Chinese Literature
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Ink-wash painting of four pilgrims crossing a stone bridge among karst peaks and cloud, on the road west.

Leaf II · The road west · c. 1592

Demons & Tribulations of Journey to the West

西遊記

The novel's own register counts eighty-one calamities. This index covers the named antagonist episodes — the ones people actually look up: which demon, which magic treasure, and who had to come and fetch it. Every named person below opens into their own leaf: painted portrait, deeds in chapter order, and the ending.

The leaves 取經葉子

All 56 painted leaves are in this rail. Swipe it sideways, click one to open it full size, then arrow or drag through the rest.

Modern ink interpretations painted for this site after the Ming drinking-leaf tradition — not historical portraits and not scans of any edition.

The cast 取經人物

#SideNameEpithetStyle / seatWhy this leaf exists
1Pilgrim孙悟空 Sun Wukong美猴王 Handsome Monkey King齐天大圣Born from stone, self-taught in death, and the only creature in the book who ever made heaven renegotiate.
2Pilgrim唐僧 Tang Sanzang唐三藏 Tripitaka of the Tang旃檀功德佛The only pilgrim with no powers, who nevertheless is the one who decides when the story may end.
3Pilgrim猪八戒 Zhu Bajie猪刚鬣 Pig Ganglie天蓬元帥A decorated general of heaven demoted into a pig's body, who complains about the mission on every road and finishes it anyway.
4Pilgrim沙和尚 Sha Wujing沙悟净 Sha the Purified卷帘大將The ex-general who lost his rank over a broken cup, and who has carried the luggage ever since without ever being asked what he thinks.
5Pilgrim白龍馬 White Dragon Horse敖烈 Ao Lie of the West Sea西海龍子A dragon prince sentenced to death for burning one jewel, saved by Guanyin, and spent for fourteen years as luggage.
6Heaven观世音菩萨 Guanyin观世音 She Who Hears the World's Cries南海落伽山The one who designs the expedition, and then has to be woken up, uncombed and half-dressed, more often than anyone else in the book.
7Heaven如来佛祖 Sakyamuni Buddha释迦摩尼 Sakyamuni of the West靈山雷音He puts a monkey under a mountain with his hand closed, and gives the scriptures without writing them out with the other.
8Heaven太上老君 Taishang Laojun道祖 The Patriarch of the Way離恨天兜率宮The Taoist patriarch whose scrapes are the journey's backbone: the monkey was cooked in his furnace, and everything that ever disarmed Wukong came out of his house.
9Heaven玉皇大帝 Jade Emperor大天尊 Great Celestial Worthy天庭靈霄殿The administrator of everything, whose authority in the novel rests on having suffered more patiently than anyone else.
10Heaven二郎神 Erlang Shen显圣真君 The Manifest True Lord灌江口The only fighter the novel lets beat Wukong one-on-one, and he does it before the journey is even assigned — then shows up again decades later as a favour.
11Heaven李靖 Li Jing托塔天王 Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King天庭大元帥Heaven's general, who has to come down personally to collect a debt raised at the Buddha's assembly — from a rat he once agreed to call his daughter.
12Heaven哪吒 Nezha三太子 The Third Prince中壇元帥The prince who cut his own flesh to settle a debt with his father, and whose second career is being the one who beheads monsters at the joint.
13Heaven太白金星 Taibai Jinxing長庚星 The Long-Light Star天庭天使The old star who talked heaven into giving a rebel a job twice, and who is the one person in the book Wukong addresses as a friend.
14Heaven镇元大仙 Zhenyuan Daxian與世同君 Co-equal With Heaven五莊觀An immortal so old that heaven's register lists him as a peer rather than a subject, who takes a whole pilgrimage party into one sleeve without a fight.
15Heaven唐太宗 Emperor Taizong文皇帝 The Civil Emperor貞觀天子The emperor who starts the whole journey because he died for a night, lost an argument in the underworld, and came back owing a favour to the dead.
16Heaven魏征 Wei Zheng人曹官 Director of Human Affairs大唐宰相The minister who beheads a dragon king without leaving his chair, in the middle of a game of chess, while the emperor is losing on purpose.
17Heaven灵吉菩萨 Lingji Pusa靈吉 The Spirit of Effective Blessing須彌山The bodhisattva whose whole job is to keep one thing locked up, and who has already had to come back twice for the same escape.
