Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
RASHKB and author
Vol. 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
95
B
(c) The T'ao T'ien-chün ( or Celestial Master T'ao), one of the four attendant-generals forming the retinue of the Premier Wên T'ai-shih in the Fêng-shên Yen-i is an invention of the author of the Fêng-shên for a particular reason.3
In any one of the earlier works before the Fêng-shen, whether Taoist canonical texts or popular literature, we can find the other three T'ien-chün but not this one. This fact strengthens the hypothesis that this particular character was created with a purpose. But he appears also in Wu Ch'êng-ên's Hsi-yu-chi. (Ch.4 etc.)
(d) Yin Chiao () in his transformed figure is an ugly and evil god. "His face was as blue as indigo, and he had long projecting teeth" (Ch.63, Fêng-shên Yen-i). He was canonized as the T'ai-sui (✯ the God of the Cycle) in Ch.99 of the Feng-shên. Now in Wu's Hsi-yu-chi there is a line of verse, "The other had a blue face and protruding teeth as ugly as the T'ai-sui.”
(56)
(e) In Wu's Hsi-yu-chi, when Sun Wu-k'ung ( the Monkey) was repelled by Hsüan-tsang (), he thought of “going to the islands (hai-tao ) but he was rather ashamed to meet those immortals in the three fairy-lands (san-tao chu-hsien l)". (Ch.57) This is probably influenced by the islands and the immortals there (hai-tao tao-yu fă‡) in Chs.38, 47 and 59 of the Fêng-shễn. In Ch.59 of the Feng-shên when Lü Yüeh (BG) was defeated by the troops of Chiang Tzu-ya, he fled to the islands as his last resort.
(f) In Wu's Hsi-yu-chi (Ch.60), the Demon-king of Oxen (Niu Mo-wang 4E) rode on a "water-proof golden-pupiled monster" (Pi-shui Chin-ching Shou HR). I think this name was invented after the "fire-spitting golden-pupiled monsters" (Huo-yen Chin-ching Shou ) ridden by Chêng Lun, Chiên Ch'i and Ch'ung Hei-hu in the Fêng-shên Yen-i.
(g) In Ch.61 of the Wu's Hsi-yu-chi there are the "four great Vajras" (MAI) which are no doubt an adaptation of the “four great heavenly kings". One of their dwelling-places is in the Chin-hsia Tung ( Golden Clouds Cave) of Mt. K'un-lun. In fact this Chin-hsia Tung is exactly the name of the grotto where the Yü-ting Chên-jên (EMRA Immortal of the Jade Urn) lives in the Fêng-shên Yen-i, and Mt. K'un-lun is the sacred mountain of the Promulgating Sect.
37 Ibid., pp. 251-55.