The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 2 (91 page)

5
. Three Worms: see JW I, chapter 15, n. 1.

6
. Seven apertures: the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and the mouth.

7
. These words are frequently used in Daoist rituals of exorcism and healing. They are also written in various charms and incantations.

8
. This last rhetorical question addressed to Heaven is a parody of the dying words of the strategist-general, Zhou Yu
, who served the state of Wu in the novel,
The Three Kingdoms
. Though he and Zuge Liang, the master strategist assisting Liu Bei, were temporary allies in their famous Red Cliff campaign against Cao Cao, Zhou was completely outwitted by Zhuge, at least in the novelistic account. When Zhou died as a result of
arrow
wounds and the frustration of not being able to outmaneuver Zhuge Liang, he asked, “If [you, Heaven] gave birth to Yu, why did you also give birth to Liang?” See chapter 57 of the novel.

9
. Bamboo fish: a gong made of a hollow piece of bamboo shaped like a fish, to be tapped in accompaniment to the recitation of scriptures or religious lyrics.

10
. This is Lü Dongbin
, highly popular but semilegendary figure of late Tang or early Song period. “Early Song literary sources portray [him] as a poet, calligrapher, soothsayer, healer, alchemist, exorcist, and recluse posessing sword techniques.” See entry in ET 1: 712–14.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

1
. Nine-tailed fox: a mythical animal which, in later legend and fiction, frequently takes on the form of a beautiful woman to seduce people. For the reference to the animal, see “Haiwai dongjing
,” in
Shanhaijing jiaozhu
,
j
9, p. 256; Mathieu,
Mythologie et l’ethnologie
(2 vols., Paris, 1983), 1: 434.

2
. Boshan urn: an incense urn shaped like a mountainous island on top, with a dish at the bottom that is filled with hot water when the incense is burned. The steam will thus mingle with the rising incense fragrance.

3
. Facing south: according to long held ritual specification, a person with the greatest seniority and authority in either state or family will take a seat at the north end of a table or hall, facing south. This is true for the emperor down to the patriarch or matriarch (if she is a widow) in a common household.

4
. Lord of Libation Stream: that is, the god Erlang, whose cultic center was located at Guankou
.

5
. This is the Mighty-Spirit God
of JW, chapter 4.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

1
. “Supreme . . . Patriarch”: that is, Laozi.

2
. Nüwa, alternately Nügua
: an ancient mythological goddess often mentioned as the consort of the god Fuxi
. The stone reliefs at the ancient Wuliang shrines depict the two as having human upper bodies and lower bodies entwined as tails of serpents. In the early Han text
Huainanzi
,
j
6: 7a (SBBY), there is the famous story of her repairing the heavens by smelting five-colored stones (the passing reference here by Monkey), a motif that also provided part of the crucial mthological framework for the Qing novel,
Story of the Stone
. In Daoist mythology, the goddess, along with Fuxi and Shennong
, form one of several designations of the Three Sovereigns
(ET II: 836–37). In early Daoism, she is also drawn readily into the work of cosmological and human creation by the deified Laozi. See Livia Kohn,
God of the Dao: Lord Lao in History and Myth
(Ann Arbor, 1998), pp. 202–04. In this tradition, Laozi himself created most of the prominent deities of the Daoist pantheon through epiphanic transformations (
huashen
), including Nüwa.