18Heaven文殊菩萨 Manjusri法王子 Dharma Prince五台山The bodhisattva of wisdom, whose lion was loosed on a king on the Buddha's account, and who arrives to collect it in the middle of a funeral.
19Heaven弥勒佛 Maitreya東來佛祖 The Buddha Who Comes From the East當來下生The future Buddha, whose bell-ringer sat in his seat for five hundred years and called himself Little Western Heaven.
20Heaven毗蓝婆菩萨 Pilanpo Pusa紫雲山千花洞 The Lady of the Thousand Flowers Cave日宮所炼The bodhisattva nobody had heard of, who kills the invincible centipede with a needle and asks for nothing but two gatekeepers.
21Heaven太乙救苦天尊 Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun東極天尊 The Saviour from Every Painful Depth青華宮The deliverer of the suffering, whose own lion spent three years as the grandfather-demon of a whole mountain range.
22Heaven太阴星君 Lady of the Moon月府 Mistress of the Moon Palace廣寒清虛府The keeper of the moon, whose rabbit came down to settle a grudge over a servant's blow and very nearly married the monk.
23Demon黑熊精 Black Bear Spirit黑风大王 Black Wind Demon King黑風山黑風洞He steals the cassock out of love for it, holds a literary banquet to show it off, and is the one demon the book lets hire itself.
24Demon黄风怪 Yellow Wind Monster黄风大王 Yellow Wind Demon King黃風嶺黃風洞A marten that got too close to the Buddha's sermons, and the only creature on the road who hurts Wukong by blowing at him.
25Demon白骨精 White Bone Demon白骨夫人 Lady White Bone白虎嶺屍魔She never fights anybody. She is already a skeleton, and in three costumes she gets the monk to write out the expulsion of the only one of them who can see her.
26Demon黄袍怪 Yellow Robe Monster奎木狼 Kui, the Wood Wolf碗子山波月洞A star of the twenty-eight mansions who came down over an incense-maiden and stayed thirteen years; the end of it starts when his wife asks to hold the pearl.
27Demon金角大王 Golden Horn King金角大王 The Elder Horn King平頂山蓮花洞A Taoist patriarch's errand-boy who spent a chapter as the crowned elder of a cave with real rank and real invitations, and was sealed into the property he was set to watch.
28Demon九尾狐狸 Nine-Tailed Vixen九尾狐 The Nine-Tailed Fox壓龍洞狐母She is a demon's mother on paper only: fetched out of her cave by an invitation to eat the monk, and spent for an afternoon as a suit of clothes.
29Demon银角大王 Silver Horn King銀角大王 The Younger Horn King平頂山蓮花洞He does the work of the episode: three mountains on a monkey's shoulders, a gourd that runs on courtesy, and a defeat delivered by being drunk and careless.
30Demon青毛狮子怪 Blue-Furred Lion青毛獅子 The Blue-Maned Lion假烏雞王He sits three years on a foreign throne wearing a dead man, with no weapon and no plan, over an accounting of three days that somebody owed a buddha.
31Demon红孩儿 Red Boy圣婴大王 The Holy Infant King號山火雲洞Small enough to be tied to a tree and left for charity, he is the demon who beats Wukong with smoke, and he is taken by being asked to sit down on blades.
32Demon鼍龙 Tuo Long鼉龍 Crocodile Dragon, Nephew of the West Sea黑水河神府The only demon on the road who is somebody's relation: son of the dragon whose beheading started the journey, collected by his own uncle's house.
33Demon车迟国三仙 Three Immortals of Chechi車遲國三仙 The Three Immortals of Chechi車遲國師Three drought-year weather men who ran a kingdom for twenty years and lost it in one afternoon of contests they kept agreeing to.
34Demon灵感大王 Inspiration King靈感大王 The Inspiration King通天河水府He bought a village's children with good weather and turned out to be a pet that had floated up to listen too much.
35Demon独角兕大王 Lone-Horned Ox Demon獨角兕大王 Great King of the Single-Horned Si金兜山金兜洞He beat the whole pantheon without ever winning a fight: everything thrown at him was picked up by a ring he wore to bed.
36Demon如意真仙 Ruyi Zhenxian解陽山如意真仙 Ruyi Zhenxian of Jieyang Mountain解陽山落胎泉A rent-seeker, not a man-eater: he fenced in the one spring in the Women's Kingdom that undoes a pregnancy, and charged pilgrims for a bowl.
37Demon蝎子精 Scorpion Spirit蝎子精 The Scorpion Spirit毒敵山琵琶洞The novel gives her one credential and it is not strength: she stung the Buddha's finger, and heaven's answer to her is a bird.
