银角大王平頂山蓮花洞 · 29
Leaf 29 of the pilgrimage · 銀角大王 The Younger Horn King
Silver Horn King 银角大王
In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a demon on the road west · nicknamed 銀角大王 “The Younger Horn King”
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.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 33
A Broken Leg and Three Mountains
詐傷求馱He came down the road as an old priest with a broken leg, got the monk to insist, and was lifted onto Wukong's back — where he waited for the mountains.
- ch. 33
Three Mountains on the Head
三山壓頂He made the hill-spirits bring Sumeru, Emei and Tai down onto the monkey's head and shoulders, and Wukong foamed at the mouth and wept where he stood.
- ch. 33
The Gourd Sold Back to Him
假葫換真He trusted two small devils with the gourd and the vase; the monkey met them as an immortal selling a better one, and had the sun and moon hidden to prove it.
- ch. 34
The Name-Answering Gourd
應聲是誰He called the name the monkey had made up for himself, the answer came straight back, and the gourd took Wukong while the cave spent the night sure it was finished.
- ch. 34
Treasures Gone After the Toast
醉中失寶The cave drank over the capture. He woke with the treasures gone and a stranger on the hill calling him by his own name.
- ch. 35
A Boy at the Silver Furnace
銀爐童子Laojun's account of him is a job description: a boy at the silver furnace who carried off five of his master's treasures to play at being a king.
結局 The ending
He ends inside his own gourd and is let out by his master's hand rather than by the monkey's staff. Laojun takes back the five treasures and the two boys with them, the borrowed mountains go back to the spirits who carried them, and what is left of Lotus Cave — the devils, the stores, the furniture of a court nobody had a right to keep — is finished off by the monkey and the pig.
The book itself: why the monkey was pinned, which translation — The 500 years · The translations · The 81 trials