'd called upon my mate, but he is no more," the creature said. "He was the one that Bird-Friend called 'greatest of friends'."
Entreri dared to look into those dark pools again, and was surprised to find melancholy therein. Jarlaxle apparently saw it too, and to the assassin's shock and disbelief, his unpredictable companion actually approached the great creature, even dared to set his hand upon its deadly beak!
"Aye, good madam, but it is no coincidence that you are here. You see, it was never simply your mate who was his greatest of friends. It was all of you - your mate, yourself, and your brood."
To Entreri's further surprise, not only did Jarlaxle not lose a hand, the great creature even leaned into his touch. Wide lids closed over the colossal orbs, and another silence fell over the trio.
Suddenly, the giant eyes opened again, and the enormous head lifted away. The force nearly swept both assassin and mercenary forward.
"The magic fades, little ones. The Land of Fate calls me back." The avian spread its enormous wings, and Entreri's heart dropped into his stomach. Visions from another lifetime filled him, of a great red dragon whose lair he'd been dragged into by this very same drow. He wondered why he'd let history repeat itself.
"In return for this kindness, you are welcome in my home, should you ever find yourselves in Zakhara." the great bird said. Then, there was nothing except the wide expanse and the night sky. The creature's voice still echoed, but there was no trace of it except for the troughs it'd clawed in the dirt, and the wrecked forest it left in its wake.
Well, almost. Before the pair, where the creature had stood a heartbeat before, was a single gigantic azure feather.
The wand fell from Entreri's fingers as he brought both hands to his face and slowly dragged his palms down his angular features. A shuffling from beside the assassin lifted his head to behold his companion, who was attempting to pick up the gigantic feather.
Entreri pushed himself up onto his rear and scowled at Jarlaxle's back.
"What are you doing?"
All he got in response was a face full of azure plume.
"Beautiful, is it not?" Jarlaxle cooed, gently stroking the sky-blue vanes and paying no heed to his companion's flailing arms that desperately tried to push away the barbs enveloping him.
A growl and a "shliss!" answered the mercenary, and the assassin stepped free amidst a flurry of shaved down. Jarlaxle let out a cry of dismay.
"Oh, but why, my abbil? It was perfect!"
"Was," Entreri replied shortly. The scrape of his dagger sliding into its sheathe accentuated the finality of his pronouncement.
Jarlaxle sighed and gazed regretfully at the formerly perfectly-shaped blue feather.
"What would you have even done with it anyway?" Entreri snapped.
Jarlaxle pointed forlornly at his wide-brimmed hat, which was still missing its characteristic feather.
"It's bigger than you!" the irritated human gestured with wide flung arms.
Jarlaxle simply shrugged. "That hardly matters, especially not now after it's been ruined." Brightening, he added, "At least we know how to get another one!"
Entreri boggled. "You can't be serious."
"Why not? We were invited, after all!"
"Even if I agreed to accompany you to far away Zakhara, which I most certainly will not, I possess no desire to fight a creature that could swallow me whole for the sake of your vanity," Entreri said with a grimace.
To the assassin's chagrin, the drow laughed.
"It's no wonder that you possess so few friends, my abbil. When one is invited to call upon another, it isn't a challenge to fight."
"It would hardly be a fight when I would be swallowed whole before I could draw."
"Foolishness doesn't suit you, my friend. We'd be no more than mere morsels for a creature such as that, she even informed us of such! Besides, there is more than one way to obtain a feather."
"Truly, you know how to comfort me. I suppose we could politely beg it to spare us one of its many fine plumes?" Entreri deadpanned.
Jarlaxle laughed again. "Beg? Hardly! I'd think by now you'd have realized that I have a way with women." He winked.
"Women?!" Entreri rocked back onto his heels. "That thing is bigger than Hephaestus! I wish not to attempt to negotiate with such a creature."
Mischief curled up one corner of the drow's lips. "Oh, but she was beautiful, was she not?"
The assassin didn't respond. He was simply grateful that it'd been many bells since he'd eaten.
[[ The giant bird that Jarlaxle accidentally summoned is a Zakharan roc, and, as luck would have it, the biggest variety of one: the great roc. These birds are 120 feet long with a 270 feet wingspan, making their bodies as large as those of adult red dragons (the largest species of chromatic dragons) with a wingspan that dwarfs that of the red dragon.
Great rocs have been known to speak the languages of humanoid races, but typically they don’t speak Common, but rather the languages of the Land of Fate. I figured that through having a history with the bird scientist, this roc and her family picked up Common.
Unlike dragons however, even Zakharan great rocs aren’t inherently magical beings, so even if she wanted to take on a human form, it wouldn’t be something that she’d be able to enact on her own. Would Jarlaxle truly go there, though...? >_> ]]
Fans of Lego Monkie Kid, as many of you may already know, Peng is based on an ancient monster king appearing in chapters 74 to 77 of Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592). In the end of his arc, he is trapped above the Buddha's throne and submits to Buddhism. But you may not know that this very same character appears in a later novel, The Complete Vernacular Biography of Yue Fei (Shuo Yue quanzhuan, 說岳全傳, 1684 CE; a.k.a. The Story of Yue Fei). Peng is exiled from paradise for ... and I'm not joking ... killing a stellar spirit for farting during the Buddha's sermon.
Chapter one of Yue Fei's biography reads:
Let’s talk about the Buddha Tathagata at the Great Thunderclap Monastery in the Western Paradise. One day, he sat on a nine-level lotus throne, and the Four Great Bodhisattvas, the Eight Great Vajra Warriors, the five hundred Arhats, the three thousand Heavenly Kings, nuns and monks, male and female attendants, all of the heavenly sages who protect the Dharma, gathered to listen to his lecture on the Lotus Sutra. His words were like flowers and precious jewels raining from the heavens. But, at that time, a star-spirit, the Maiden Earth Bat, who had been listening to the lecture from beneath the lotus throne, couldn’t bear it any longer and unexpectedly let out a stinky fart.
