#jttw muzha

[creativeafterdark]

So chapter 6 was...A LOT. But as usual I have some sketches for it!

@journeythroughjourneytothewest

Starting with

My designs for Guanyin, Muzha and Erlang! I plan to give Erlang a slightly different design for any future appearances, but i enjoy the idea of him being younger at this time. I really adore Guanyin so I was extra excited they were in this chapter and I got to make a design for them.

The meeting of the two Sages. Erlang must definitely had been young due to Wukong's smack talk. I really enjoyed the fight and banter between the two. I can see why a lot of people say they'd be buddies were the circumstances different.

Liu and Ma realizing that Wukong may have met his match with Erlang. Honestly the monkeys go through so much in this chapter. And I just made it worse for Liu elsewhere

I think this chapter is most disconcerting when you realize that Wukong was GENUINELY afraid when realizing just how evenly matched he and Erlang were. And I can only imagine the emotions he had as he was dragged to heaven.

I want to read the next chapter before I draw my personal ideas for the siege on the mountain ordered by Erlang. It'd be where my Macaque Spirit King would get some very heavy trauma but also be the start of my version of Liu'er Mihou's descent into madness.

And as a bonus:

Local god gets called a cheater by visiting angel. (More of a scene from a jttw x mythology story/au idea where multiple mythologies interact and a few different folks end up in China during the Havoc)

#sketch #jttw sun wukong #journey to the west #journeythroughjourneytothewest #jttw x mythology #kinda #jttw guanyin #jttw muzha #jttw erlang shen #gabriel says what we're all thinking

[mstrchu]

the toll of being a middle child in this family is inconceivable

#nezha #jinzha #muzha #fsyy #jttw #please forgive the inconsistencies between frames OTL #really glad muzha was living his best life in jttw #still strikes me as the guy with too many accumulated pto days because he never takes them #working ot whenver a demon on the journey needs a thrashing #art tag

[ruibaozha]

I saw how some people use historical figures from Chinese mythology, folklore and religion for NSFW, literally, turning them into their own OC's, and I was wondering, what do you think of that? Because it seems like they just took them, and didn't do more research asking the question of "is that right?"

As per your second question for me I will leave that unaddressed and instead invite you to discuss those matters properly in private, especially if this answer is dissatisfying.

I personally do not care much if NSFW or suggestive content of such deities exist (except for the child Nezha, leave his child form out of this.) or that it’s being produced in the first place. The numerous Chinese social media sites like LOFTER, Douban (豆瓣) and Xiaohongshu (小红书) feature fan art of Daoist deities like Nezha and Er’lang in these kinds of situations. Fan fiction of these deities are similarly of the same attitude. It has nothing to do with if proper research has been conducted, especially in the case of Er’lang Shen who cannot act on romantic feelings even if he wanted to.

It feels to me that there’s an exception regarding Chinese deities and folk heroes when deities of other religions have been sexualized. This screams of not only hypocrisy but of ignorance in being offended on behalf of the Chinese. In the few months I was active in the LMK fandom I’ve come to realize a majority of the other Chinese in the fandom are either adopted or second generation immigrants with no real cultural background; and as a consequence have severely inaccurate biases on matters like this because they aren’t aware of how insignificant this is.

I’m admittedly not active within the LMK fandom anymore and as such I don’t know what’s happening there unless someone is compelled to talk about what is going on. But it feels to me that as per usual people are holding Journey to the West as the be all end all on numerous fronts when the books really cannot and should not be heralded as such. Moreover, it’s strange that the fandom is completely okay with sexualizing Sun Wukong, the Six Eared Macaque, and the Golden Winged Peng while any other character is unacceptable.

I assure you that numerous derivative works feature Chinese deities in relationships and sexual contexts, even Tang Sanzang is featured in movies or television shows with a romantic partner despite relationships of that nature betray his Buddhist faith.

I’ve been considering making a post about the cultural dissonance that’s happening here and various attitudes or opinions other people have because they lack the cultural context to realize how insignificant and misinformed a lot of this “discourse” actually is.

What is it about Chinese mythology that sets it apart from Nordic or Greco-Roman mythology in these ways? Why is it perfectly acceptable to sexualize Loki or Achilles, but not someone like Muzha (who was a very real person that became deified, in the same fashion as Guan Yu, as who he was studying under was seen as an incarnation of Guanyin)?

