As a divine and demonic novel listed as one of the four famous works of classical China, "Journey to the West" vividly and vividly describes the story of the four Tang monks and disciples who went all the way to the Western Heavens to learn the scriptures. In addition to the direction of the storyline, "Journey to the West" has many eye-catching details that are worth exploring and exploring.
For example, as a "means of transportation" for many gods and Buddhas, all kinds of gods and immortals often like to use "mounts" to drive themselves. Just as the so-called "Seven Pin Officials of the Prime Minister's Gate", such as the mount of Taishang Laojun's green bull and the mount lion of Manjushri Bodhisattva, they are all highly powerful. Interestingly, in fact, buddha and Sun Wukong both have mounts, why don't they both ride?
If you come to mounts, the relationship is very close
As the supreme leader of the Buddha's world, the status and mana of the Buddha are unquestionably lofty. However, when it first appears in journey to the West, it is not mentioned that the Buddha came out on a mount. At that time, Sun Wukong, who came out of the alchemy furnace of Taishang Laojun, once again made a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace, and the Jade Emperor, who was really helpless, had to send someone to ask the Buddha to rescue the Heavenly Court and deal with the thorny problem of Sun Wukong.
The Buddha, who arrived as promised, quickly subdued Sun Wukong and suppressed him at the foot of the Five Finger Mountain. Subsequently, the Jade Emperor held a grand thank-you banquet for the Buddha, and the entourage of the Buddha was given preferential treatment. Interestingly, there is no mention of the Mount of the Buddha.
In this way, it is inevitable to wonder whether the Buddha did not have a mount. It was not until later, when Sun Wukong followed the Tang monks to the Western Heavens to learn the scriptures, and after coming to the Lion's Hump Ridge, he finally mentioned the mount of the Buddha. It turned out that the three monsters who were doing evil in the Lion Hump Ridge were manjushri bodhisattva's mount, the white elephant was the mount of Puxian Bodhisattva, and the golden-winged roc was the mount of the Buddha.
So, why didn't the Buddha, who obviously had a mount, travel on a mount? It turned out that the Golden-winged Roc Bird, the Mount of the Buddha, was not an ordinary spirit beast, but was actually closely related to the Buddha of Rulai, which made the Buddha of Rulai basically not ride the Golden-winged Roc Bird.
If you come to your uncle, so don't ride
As an ancestor-level figure of a Buddhist, the Buddha should have followed the pure rules and precepts of the monks, the six roots were pure, and there was no longer any concept of "relatives". Interestingly, when the Tang monks and disciples fell into distress in shi huoling and Sun Wukong went to the Buddha for help, the Buddha mentioned that the golden-winged roc bird was his maternal uncle.
It turned out that after the Buddha became a Buddha, he was practicing the Dharma on the Lingshan Mountain, but he was accidentally swallowed into the stomach by a peacock because of a momentary carelessness. In order to get out of the peacock's belly, the Buddha had to cast a spell to cut open the peacock's belly, so that he could see the light again and rescue himself. After coming out of the peacock's belly, the Buddha was thinking of ending this daring peacock demon.
Just then, the other Buddhas arrived and persuaded the Buddha to spare the peacock's life. Other Buddhas have advised, for example, that you came out of its belly, which is equivalent to nurturing your mother, and that the monks should not easily commit sins with compassion. Only then did the Buddha calm his anger and spare the peacock's life.
Perhaps because of this, the Buddhism that pays attention to fate believes that the peacock has a deep relationship with the Buddha. In the end, the peacock was canonized by the Buddha of Rulai, and the peacock's younger brother, the golden-winged roc, was also hand-picked by the Buddha of Rulai and became the mount of the Buddha of Rulai. However, because the peacock is considered to be the "mother" of the Buddha, the golden-winged roc bird has thus become the uncle of the Buddha.
Because of such a layer of identity, the nominal golden-winged roc is indeed the mount of the Buddha, but the Buddha naturally does not really enslave and drive the golden-winged roc as an ordinary mount, which may be why many people subconsciously think that the Buddha does not have a mount.
Goku mount, short-lived
As the soul of Sun Wukong in the book "Journey to the West", his character image and various magical powers have long been talked about by people. Interestingly, people know that Sun Wukong has seventy-two changes, fire eyes, golden eyes, tendons, and so on, but they don't know that in fact, Sun Wukong also had mounts, but he didn't ride much. What's going on?
As a wild and difficult monkey, Sun Wukong never seems to think about the problem of mounting before embarking on the road to the Western Heavens. At that time, he was bold and arrogant, and he obviously preferred an uninhibited life, so although he had the ability to subdue the mountain spirit monsters as mounts, Sun Wukong did not do so.
After embarking on the road of learning the scriptures, Sun Wukong began to understand the power of various gods and immortals in letting go of the mounts that were chaotic in the world, so it was inevitable that he would have the idea of collecting a mount to provide for his own drive. However, after a long journey of learning the scriptures, Sun Wukong has not found a suitable opportunity.
Until the time of the disaster of coming to the Flame Mountain, in order to obtain the banana fan to remove the raging fire of the Flame Mountain, Sun Wukong had to fight with his former brother the Bull Demon King and his wife Princess Tiefan. It was at this time that Sun Wukong secretly rode away the Water Avoidance Golden Eye Beast while the Bull Demon King rode his mount to the feast.
Later, the Bull Demon King was jointly captured by Sun Wukong and the Erlang God, Nezha and others sent by the Heavenly Court and sent to the Western Heavens for questioning. Without its original owner, the water-avoiding golden eye beast thus became Sun Wukong's mount. Sun Wukong tossed and turned for half a day, and finally had a mount.
However, although Sun Wukong had the Water-avoiding Golden Eye Beast as a mount, the westward journey to take the scriptures was originally a problem that the Western Heavenly Buddhas gave to the Tang monks and disciples, so that they could go through hardships and then cultivate into positive results. Therefore, Sun Wukong did have a mount, but he had nothing to use, and there were few opportunities to use it. Therefore, although Sun Wukong had the water-avoiding golden eye beast as a mount, it was only a flash in the pan and had no use.
brief summary
As a famous novel based on the content of gods and demons, "Journey to the West" has attracted countless readers from ancient times to the present with its ups and downs in its plot content. Perhaps because of this, some of the details in "Journey to the West" are often worthy of careful appreciation. As a means of travel for the gods and Buddhas of the heavens, countless mounts have either willingly or reluctantly become the tools of their masters.
And even rulai Buddha, who has supreme supernatural powers, and Sun Wukong, who has great supernatural powers, are not exempt from vulgarity, and there are also mounts to drive. However, for both of them, the mount is useless, because they will not ride for their own reasons, which has to be said to be an interesting thing.
Reference: Journey to the West
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