Chinese Literature

太白金星天庭天使 · 13

Leaf 13 of the pilgrimage · 長庚星 The Long-Light Star

Taibai Jinxing 太白金星

In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a heaven-sent power who ends the fight · nicknamed 長庚星 “The Long-Light Star”

The old star who talked heaven into giving a rebel a job twice, and who is the one person in the book Wukong addresses as a friend.

Function
heaven's only negotiator
Method
always proposes the amnesty, never the battle
Off-stage act
hides the sun and moon for one false gourd

The great deeds 大事記

  1. ch. 4

    Carrying the Summons to the Cave

    宣招

    He proposes the appointment instead of the campaign, and personally walks into the cave to fetch the monkey.

  2. ch. 5

    Offering the Empty Title

    再招

    After the second war begins he proposes the empty title Great Sage Equal to Heaven, which holds for exactly one peach banquet.

  3. ch. 34

    The Sun and Moon Hidden Away

    藏日月

    He obliges Wukong's scheme to blacken sky and earth so a gourd can be swindled out of a demon, and does not ask why.

結局 The ending

He survives every war he tried to prevent, which is the fate of diplomats in the novel. His last scene is a favour done for a monkey, and no record of heaven's opinion on it.

In the same episode 同難

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