38Demon六耳猕猴 Six-Eared Macaque六耳獼猴 The Six-Eared Macaque假齊天大聖The one demon on the road who wanted the scripture rather than the monk's flesh, and who could only be told apart by someone who had heard both preach.
39Demon牛魔王 Bull Demon King大力王 The Great Power King大力牛魔王The last surviving friend from the monkey's free-and-easy days, met again after half a book, and the only demon heaven mobilises twice for.
40Demon玉面公主 Jade-Faced Princess玉面公主 The Jade-Faced Princess積雷山摩雲洞The richest woman in the book buys a famous husband with a dowry, keeps him two years, and is the first thing he loses.
41Demon铁扇公主 Princess Iron Fan羅剎女 The Rakshasi Lady翠雲山芭蕉洞She can put out a mountain fire or put a monkey clean out of the country, and the novel's complaint against her is only that she will not lend the one.
42Demon九头虫 Nine-Headed Worm九头驸马 The Nine-Headed Son-in-Law亂石山碧波潭He robbed a Buddha's relic to light the roof of a cave, and he is the one major demon the book lets walk away: eight heads, flying north.
43Demon黄眉大王 Yellow-Brow Great Demon黃眉大王 The Yellow-Brow Great King小雷音寺He wanted no flesh and no territory; he wanted the incense, and for two chapters, a long way short of Spirit Mountain, he got it.
44Demon蟒蛇精 Python Spirit红鳞大蟒 The Red-Scaled Python七絕山紅蟒She has no treasure, no patron and no voice: Wukong asks her three times who she is, and the book explains that she has not yet learned to speak.
45Demon赛太岁 Sai Tai Sui金毛犼 The Gold-Haired Hou麒麟山獬豸洞The bodhisattva who comes to stop him puts the three bells back round his neck, and the book's line for it is that whoever unties a bell must ask whoever tied it on.
46Demon百眼魔君 Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord多目怪 The Many-Eyed Monster黃花觀道士His weapon is a tea-cup: three grains of a medicine boiled out of a thousand birds' dung, hidden in twelve red dates. No staff is drawn.
47Demon蜘蛛精 Spider Spirits七情 The Seven Passions盤絲嶺盤絲洞Wukong refuses to strike them: a staff stirred through that pool would foul the rod and sink his name. So the seven sisters get through the afternoon bruiseless.
48Demon青狮精 Blue Lion大大王 Eldest King of the Three獅駝洞大大王His whole career is a snub. The Queen Mother left him off the peach banquet, so he swallowed the army sent to punish him, shut the Southern Heaven Gate and went home.
49Demon大鹏金翅鸟 Golden-Winged Peng雲程萬里鵬 Peng of the Ten-Thousand-Li Journey獅駝洞三大王He is the only demon on the road who outruns the somersault cloud, the only one the Buddha calls family, and the only one who bargains about his food before accepting capture.
50Demon白象精 White Elephant Spirit二大王 Second King of the Three獅駝洞二大王The terror of the ridge, never once beaten in a straight fight, is undone by a suggestion from Bajie, who is standing on the side of the hill watching and not helping.
51Demon白鹿精 White Deer Spirit國丈 The Royal Father-in-Law清華仙府He came to a kingdom as an old man leading a beautiful girl, was made the king's father-in-law, and cured a headache of his own making with eleven hundred children's livers.
52Demon金鼻白毛老鼠精 Gold-Nosed Rat Spirit地湧夫人 Lady Rising from the Ground陷空山無底洞She has eaten six young monks in three nights and still wants to be married; the thing in her cave that ends the argument is an incense burner with two names on it.
53Demon南山大王 Southern Mountain King艾叶花皮豹子精 The Mugwort-Spotted Leopard折岳連環洞He calls himself King of the Southern Mountain, and that is the insult Wukong answers: even the Buddha sits below a bird, even Laojun takes the lower chair.
54Demon九灵元圣 Nine-Spirit Primordial Sage九頭獅子 The Nine-Headed Lion九曲盤桓洞The local gods refuse to touch him: the land-god says plainly that none but his owner can take him, and his owner's keeper was three days drunk.
55Demon辟寒三犀牛精 Three Rhinoceros Kings三犀牛精 The Three Rhinoceros Spirits青龍山玄英洞The only demons in the book running a farm: two hundred and forty households on a levy to buy oil worth forty-eight thousand taels a year, and the town calls it a blessing.
56Demon玉兔精 Jade Rabbit Spirit假公主 The False Princess毛穎山兔穴She came down to repay one slap, buried the real princess in a field and wore her face, then aimed an embroidered ball at the one husband the book would never give her.