I don’t think this type of thinking will ever make sense to me as a true testament to how different the fandom (especially on Twitter) and myself feel about this matter.

#nezha #li nezha #lmk nezha #monkie kid nezha #erlang shen #lmk erlang #guan yu #guanyin #muzha #li muzha #tripitaka #tang sanzang #journey to the west #jttw #sun wukong #lmk sun wukong #six eared macaque #lmk six eared macaque #liu’er mihou #xiyouji

[the-monkey-ruler]

Can you tell me who are the sworn brothers of Erlang and Sun Wukong? Maybe Nezha too and Bull Demon King please 🤔

I’m not sure if Nezha has sworn brother honestly… he just has real brothers. At least that I know of.

Jinzha 金吒

Muzha 木吒

Wukong does have a LOT, pilgrims not included even if those are his junior brothers in Buddhism.

Bull Demon King 牛魔王

Peng Demon King 鵬魔王

Dragon Flood Demon King 蛟魔王

Snub Nose Monkey Demon King 禺狨王

Spiritual Macaque Demon King 獼猴王

Lion Demon King 獅駝王

Immortal Zhenyuanzi (became sworn in the journey) 鎮元大仙

Erlang has his 6 plum brothers!! (and Wukong)

Kang Anyu 康安裕

Zhang Boshi 张伯时

Li Huanzhang 李焕章

Yao Gonglin 姚公麟

Guo Shen 郭申

Naoken 直健

Sun Wukong (became sworn in their fight) 孙悟空

Bull Demon King is similar to Wukong's list just without Immortal Zhenyanzi. And actually he has a REAL brother that is Immortal Ruyi 如意真仙 who guards the abortion water.

#anon ask #anonymous #anon #jttw #journey to the west #sun wukong #xiyouji #erlang shen #li nezha #bull demon king #six plum brothers #seven sages #li jinzha #li muzha #ask

[journeytothewestresearch]

Nezha's family

Fans of Lego Monkie Kid, did you know that Nezha (哪吒), this guy ...

... has siblings?! He is the youngest of three brothers. The oldest is Jinzha (金吒) and the middle child is Muzha (木吒; a.k.a. Mucha, 木叉). In Journey to the West, the former is, to my knowledge, only mentioned once. However, the latter is mentioned many times. Muzha serves as the Bodhisattva Guanyin's (觀音) disciple and protector, and he wields an iron staff.

All three play a much larger role in Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen yanyi, 封神演義, c. 1620).

I recently acquired religious statues of the brothers. Having all three from the same set is extremely rare. So, I consider myself very lucky to have found them!

Jinzha carries two seven-star swords (qixing jian, 七星劍). He stands on golden drums.

Nezha holds his trademark fiery spear and golden hoop. He stands on fire wheels.

And Muzha wields two melon hammers (gua chui, 瓜錘). He stands on golden orbs.

#Nezha #Ne Zha #Journey to the West #JTTW #Muzha #Mucha #Jinzha #Sun Wukong #Monkey King #Guanyin #religious statue #Lego Monkie Kid #religious art

[peppermintys]

re: my last post. that being said. here

li brothers !!!

#ik u can barely see jin its fine #jttw #li jinzha #li muzha #li nezha

[digitaldoeslmk]

Can you explain the nezha brick joke

In Fengshen Yanyi (Investiture of the Gods), a novel that revolves around a mythologized telling of the fall of the Shang dynasty and rise of the Zhou, we get to see a whole.lot of gods and spritis and demons. in it, we get a few chapters that tell the origin myth of Nezha, and we see him gain his considerable arsenal of magical weapons, one of them being a golden brick. he is described often throwing the brick at enemies, and once even at his brother Muzha.

the golden brick is connected to old Daoist exorcism rituals, and given that Nezha is well known for his prowess in combat and subjugating demons, it's understandable that he was given this particular weapon.

it's a common joke in the jttw/fsyy community about Nezha, that one of his weapons is just, A Brick xD

[maidenofthecloud]

Hi! I hope you're doing fantastic. Your poetry about the clouds and sun is so ... POIGNANT. Are you excited about LMK S5? How do you think it's gonna start out? Would you prefer for it to be high stakes right away or low stakes but slowly building up to it? Do you think we'd see any other JTTW characters in it, or maybe in later seasons? What kind of character do you want to see in the next season, in terms of personality and role?

