Holding the country, multi-hearing, growing and wide-eyed are called the "Four Heavenly Kings", and they are listed as the title of sleepy insects, not only because there is a certain connection between them, but also some descriptions make people wonder.
The sleepy insect appeared for the first time in the fifth chapter of "Journey to the West": Wukong, who was not invited, came to the Pan Tao Club, and the dragon liver, phoenix marrow, bear paw and scarlet lips and other delicacies in front of him, as well as the fragrant mash wine, made him "can't stop salivating at the corners of his mouth, and he wants to eat". He plucked a few hairs, "threw them in his mouth and chewed them, sprayed them out, and recited a mantra", and the sleepy insects he conjured "ran on everyone's faces", and they "lowered their hands and heads, closed their eyebrows and closed their eyes, lost their deacons, and went to sleep", while Wukong "let go of the amount" and enjoyed it to his heart's content. After he returned to Huaguo Mountain, he returned to the Pan Tao Club to steal wine, and everyone "snored and did not wake up", and the sleeping effect of those sleepy insects was excellent.
When the sleepy insect reappeared, Wukong had become a great apprentice of Tang Seng and went to the Western Heavens. Because they stole the ginseng fruit, Wuzhuang Guan Tongzi Qingfeng and Mingyue locked them in the house and left them to be dealt with by ** Zhen Yuanzi. Wukong decided to flee overnight, and before leaving, two sleepy insects popped up and "ran to the boy's face, snoring and sleeping, and never wanted to wake up again", and this sleepy insect was "won by playing tricks with the growth king in the East Heavenly Gate". It's strange to read this, why don't you turn into a sleepy bug at this time? If it is taken from the Growth Heavenly King, after forty-nine days of refining in the Bagua Furnace, Wukong's clothes have been burned out when he jumps out, how can those sleepy insects remain?
In the seventy-first episode, in order to steal the golden bell from Chunjiao next to the golden retriever, Wukong used the sleepy insect again, and the Chunjiao really "fell asleep with love", and the origin of the sleepy insect was not explained this time. However, when Wukong used a sleepy insect to put down the little demon who was guarding the basket in order to rescue Tang Seng in Lion Camel City, he explained that he won it by playing tricks with the Protector Heavenly King at the North Heavenly Gate when he was the Monkey King. When mentioning the Growth Heavenly King, the location was pointed out as the East Heavenly Gate, and the location involved in the Protector Heavenly King here is the North Heavenly Gate, so it seems that it would not be a mistake to write the Growth Heavenly King as the Protector Heavenly King. It is also reasonable that Wukong has a relationship with them, at that time he had nothing to do, he was free, he would visit the palace with friends all day long, make friends, and the work pointed out that the Four Heavenly Kings were also among them. The practice of "making friends with all the stars in the sky, regardless of high or low, are called friends" alarmed the heavenly court, and the so-called "fear of making things happen in the future" was actually for fear of the current friends of the dynasty, so he asked him to manage the Pan Tao Garden, saving him from wandering around. In the sixteenth episode, Wukong went to heaven to borrow a fire cover from the Guangmu Heavenly King, and when he returned the cover, Guangmu warmly invited: "I haven't seen you for a long time, why don't you sit in the palace for a while?" Wukong, who was tasked with learning from the scriptures, replied: "Lao Sun is different from before, and the rotten bench talks about ......."From this, it can be imagined that Wukong's interaction with the Four Heavenly Kings back then, but he and the Growth Heavenly King and the Protector Heavenly King were all "guessing tricks", and the gambling money was all sleepy insects, and the game was similar to a monotonous. Reading this, I also wondered, why are the growth and protection of the country raising sleepy insects, and what is the intention? It is important to know that although these insects are small, their efficacy is as good as ***
In the face of the destruction of the French king's vow to kill 10,000 monks, Wukong also released sleepy insects, one from the king to the largest and smallest ** people, "everyone sleeps steadily, and is not allowed to turn over", and then shaved their hair to become monks; In the eighty-sixth episode, the sleepy insect released by Wukong actually caused all the monsters in the cave of Hidden Fog Mountain to sleep. It may be that there are many targets for spellcasting, and the more than ten sleepy insects obtained from the Heavenly King are not enough, these two times they are changed with hair, and hundreds of people need to be hypnotized to destroy France, and Wukong even "plucked all the hairs off his left arm". The use of the sleepy bug seems to be invincible, with only occasional minor obstacles. In the country of lions and camels, the nine little demons were all put down, "only one with a fire fork, unable to sleep steadily, rubbing his head and rubbing his face, pinching his nose left and right, and sneezing incessantly", Wukong had to add another one to smooth him out. The leopard spirit of the Hidden Foggy Mountain is also not enough for a sleepy insect, "he rubs his head and faces with both hands, keeps snorting and snorting, and pinching his nose", and he also has to use two pieces to "fall asleep too". These descriptions tell the reader that sleepy insects are only effective when used by mortals or those who are not deeply traveling, and if the goblins on the way to the west can be put down in this way, this "Journey to the West" will be too boring.
