Chinese Literature

二郎神灌江口 · 10

Leaf 10 of the pilgrimage · 显圣真君 The Manifest True Lord

Erlang Shen 二郎神

In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a heaven-sent power who ends the fight · nicknamed 显圣真君 “The Manifest True Lord”

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.

Power
seventy-two changes, a third eye, and six brothers of Meishan
Holds
the howling-sky dog
Status
he keeps heaven's pay and refuses heaven's court

The great deeds 大事記

  1. ch. 6

    Shape Matched Against Shape

    小聖施威

    They match each other through an eagle, a serpent, a sparrow and a fish, until the dog takes Wukong's calf.

  2. ch. 6

    Burning Water-Curtain Cave

    搗毀洞府

    He sets Water-Curtain Cave on fire, which is why the monkey's home is a memory in the rest of the book.

  3. ch. 63

    The Hound Takes a Head

    咬落一頭

    Hunting near the Blue Wave Pool, he lends the dog; it takes one of the nine heads and the rest of the demon flies away with it.

結局 The ending

He is the only character who wins a duel against the protagonist and then disappears into the good kind of obscurity: no office in heaven's list, no grudge, and his name used once more as a courtesy.

In the same episode 同難

The book itself: why the monkey was pinned, which translation — The 500 years · The translations · The 81 trials