The Buddha was a great, merciful lord, so he didn’t mind even the slightest bit. But don’t sympathize with the Dharma protector above his head, the “Great Peng, the Golden-Winged King of Illumination,” whose eyes shone with golden light and whose back was a scene of auspiciousness. He became angry when he saw the nasty, filthy Maiden Earth Bat, and so he unfurled both his wings and dropped down to kill the spirit by pecking her on the head. The light-point of her soul shot out of the Great Thunderclap Monastery and went to the Lands of the East (China) in the world below to find a mother and reincarnate. She was reborn as a daughter of the Wang clan. She would later marry the Song Prime minister Qin Hui (1091-1155) and come to cruelly kill the righteous (i.e. Yue Fei) as a means to get revenge against today’s enemy. We will talk about this later.
Let’s return to the Buddha, who saw what happened with his all-seeing eyes and exclaimed, “Good! Good! It turns out that this is an episode of karma (cause and effect).” Then he called the Great Peng bird to come closer and shouted, “You evil creature! You already took refuge in my teachings. How can you not follow the five precepts by daring to commit such a horrible crime? I don’t need you here; you will descend to the mortal world to pay off your (karmic) debt and wait until you have fulfilled your work. Once that is completed, only then will I allow you to return to the mountain to achieve the right fruit (Buddhist merit).” The Great Peng complied with the decree, flying out of the Great Thunderclap Monastery directly to the Lands of the East to be reincarnated. We will stop here (translation by me).
且說西方極樂世界大雷音寺我佛如來，一日端坐九品蓮臺，旁列著四大菩薩、八大金剛、五百羅漢、三千偈諦、比丘尼、比丘僧、優婆夷、優婆塞，共諸天護法聖眾，齊聽講說妙法真經。正說得天花亂墜、寶雨繽紛之際，不期有一位星官，乃是女土蝠，偶在蓮臺之下聽講，一時忍不住，撒出一個臭屁來。我佛原是個大慈大悲之主，毫不在意。不道惱了佛頂上頭一位護法神祗，名為大鵬金翅明王，眼射金光，背呈祥瑞，見那女土蝠污穢不潔，不覺大怒，展開雙翅落下來，望著女土蝠頭上，這一嘴就啄死了。那女土蝠一點靈光射出雷音寺，徑往東土認母投胎，在下界王門為女，後來嫁與秦檜為妻，殘害忠良，以報今日之讎。此是後話，按下不提。
且說佛爺將慧眼一觀，口稱：「善哉，善哉！原來有此一段因果。」即喚大鵬鳥近前，喝道：「你這孽畜！既歸我教，怎不皈依五戒，輒敢如此行兇？我這裡用你不著，今將你降落紅塵，償還冤債，直待功成行滿，方許你歸山，再成正果。」大鵬鳥遵了法旨，飛出雷音寺，徑來東土投胎不表。
I've mentioned in one of my articles that I shared an email correspondence with Anthony C. Yu (d. 2015), a comparative religion scholar and translator of Journey to the West. I was reminded of this fact while looking for something in my old emails just now. I thought I would share one of his last messages to me before his death.
Chapters 74 to 77 of Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) feature a powerful bird demon called the “Peng of Ten Thousand Cloudy Miles” (Yuncheng wanli peng, 雲程萬里鵬). He is portrayed as an ancient, halberd-wielding monster and a spiritual uncle of the Buddha. He comes to rule his own country and later teams up with two escaped Buddhist animal spirits to cause havoc on earth. The Great Peng is so strong that his nephew, the Enlightened One, has to personally intervene to trap this matchless evil in a position above his throne (this references South Asian Hindo-Buddhist architectural elements that jumped to Tibetan Buddhist religious iconography). The monster submits but stubbornly refuses to stop eating meat, showing that even the Buddha cannot fully tame him. In the end, the Enlightened One placates the Great Peng by offering him willing human sacrifices from among his countless followers.
What's interesting is that a later book titled The Complete Telling of the Biography of Yue (Shuo Yue quanzhuan, 說岳全傳, 1684), an embellished chronicle of famed Song dynasty loyalist and general Yue Fei (岳飛; 1103-1142), portrays him as a reincarnation of this bird demon-turned-Buddhist guardian. This connection is likely based on Yue's historical "courtesy name", Pengju (鵬舉). In the novel, the “Great Peng, the Golden-Winged King of Illumination'' (Dapeng jinchi mingwang, 大鵬金翅明王) becomes enraged when a bat spirit farts during the Buddha's sermon, leading him to jump down from his perch and mercilessly kill the offender. The Enlightened One promptly exiles him to the world below to be reborn as Yue Fei. But this is actually a preordained countermeasure against a red dragon sent by the Jade Emperor to punish the Chinese Emperor in the form of a tribal leader who comes to invade northern China. This naturally plays on the known animosity between birds of prey and snakes (e.g. Garuda vs Nagas).
Yue Fei came to be worshiped in Chinese folk religion as a Daoist protector deity. He has temples (or at least a statue therein) dedicated to him throughout the Chinese diaspora, but they are most concentrated in China and Taiwan. This leads me to an interesting religious statue that I recently purchased. Labeled "Marshal Yue Fei, the Great Peng" (Dapeng Yue Fei yuanshuai, 大鵬岳飛元帥), it portrays the general astride his former incarnation. I've never seen a statue such as this, nor have any of my friends who are in the know. It appears to be quite rare.
Now I can say that I own a religious statue of the most powerful demons in Journey to the West!!! [INSERT EVIL LAUGHTER]
