辟寒三犀牛精青龍山玄英洞 · 55
Leaf 55 of the pilgrimage · 三犀牛精 The Three Rhinoceros Spirits
Three Rhinoceros Kings 辟寒三犀牛精
In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a demon on the road west · nicknamed 三犀牛精 “The Three Rhinoceros Spirits”
The only demons in the book running a farm: two hundred and forty households on a levy to buy oil worth forty-eight thousand taels a year, and the town calls it a blessing.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 91
Three Jars of Scented Oil
三盞金燈At the Gold Lantern Bridge three jars the size of tubs held fifteen hundred catties of su-he fragrant oil, four thousand eight hundred taels of silver worth, and it was understood that the Buddha came and drank it all in three nights, which was why the harvest came round.
- ch. 91
False Buddhas Come for the Oil
假佛收油Wukong knew the wind for evil before it landed and told the monk so; the monk went up on the bridge to bow to the three shapes in the light, and the demon put the oil in a vessel and the monk under his arm and left the same way.
- ch. 91
Frying the Captive in Sweet Oil
煎吃之計At the cave the three agreed to strip the captive, wash him and cut him fine, to be fried in the same fragrant oil they had eaten their way into a thousand years of life. Wukong got in as a firefly and got the chain off, then had to fight out alone and leave the monk behind.
- ch. 92
Named by Taibai at the Gate
金星識怪Taibai Jinxing, met at the West Heaven Gate, said it out plain: three rhinoceros spirits, so clean they hate their own shadow and bathe in the rivers, parting the water with their horns; and the only men who can take them are the four Wood Stars, quartered outside the Ox-Dipper Palace.
- ch. 92
Four Stars at the Cave Mouth
四木禽星The Jade Emperor sent the Celestial Master Xu to muster them, and the four objected that without a warrant they dare not leave their posts. At the cave mouth the three kings took one look, said their subduer had arrived, let fall their hands, went off on four hooves like iron cannon, and ran north-east.
- ch. 92
Horns That Part the Water
角能分水They ran to the western ocean and went under, cutting the water open with their horns; the West Sea's king called out his son Moang with the prawn soldiers and turtle generals, and penned them against the palace gate.
- ch. 92
Iron Hooks Through the Nose
井宿啃死One, Cold-Averting, was pinned by Well-Star in his own shape and bitten through the neck before the dragon prince could shout him off; the other two had their noses spitted with iron hooks and were led up to the prefecture's court alive.
- ch. 92
Four Horns Sawn for the Tribute
鋸角進貢Bajie cut off both heads himself, four horns were sawn for the Jade Emperor's tribute, one was left in the prefecture's treasury as a receipt against the oil levy, and Wukong took one to Vulture Peak.
結局 The ending
Their hide was tanned with saltpetre and smoked dry into armour, the flesh given out among officials and town, and a notice posted banning the Gold Lanterns and remitting the oil levy for good — the only reform the pilgrims are recorded to have legislated. The party stayed a month, ate thirty-odd full banquets, and slipped out at the fifth watch to dodge another.
The book itself: why the monkey was pinned, which translation — The 500 years · The translations · The 81 trials