To discuss the most powerful monster in "Journey to the West", the Roc Golden-winged Bird has the highest cry.
As soon as he appeared on the scene, he beat Sun Wukong to no avail. Looking at the position of the Buddha when he went to collect the Roc Golden-winged Bird, it was almost a move. Five hundred arhats, three thousand revelations, two retinues of Gaya Achan (Ananda), two bodhisattvas of Puxian Manjushri, and two Buddha-level figures of Maitreya, who finally subdued the Golden-winged Bird.
So does such a powerful demon have a prototype? What is the prototype of the real-life Roc Goldenfinch? Is there a creature in nature that is similar to it?
It is necessary to trace the source and find its original source. And look at the description of the roc golden-winged bird in the original text of "Journey to the West":
"Golden-winged carp head, star-eyed leopard eyes." Zhenbei Tunan, strong and brave. Metamorphosis soars, and the crane laughs at the dragon miserably. The birds hid their heads, and the birds of Shuli claws lost their fears. This is the 90,000 Dapeng Eagle of Yuncheng. ”
Roc goldfinch
Let's first look at this "golden-winged carp head", which is obviously borrowed from Zhuangzi's saying, kunpeng first appeared in the Taoist doctrine "Zhuangzi Getaway". The book states:
"There is a fish in the north of the earth, and its name is a carp. The size of the carp is unknown to thousands of miles; it is transformed into a bird, and its name is Peng. Peng's back, I don't know how many thousands of miles. It flies with rage, and its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. It is a bird, and the sea will migrate to Nanming. Nan Min, Tenchi also. ”
This is the earliest source of Kunpeng. The animals described in this passage of Zhuangzi, which we consider from a biological point of view, can be summed up in three words - there is no such bird in nature, and there is no such fish. However, Zhuangzi is not a zoologist, and we cannot force it.
In ancient times, Zhuangzi was an authentic writer, so we should consider it from a cultural point of view. Let's assume that Zhuangzi saw a bird, and according to this bird, he revealed one of the most important messages to us, this bird is big, big! And there is also the habit of migration. In addition, Zhuangzi is Chinese and it is impossible to see birds endemic to foreign countries. Then we can conduct the first screening of birds in China, and the keywords are "big, migratory, seaside, China". We can basically lock the range on large birds of prey. The giant swan and the great bustard are also very large, but the "Book of Poetry" has long described these two kinds of birds, and Zhuangzi, as a famous literary artist, will not be unaware.
golden eagle
If Zhuangzi's description of Dapeng is still relatively abstract, then Mr. Wu Cheng'en further concretized on the basis of Zhuangzi and added the three words "golden-winged eagle". An important feature of this bird indicates that the appearance is the golden wings. In nature, eagles with golden wings do not exist technically. But there is one kind of eagle, very close, and that is the golden eagle. In the summer of 2011, I was struck by the first time I saw a golden eagle in The Alatau Mountains in Xinjiang: it was 70 to 85 centimeters long, with wings spreading up to 2 meters, a golden crown on its head, and dark brown wings. Today, it seems that the image of the golden eagle is both in line with the "peng" (large bird of prey) and very close to the golden wing.
Looking at the habits, the Roc golden-winged bird "metamorphosis soars", soaring is an important feature of the flight of the golden eagle, and small eagles will also, but they are not commonly used. Continue to look, "The birds hide their heads, and the birds of Shuli claw are frightened" shows that the animals are afraid. In nature, the golden eagle feeds on small and medium-sized birds and mammals, and is known as the overlord of the air and the king of birds of prey, which is very much in line with this characteristic.
Thunder strikes
Finally, from the habitat analysis, the Roc golden-winged bird appeared in the Lion Hump Ridge. Where is Lion Hump Ridge? This needs to be inferred. According to the route taken from the Journey to the West, the Tang monks and disciples passing through the Shi Huoling Appear in the 74th episode of the book, which should be in the northern part of present-day Afghanistan and belong to Central Asia. The Central Asian region is an important distribution area and breeding area for the golden eagle. From this, I can not only determine that there are golden eagles in and around Shi huoling. It can be further determined that the golden eagle distributed here is one of the six subspecies of the golden eagle, and the largest subspecies.