Also, I absolutely hate doing this but could you please ask @loupsbane why they've blocked me again I am absolutely baffled on why this keeps happening to me.

Have a great month, eat your meals regularly, don't skip your breakfast or medicine!

first of all thank you

Are you excited about LMK S5?

yes I am very excited for season 5

How do you think it's gonna start out? Would you prefer for it to be high stakes right away or low stakes but slowly building up to it?

If I had to choose to start season 5 I would say low stakes but slowly building up to it

Do you think we'd see any other JTTW characters in it, or maybe in later seasons?

I think that surely more jttw characters will appear as new characters or in flashbacks, personally I would bet that Erlang Shen could appear

What kind of character do you want to see in the next season, in terms of personality and role?

Ugh I have a very long list of characters I want to appear and now that you've asked I'm going to ramble on about it, bad luck for you

starting with the most probable:

The mayor

I want to know more about the character, what he was like before meeting LBD and being the mayor, getting to know his relationship with her in depth. Is he just a henchman or does he have his own motivations? what was he doing during Lady Bone Demon's confinement.

Erlang shen

I'm really dying to see what kind of character Lego Erlang Shen is, what kind of complex character he can be, will he be a villain, an antagonist or maybe an ally? Will being a demigod be important for his character? what will his relationship with Sun Wukong be like? They will be like sworn brothers or enemies

guanyin goddess of mercy

I really want to know what the lmk writers will do with Guanyin, how important his role would be in the series, taking into account his importance in Journey to the West, I think it would be great if it turned out that all this time Guanyin was secretly watching over MK and his friends helping them without them knowing. I mean, she always helped the pilgrims on their journey and could do the same for mk and his friends. I also wonder if his relationship with Red Son exists in lmk.

Ao bing

I really want Ao bing to appear, I don't care how or why. basically because I think it would be cool for the fandom to see that Monkey King isn't the only one with skeletons in the closet. It would also be interesting to see Nezha face someone from his past that he thought was buried and that he would never see again

Do you think we'd see any other JTTW characters in it

characters I want to see

Taibai Jinxing (Gold star of venus) I would really like him to appear to help the protagonists

Nezha's family I would like to see Nezha's family even if it's just in flashbacks, especially muzha and LI Jing

lady earth Flow I'm really curious to know what his design would be like in the series.

Jade faced fox although if she appeared I highly doubt that her relationship with the demon Bull King would be the same as in the novel

Jade rabbit

The ones that are least likely to appear but I want them to appear so bad:

Spindrax

I know the writers wrote it off for Strong Spider, but it would be great to see the spiders again. Maybe as an idea here the character of Spindrax wants to revive the spider queen or maybe avenge the spider queen, the writers could use to spindrax to show us spider queen's past and also give mei a badass biker rival (cough girlfriend cough)

Rumble & Savage

I know that many think that the macaque is practically redeemed, if they think that that is perfectly fine. but in my opinion I do not agree with that, because the basic thing in a redemption is that the character realizes his mistakes and repents of his bad actions, Yes, Macaque helped defeat the bad guys and everything. but he has no regrets for the damage he did to mk and his friends I thought it would be great for Macaque's future redemption arc to have him face his own past mistakes and what better way to do that is face the little versions of himself who want revenge of you and they won't hesitate to hurt your loved ones in the process just to see you suffer (cough karma cough)

Bone spirits

I really wanted to see Lady Bone Demon's army in the specials, They are literally the only villainous army not to make an appearance in the show and which I think is a big waste imagine that the mayor was not the only follower of lbd, if there were other followers and allies of her, plus it would be interesting to see more spirits or demons like LBD, besides I love his designs I mean who doesn't like skeletons with hoods.

