Chinese Literature

九头虫亂石山碧波潭 · 42

Leaf 42 of the pilgrimage · 九头驸马 The Nine-Headed Son-in-Law

Nine-Headed Worm 九头虫

In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a demon on the road west · nicknamed 九头驸马 “The Nine-Headed Son-in-Law”

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.

Lair
a palace under the Blue Wave Pool, reached by walking down the bed of a river
Arms
no treasure but a wolf-tooth mace, and nine necks that bleed as fast as they are struck off
Owner
nobody — heaven sends no one, because nobody at heaven owns him

The great deeds 大事記

  1. ch. 62

    The Relic Carried from the Tower

    塔無光

    The 金光寺 tower has gone dark above the city and the rain has gone with it; the monk sweeps the storey himself and learns that a dragon's household carried off the 舍利子佛宝.

  2. ch. 62

    A Toast to the Stolen Relic

    夜下波心

    Wukong and Bajie walk down the river bed at midnight and find a water-court drinking a toast to the stolen relic, with a cave full of treasure nobody in it had any right to.

  3. ch. 62

    The Old Dragon in the Dark

    老龍斫死

    The old dragon king is killed in the dark on the bank and his daughter goes down at the water's edge; the relic is still missing and the son-in-law has not yet been touched.

  4. ch. 63

    The Funeral Feast and the Mace

    殯宴不驚

    The pool gives a funeral feast for the dead king the next morning, and the nine-headed son-in-law comes out of it arguing doctrine with a mace over his shoulder.

  5. ch. 63

    Nine Necks on the Sand

    九頭瀝血

    Necks come away in Wukong's hand one after another and every stump leaves its own pool on the sand; it is the bloodiest fight on the road and the least magical.

  6. ch. 63

    The Dog That Took a Head

    犬借一頭

    Erlang Shen is out hunting near the ford, lends his dog for the favour of it, and the dog takes a head off his shoulders while the demon is still mid-swing.

  7. ch. 63

    A Carcass Floats at the Ford

    無憑之屍

    A body floats up at the ford missing one head. The novel has him fly on into the Northern Sea and never lets a single witness confirm that he was inside it.

結局 The ending

Nothing is collected and nothing is bound: no owner arrives, no fillet goes on, and the mace-wielder goes north with eight heads and a wound where the ninth was. The relic and the rain both return to the tower, which is the only part of the affair anyone at court can point at, and the pilgrims leave no name behind them in the river.

In the same episode 同難

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