Biologically, the prototype of the Roc golden-winged bird is closest to the golden eagle, and there seems to be no problem. However, from the perspective of cultural attributes, some people have proposed that "the prototype of the Dapeng golden-winged bird is a snake carving". The reason is that the Dapeng goldfinch and the Buddha are closely related in journey to the West, and there is also an introduction to the golden-winged bird in Buddhism:
"The golden-winged bird, also known as 'Garoula', is derived from ancient Indian myths and legends, and is the protector of one of the eight branches of the Buddhist Heavenly Dragon, the leader of the sacred bird Shubana clan, and the king of the birds. The image of Garou luo is mostly a human face, a bird's beak, and a feather crown, and the upper part of the waist is a human body, and the following is the body of a bird. In Hindu mythology, Garoulo is a bird of prey between heaven and earth, extremely powerful, the mount of the great god Vishnu, feeding on dragons (the great poisonous snakes in Hindu mythology) with wings spread for 3.36 million miles, living in the north of Mount Meru. ”
As can be seen from the introduction, the golden-winged bird likes to eat snakes, similar to the feeding habits of snake eagles.
Snake carving
However, it is also far-fetched to judge that Garou luo is a mythical snake eagle just from the perspective of eating. It should be known that the snake eagle belongs to the medium-sized bird of prey and will not become the king of the birds. And snake eagles catch non-venomous snakes. Scientists have done special experiments for this purpose and found that although the snake eagle that grows up in captivity has no experience in hunting in the wild, nor does the adult eagle teach it to recognize snakes, it can avoid objects similar to the body color and shape of poisonous snakes. Therefore, scientists believe that snake eagles have the innate instinct to avoid poisonous snakes and are not good at eating poisonous snakes.
So is the snake eagle a roc gold-winged bird?
I don't think so. Because there are records of snake carvings in ancient China. The ancients of Our country called the snake carving "duck", which is considered to be a poisonous bird - "the bird is black and red-eyed, eats vipers and wild kudzu, and drinks it to death in its feather painting wine." "The ancients soaked its feathers in wine to make poisonous liquor, which became a way of killing people. The text in the "Book of Han and the Biography of King Hui of Qi" that "the empress dowager is angry, but it is to make people drink two pounds of wine in front of them, so that the king of Qi will live" records this method of killing people without blood. Li Shizhen also mentions the duck in the poultry section of the "Compendium of Materia Medica". As a contemporary, Wu Cheng'en had no reason not to know. From a biological point of view, the most likely prototype of the Roc golden-winged bird in "Journey to the West" is the golden eagle. If animal attributes and cultures are intertwined, then the cut is still messy.
Domineering golden eagle
Although the Roc Golden-winged Bird in "Journey to the West" caused some trouble in the way of the Tang monks to learn the scriptures, there was no danger after all. However, in reality, human beings have created many troubles for the golden eagle, human beings destroy the habitat of the golden eagle, illegally hunt and sell the golden eagle driven by interests, causing their family to break the bird and die, and now the number of golden eagles in China is less than 10,000, which belongs to the national level key protected animals.
* Text, image source "One Bird, One World"; Cover image: Photo Network
Do you agree with the point in the article? What other literary works of birds spark your reverie? Welcome to leave a message interactive, have a chance to win a book donation Oh.
At 16:00 on December 12, we will click into the article to see the results. From the top 10 likes in the comments, according to the 3 numbers generated by the "random number generator", find the corresponding 3 lucky readers, and each give away a copy of "One Bird, One World" worth 88 yuan.
The winners will be announced on The Push Tou on December 13.
(Note: 1. Malicious swiping is prohibited, and violators will be disqualified.) 2. 100 selected messages online. 3. If you have won the lottery within 2 months, please leave the opportunity to others Oh ~)
One Bird, One World
Author: Zhao Xumao
Listing time: January 2020
Price: 88 yuan
Synopsis
What is the prototype of the Roc Goldenfinch in Journey to the West in reality? What exactly is Disney's Donald Duck prototype? Why do migratory birds migrate long distances? Why are the feathers of the Great Flamingo dreamy pink? Zhao Xumao, Ph.D. of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and author of the 2018 "China Good Book" Award, takes you into the magical bird country and feels the social civilization and love and hatred of birds.
Leave a message to send a book!