Wukong has used the Sleepy Worm six times, and two times it is clearly from the Growth Heavenly King and the Protector Heavenly King, perhaps taking the opportunity to exaggerate Wukong's friendship with them. When Wukong first went to heaven, the guardian of the South Heavenly Gate was the Growth Heavenly King, and the sixteenth time he went back there was the Wide-eyed Heavenly King, the fifty-first time he met the Duowen Heavenly King in the North Heavenly Gate, the fifty-fifth time he met the Growth Heavenly King in the East Heavenly Gate, and the ninety-fifth time he met the Protector Heavenly King in the West Heavenly Gate. Hiromu told Wukong, "Today's turn should inspect the South Heavenly Gate", and Duowen said, "Today's turn should be inspected", it seems that they take turns to inspect the four Heavenly Gates every day. When inspecting, he generally takes four or eight marshals, such as Pang Liu Gou Bi, Deng Xin Zhang Tao or Ma Zhao Wenguan, and the work only mentions his surname, which is estimated to correspond to Pang Yu, Liu Ji, Gou Leiji, and Bi Zongyuan among the thirty-six generals; Deng Yuguang, Xin Mochen, Zhang Yuanbo, Tao Yuanxin, Ma Rongrong, Zhao Gongming, Wen Qiong, Guan Yu. It can be seen that the status of the four heavenly kings is higher than those marshals, but there are too many marshals in the heavenly court, when the Jade Emperor went to the court, he "placed dozens of marshals on both sides", and when Bajie was in the heavenly court, he was also an official marshal. The gods crusaded against Huaguo Mountain, the "Four Heavenly Kings General System", and the author also ranked them many times before Li Jing, the king of Tota. Wukong thought that the Erlang God who came to challenge was too young, so he said, "You, Langjun junior, can go back in a hurry and call your four heavenly kings out", not everyone is qualified to fight with him. However, there are words in the book, such as "Li Tianwang immediately transferred the four heavenly kings and the twenty-eight nights", which may be due to the need for unified command in the battle.
There is no doubt that the four heavenly kings are the heavenly court, but Tang Seng admired the Baolin Temple in the country of Wuji, and in the "two-story mountain gate, I saw the appearance of the four heavenly kings, which is to hold the country, hear more, grow, and wide-eye, according to the northeast and southwest wind and rain." Reading this, I wondered, why did the four heavenly kings who worked for the Jade Emperor belong to the Taoist system, and they appeared in the temple and entered the Buddhist sequence? Do they have the law of doppelganger, and serve in two places at the same time?
