牛魔王大力牛魔王 · 39
Leaf 39 of the pilgrimage · 大力王 The Great Power King
Bull Demon King 牛魔王
In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a demon on the road west · nicknamed 大力王 “The Great Power King”
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.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 3
Sworn Seven at the Cave
結七弟兄First name in the sworn seven of Wukong's youth — ox, dragon, roc, lion, macaque, ape and the monkey himself — who drank at Water-Curtain Cave and treated ten thousand li as the walk to the gate.
- ch. 60
The Palace Feast Under the Pool
赴華筵He breaks off a fight with Wukong to go and drink with dragon-folk in a palace under the pool called '亂石山碧波潭', tying his water-avoiding golden-eyed beast to a pavilion outside, which is the whole mistake.
- ch. 60
The Chase for the Stolen Fan
奪扇追趕Learning from his wife that the beast and the fan have both been walked off by an impostor husband, he strips off the banquet coat, arms himself with her two swords and goes up the mountain to catch the monkey.
- ch. 61
Wagering Change on Change
賭變化The chase turns into a list: a swan, a falcon, a yellow hawk, a black phoenix, a crane, a musk deer, a hungry tiger, a flower-spotted leopard, a lion, a man-bear, an elephant — and then he stops changing and shows a white bull with horns like two iron towers, head like a ridge, a thousand-odd zhang from nose to tail.
- ch. 61
A Dozen Heads on One Neck
數十個頭Nezha's sword takes his head a dozen times and a dozen heads come out of the neck, until the fire-wheels are hung on his horns and the true fire is blown; he rears and roars and cannot get his shape away from the demon-revealing mirror.
- ch. 61
Trading a Word for the Fan
歸順佛家His one sentence of surrender is a bargain for his life, and his one instruction after it is a call to his wife to bring the fan out of the cave and save him.
結局 The ending
He is roped through both nostrils, pinned by the mirror and led off by the pagoda king and his son to report to the Buddha's ground — not killed, not converted on the page, simply delivered. Everything of his is burned or counted except his wife, who outlives him by thirty chapters and does better. His grievance, listed once: his son taken, his concubine cheated, his wife lied to.
The book itself: why the monkey was pinned, which translation — The 500 years · The translations · The 81 trials