The index 八十一難

PlaceDemon / antagonistTreasure or abilityResolutionCh.
Black Wind MountainBlack Bear Guaino magic treasure — martial skill onlyGuanyin subdues him; he becomes mountain guardian16-17
Yellow Wind RidgeYellow Wind Guaisamadhi wind (sanmei shen feng)Lingji Bodhisattva's wind-fixing pill20-21
Wanshou MountainZhenyuanzi (immortal)ginseng fruit; heaven-and-earth sleevereconciled; sworn brotherhood with Wukong24-26
White Bone RidgeWhite Bone Demonthree corpse-transformationskilled by Wukong's third strike27
Wanzi MountainYellow Robe Guai (Kui Wood Wolf star)heaven-relic pearlrecalled to heaven by the Jade Emperor28-31
Pingding MountainGold Horn & Silver Hornpurple-gold gourd, jade vase, hemp rope, seven-star sword, plantain fangourd turned back on them; returned to Taishang Laojun32-35
Wuji KingdomBlue Lion (Manjusri's mount)no treasure — impersonates the kingManjusri Bodhisattva retrieves him36-39
Fire Cloud CaveRed Boysamadhi true fireGuanyin's five gold bands40-42
Black Water RiverTuo Long (river dragon)river current and floodtaken back by the West Sea dragon prince43
Chechi KingdomTiger Strength, Deer Strength, Goat Strengthrain-calling, beheading-and-regrowing, oil-cauldron bathinglost each contest; exposed and killed44-46
Heaven-Reaching RiverInspiration King (goldfish)frost magic to freeze the riverGuanyin's fish basket47-49
Gold Hoop CaveBlue Bull Demon (Laojun's ox)the diamond snare (jingang zhuo)Taishang Laojun retrieves snare and beast50-52
Western Liang Women's KingdomScorpion Spiritpoison sting that pierces even Wukong's headMao Ri Star Officer (the celestial rooster)53-55
Flower-Fruit Mountain (impostor)Six-Eared Macaqueidentical staff and abilitiesexposed by the Buddha; killed by Wukong56-58
Plantain Fan & Jilei MountainPrincess Iron Fan & Bull Demon Kingplantain fan; bull's transformationsheavenly armies subdue the bull; fan borrowed59-61
Blue Wave PoolNine-Headed Wormnine heads, rain of bloodErlang Shen's howling sky dog bites a head off62-63
Little Western HeavenYellow-Brow Old Buddhagold cymbals, rear bagMaitreya's melon-field trick65-66
Seven-Peak MountainPython Spiritgiant serpent body that swallows preyWukong bursts her from inside67
Zizhu KingdomSai Tai Sui (Gold-Haired Hou)three purple-gold bells (fire, smoke, sand)Guanyin retrieves the bells68-71
Silk Web Cave & Yellow Flower TempleSpider Spirits & Centipede Spiritsilk cords; golden light from the ribsPilanpo Bodhisattva's embroidery needle72-73
Lion-Camel RidgeBlue Lion, White Elephant, Golden-Winged Pengyin-yang vase; gourd; great-peng flightBuddha and arhats retrieve all three74-77
Bhikshu KingdomWhite Deer Spiritheart-medicine plot; willow-branch staffStar of Longevity retrieves the deer78-79
Bottomless Pit MountainGold-Nosed White-Fur Rat Spiritno treasure — wind-snatchingbound by Li Jing and Nezha80-83
Miefa Kingdomno demon — the king's vow to kill monksthe vow itselfovernight hair-shaving miracle converts the king84-85
Hidden-Mist MountainLeopard Spiritpetal-splitting ambush formationkilled by Wukong85-86
Fengxian Prefectureno demon — heaven withholds rainthree unfulfilled pledgespledges fulfilled; rain granted87
Yuhua PrefectureNine-Spirit Primordial Sage (nine-headed lion)no treasure — seizes by mouthTaiyi Jiuku Tianzun retrieves him88-90
Jinping PrefectureThree Rhinoceros Spiritssteal the fragrant su-he oil while posing as buddhasfour wood-element star officers assist the kill91-92
Tianzhu KingdomJade Rabbitmedicine-pounding pestleLady of the Moon retrieves the rabbit93-95
Diling Countyno demon — false murder chargea framed deathWukong clears the case in the underworld96-97
Lingyun Crossingno demon — the final trialsingle-log bridge and bottomless boatcrossed; mortal body left behind98