According to Buddhism, the Sanskrit names of Titara, Vishamanten, Virudaka and Virubocha are respectively Tidora, Vishamanten, Viliu Daka and Virubocha, and the description of serving the heavenly court clearly contradicts this. In the ninety-ninth episode, Jiang Ziya sealed the four heavenly kings who were killed by Huang Tianhua, such as Mo Li Qing, Mo Li Hong, Mo Li Hai and Mo Li Shou, who were killed by Huang Tianhua, for growth, Guangmu, Duowen (Wen) and the four heavenly kings of the country, divided into wind, tune, rain and shun, ** is still the Qingguang sword, jasper pise, mixed yuan pearl umbrella and purple gold dragon flower fox mink used during his lifetime. Jiang Ziya was enshrined in the Yuan Shi Tianzun, and the Four Heavenly Kings should belong to the Taoist series, but their duty is to "assist the Western canons" and let them serve the Buddhists. "The Romance of the Gods" also claims that the Taoist Manjushri Guangfa Tianzun later became the Buddhist Manjushri Bodhisattva, and the self-cultivation place was changed from Wulong Mountain to Wutai Mountain; Fuxian Zhenren later became Fuxian Bodhisattva, he moved from Jiugong Mountain to Emei Mountain; Cihang Taoist people later became Guanyin Bodhisattva, and the self-cultivation place Putuo Mountain remained unchanged. Li Jing's sons Jin Zha and Mu Zha originally learned Taoism, and at this time they also changed to Buddhism with **. However, in "The Romance of the Gods", Muzha worships Fuxian Zhenren as his teacher, but in "Journey to the West", he becomes the apprentice of Guanyin Bodhisattva. Both books adopt folklore in their contents, and both show that the efforts made to sort out the sequence of Taoism and Buddhism at that time were not uniform, but these efforts still do not provide an explanation for why the Four Heavenly Kings were able to serve in both the Heavenly Court and the Lingshan at the same time.
The author of "Journey to the West" also felt that this contradiction was not easy to solve, so only the thirty-sixth chapter mentioned that the country, the multi-hearing, the growth and the wide eyes appeared in the Buddhist temple, and the Buddhist sequence was described in the book, generally Buddha, Bodhisattva, Vajra, Arhat, Jiedi, bhikshuni, bhikshu monk, Upasa, Youpoyi, not listed the four heavenly kings, but the four great vajra are also known as the four heavenly kings of the world, leaving traces of the connection between them. When describing the capture of the Bull Demon King, the author asked all the four King Kongs to play, and wrote their full names: The Bull Demon King retreated to the north, and there was a vast number of Splashing King Kong blocking the way from the Wutai Mountain Secret Demon Rock Divine Power; retreated to the south, hitting the Qingliang Cave of Mount Emei, and the mana was immeasurably superior to King Kong; To the east, it is the Moor Cliff of Mount Meru, which is intercepted by King Kong Dali; To the west, I met Kunlun Mountain, Jinxia Ridge, and the king of Jinxia Ridge lived in King Kong forever. This description seems to be an attempt to distinguish between the Four Great Vajra and the Four Heavenly Kings, but in the thirty-sixth chapter, the appearance of the country, the multi-hearing, the growth, and the wide-eyed appearance in the Buddhist temple cannot be explained after all. Moreover, just as the four heavenly kings guarded the gate of heaven in the heavenly court, the four great kings guarded the mountain gate in Lingshan Town, Wukong went to Lingshan several times, and the four great kings stopped in front of the mountain gate to ask about the meaning, Tang Seng finally came to the Leiyin Temple, and it was also the four great kings who greeted him at the mountain gate. My job on weekdays is to guard the door, and the same arrangement is probably not a coincidence.
There is also a puzzling confusion in the book's description of King Kong. The Four King Kongs have appeared many times, but it is the Eight King Kongs who have appeared in many places, and they are the ones who sent Tang Seng back to the Eastern Tang Dynasty. The town guard of the mountain gate of Leiyin Temple, sometimes the four King Kongs, sometimes the eight King Kongs, the two titles sometimes appear at the same time. There are a total of eight Vajra statues in Ling Mountain, and sometimes it is a four-group activity? The author does not give any clear explanation for this description that is easy to confuse the reader, but the reader can feel his disrespect for the King Kongs, describing the yellow wind spewed out by the yellow-haired sable rat as "the eight King Kongs shouting together".
Lu Xun noticed the phenomenon that "Shakya and Laojun are in the same stream, and the true nature and the original spirit are mixed", and he believes that "Journey to the West" is not a book of "words", and the author "has not studied Buddhism", and his original intention is "really out of games", which is also an explanation for those confusing descriptions.
Author: Chen Dakang.
Text: Chen Dakang Editor: Wu Dongkun Responsible Editor: Shu Ming.
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