观世音菩萨南海落伽山 · 6
Leaf 6 of the pilgrimage · 观世音 She Who Hears the World's Cries
Guanyin 观世音菩萨
In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a heaven-sent power who ends the fight · nicknamed 观世音 “She Who Hears the World's Cries”
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.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 8
Carrying the Three Treasures
訪取經人Given the three treasures, she goes looking for the monk and finds three future disciples on the way.
- ch. 17
The Fillet on the Black Bear
收黑熊She borrows Li Jing and Nezha, turns Wukong into a pill, and puts the constraining fillet on a bear who wanted only to be a friend to monks.
- ch. 26
Jade Vial of Reviving Dew
活人參果Her dew-water in a jade vial brings the ginseng tree back, and Zhenyuan Daxian pours tea for her afterwards.
- ch. 42
Five Rings on the Lotus Seat
金箍縛孩She plants thirty-six knife-blades as a lotus seat, lets him sit on them, then closes five rings on his head and limbs.
- ch. 49
The Uncombed Net
提竹籃She comes to the river without combing her hair and fishes the goldfish out of her own lotus pool.
- ch. 71
Reclaiming Her Own Runaway Mount
收金毛犼She has to admit the beast was her own mount, and had been away the length of the king's grief.
結局 The ending
She ends the book exactly where she began it, in the Southern Sea, with the fillet's owner never having to appear again. The pilgrims pass her cave on the way home and do not stop.
The book itself: why the monkey was pinned, which translation — The 500 years · The translations · The 81 trials