Journey to the West Researchさんのイラストまとめ

Here is my second Journey to the West artist spotlight featuring @ninjahaku21art. See the linked article for more examples of their stellar work.

https://t.co/8yRct21owy

Fans of Lego Monkie Kid will love their style.

Red Boy (紅孩兒) is actually the character's “milk name” (乳名), a nickname given to babies 100 days before receiving their proper childhood name. But some people live their whole lives with this name. His “assumed name” (號) is "Great King Holy Infant" (聖嬰大王).

Lyes Hammadouche, a French artist, read my article on the origins of the Monkey King's headband & was inspired to create a piece of jewelry. The twisting symbolizes tightening. The spikes symbolize the resulting pain. And the middle bits are crease lines from the client's hands.

Names for the headband tightening spell from Journey to the West.

1. "True Words for Controlling the Mind" (定心真言)
2. "Tight-Fillet Spell" (緊箍兒咒)
3. "Tight-Fillet Sutra" (緊箍兒經)
4. “Old Saying Sutra” (舊話兒經)
5. "Your headache" (你頭痛) (my personal favorite)

Here is my article describing the Monkey King's children described in two 17th-century Chinese novels. They range from the handsome to the grotesque and have connections to Buddhism and Asian astrology.

https://t.co/sMlPubTzyR https://t.co/chV189iyzT

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! The moon rabbit appears in ch. 93-95 of Journey to the West as a female spirit who takes the place of an Indian Princes. She does this so she can marry & acquire Tripitaka's ... ahem ... "male essence", thereby becoming immortal.

Fans of the 1986 Journey to the West TV show will recognize the Chinese opera-style jiegu (戒箍) headband worn by Sun Wukong. Jin Xu tells me this band style derives from a 3-crescent headpiece worn by Sogdian kings & dignitaries. Here is a related paper.

https://t.co/oGM3Vuebez https://t.co/ktVCYDzkvh

Here's my article on Zhu Bajie/Pigsy's literary description. Instead of a friendly, pink pig-man, the novel portrays him as a giant boar monster with a bristly mane, fan-like ears, protruding fangs, a 3-ft-long snout, & a hulking body w/ black skin.

https://t.co/J2K9WobOsY

Here I suggest Sun Wukong's position as the Monkey King is based on the Mahakapi Jataka ("The Story of the Great Monkey"), which tells of the Buddha's past life as a king of monkeys.

https://t.co/hWibOBl6NA

Ch. 76 of Investiture of the Gods (封神演義, c. 1620) reveals Nezha's multi-headed/multi-armed form (seen in ch. 5 of Journey to the West) is the result of eating 3 magic dates given to him by his immortal master. This follows his recuperation from a poisonous magic knife wound.