RAS-1961 — Page 77

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch

ORASHKB and author

Vol. 1 (1961)

ISSN 1991-7295

73

called "Umbrella of Noumenon and Unity" (hun-yüan san A) which is decorated with emeralds and precious pearls of divine power which are threaded together to form the words: "to pack up the universe.' When this umbrella is opened, heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, will be covered up by darkness, and when it is rolled the world will be shaken. Mo Li-hai carries a spear and on his back there is a four-stringed guitar (p'i-p'a ) which will produce the same effect as the "Blue Cloud Sword" when played on and the four strings correspond to earth, water, fire and wind. Mo Li-shou carries two whips and a bag in which is concealed a peculiar creature resembling a rat, hua hu-tiao ( the striped marten). When hurled into the air this creature will assume the shape of an elephant with wings from its ribs and will devour every one.

The combat between these four brothers and the heroes from the camp of King Wu can be found in Chs.39-41 of the novel. They are engaged in mortal combat with the Li brothers, Chin- cha, Mu-cha and No-cha in Ch.40. If the reader knows that Li Ching, the fabulous father of these three Li brothers is in fact derived from one of these four heavenly kings, Vaisravana, the ingenuity of the author of this novel can be appreciated, because before the publication of this novel, in many other works Vaisravana and the Chinese god Li Ching, based on the historical hero so named of the Tang dynasty, had long been amalgamated and formed a single name, P'i-sha-mên t'ien-wang Li Ching ( AMREEM or Li Ching, the Heavenly King of Vaisravana). The Chinese transliteration from the Sanskrit "Vaisravana" since the T'ang dynasty has been Pi-sha-mên (R), the last char- acter of which, mên, though senseless in this connexion, normally means "gate". Thus, in popular literature, the term P'i-sha-mên lost its original meaning and became the name of the P'i-sha Gate, and it was therefore natural enough to have a heavenly general, like Li Ching, to take charge of it,' though in English this may appear peculiar.

* In Yang Ching-hsien's (MRK) play T'ang San-tsang Hsi-t'ien Ch’ü- ching (EXRE), Scene 9, we

we read "P'i-sha-mên hsia Li Tien-wang" (TX) which means the Heavenly King Li under the P'i-sha Gate. In the prompt-book Ch'i-kuo Ch'un-ch'iu P'ing-hua ta**TH), chian 3, we have "P'i-sha-mên To-t'a Li T'ien-wang' (*XE) or P'i-sha-môn, the Heavenly King Li who holds in his hand a pagoda. Sometimes the story-tellers thought since there was a P'i-sha mên (gate), it was wise to create a palace, called P'i-sha Kung CE W D). In the Nan-yrechi, Ch. 11, we have "P'i-sha Kung Li Ching Tien-wang" (K**XE). In a long eulogistic poem in Ch, 12 of the Féng-shen, there is a palace in heaven called K'un-sha Kung (R V E) which is obviously an erratum.