#yue fei

[itsapmseymour]

Got the opportunity to provide the English voice for the legendary general, Yue Fei in Naraka Bladepoint’s Lastest Rift Chapter~

Thanks for having me NetEase, and you gamers can check out the game on Xbox, PS5, Steam and Epic Games!

[journeytothewestresearch]

Buddhist Deities Exiled From the Western Heaven

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).

Buddhist Deities Exiled From the Western Heaven in Chinese Vernacular Literature

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

[tianzhens]

love like the galaxy | empress yue babysitting wendy

[hundredthousandtimes]

Love Like The Galaxy 星汉灿烂: Episode 34

#smile

[zeejade88]

I always feel so sad anytime the Empress looks at the Emperor and his attention is on Consort Yue and they're sharing a moment. Our Empress has lived such a sad life and the fact that the Crown Princess thought her life was so miserable that she was justified in what she did makes me even madder.

[sinetheta]

怒发冲冠 .凭栏处，潇潇雨歇。 抬望眼，仰天长啸，壮怀激烈。 三十功名尘与土， 八千里路云和月。 莫等闲，白了少年头，空悲切 ! My wrath bristles through my helmet. The rain pauses as I stand by the rail; I look skywards and let loose a passionate cry. At the age of thirty, my deeds are nothing but dust, and my journey has taken me over eight thousand miles. So do not sit idly, for young men will grow old and bear regret.

The Red River (满江红) by Yue Fei (岳飞). Southern Song dynasty. 

The Red River is a set of ci poems attributed to Yue Fei, though authorship is disputed to this day. The poems center around themes of war, victory, loyalty, and regret; Yue calls for immediate action to protect Song values and people.

A renowned military general of the Southern Song dynasty, Yue Fei engineered and commanded multitudinous successful campaigns against the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty during the twelfth century. Tales of his untimely demise vary, but most assent that he died at the age of thirty-nine, likely treacherously assassinated or murdered by jealous enemies. Legend has it that Yue tattooed “尽忠报国” (literally: “serve the country with the utmost loyalty") on his back to give himself and others strength against the Jurchens. 

A scholarly man as well, Yue kept frequent company with other intellectuals of the age. He wished for his deeds to be recorded in history as demonstrative of national loyalty. In fact, ince his death, Yue has been considered a martyr and hero, and is marked as the epitome of allegiance. He was posthumously granted the title of King of È (鄂王) by Emperor Ningzong (宋宁宗). 

[tianzhens]

love like the galaxy | they share one (1) brain cell and it bites

[journeytothewestresearch]

JTTW Great Peng Religious Statue

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]