#lego monkie kid #lmk #Monkie Kid #lmk mayor #lmk erlang shen #lmk erlang #lmk guanyin #lmk ao bing #lmk taibai Jinxing #lmk gold star of venus #gold star of venus #lmk nezha #lmk muzha #lmk li jing #lmk lady earth Flow #lady earth Flow #lmk jade faced fox #princess jade faced #jade rabbit #lmk spindrax #lmk mei #lego monkie kid rumble #lego monkie kid savage #lmk rumble & savage #lmk Macaque #lmk bone spirits

[ejaysstuff]

Begging you to infodump about the Li siblings (mostly Jinzha and Muzha) BECAUSE I AM EXPERIENCING BRAINROT AND NEED. INFORMATION

If you got like. Links to good reading material about them. Hand them over 👁👁

YOU AND ME BOTH BUDDY,,,🤝

Unfortunately I don't think Jinzha and Muzha have a lot of lore (or maybe I just suck at finding them). I get most of my info from Wikipedia though so I will try to summarise what it says.

Basically, Jinzha is a disciple of Wenshu Guangfa Tianzun, who is the superiorman over Five Dragons Mountain and Cloud Top Cave, and one even greater than Nezha's teacher, Taiyi Zhenren.

There isn't much about Jinzha's past but he has been involved in Nezha's legend somewhat, where he punished Nezha for trying to kill their dad. (This happens in fsyy so I have no idea where tf he went in jttw.. probably took a vacation)

As for Muzha, he is Guanyin's disciple and has appeared a couple of times in jttw to help swk and the gang. He did appear in fsyy too but the only part I remember is him getting hit with a golden brick by Nezha for trying to stop him from killing their dad. (Common muzha L)

Other than that my knowledge on them is actually,, very scarce. I'm still slowly and surely getting through fsyy so I might be wrong abt some stuff

They're side characters so they don't have that much substance,, majority of their character traits in my blog are just headcannons 😔 sometimes you gotta feed yourself

Links to their Wikipedia:

And also honorary pictures of the boys in Fei ren zai

#sorry this isnt as detailed as i hoped 💀 but i legitimately couldn't find anything else so i gotta make shit up #congrats on joining the ranks of jinzha and muzha enjoyers

[justeclotilde]

What do you think of the concept of a Li brother / fourth lotus prince?

Basically jinzha, muzha and nezha having a 4th younger brother

I'm Wonder What's his personality and how he interacts with the brothers. 🤔

I have no thoughts on the idea xD

I don’t know the logistics of a 4th lotus prince (granted on that front, the fault’s on me, I need to do more research), but I do know that Ne Zha has at least two brothers and two sisters, one of them adopted (i seem to remember a story in JTTW where a demon tries to pass for Ne Zha’s sister, and the twist being that the real actual sister is a baby and can’t be a grown woman so the demon is found out - but it’s been a long time since I’ve read the books so take what i say with a grain of salt)

(and even then I might be saying something silly, the character is so old the number of siblings might depend on the version you’re referring to, so someone smarter than me might be of better help on that).

I don’t know if LMK Ne Zha needs more people in his life, but I am not against the idea of an OC like that, and I don’t think my opinion matters either xD if you want to make one do it it sounds lovely !

[monkiebois]

Tbh, Lady Yin wasn’t the best to Nezha either. She exclaimed to him that she wished she’d never given birth to him after she found out he killed Ao Bing and only built Nezha a shrine after he threatened to haunt her. She seemed much more fixated on how useful Nezha was to bring herself pride then about his well-being or correcting his behaviour. Also in jttw she is mentioned by both Muzha and Li Jing to still be alive and living with them even after Wukong was freed from the mountain.

A

SHIT

WELP...............THERE GOES THAT WRITING SNIPPET.

MAN

THANKS FOR THE INFO ANON. GOOD TO KNOW NEZHA REALLY DIDNT HAVE ANYONE.

CR IE S

thaks anon/gen/nm

#thanks anon/gen #legit forgot he had to beg his mom for that shrine #AAAAAA

[sketching-shark]

I am officially two thirds of the way done with The Monkey and the Monk, and I want more of Wukong, Wijung and Bajie (and Guanyin). Definitely going to read the full Journey after this. Also I wanna draw them.

And I feel like such a dummy, I didn't realize that Nata and Moksa (the names used in this book) were Nezha and Muzha until last night. 🤦‍♀️ I've been waiting for them to show up and they've been there the whole time. Just shows I need to learn more about Chinese mythology, I guess.

Oh dang that was fast! Congratulations on your quick reading & enjoyment of The Monkey & the Monk @ladyzerodark ! But yes this abridgement is very much only a taste of Anthony C. Yu's full translation. Given that there's like 100 chapters across 4 volumes I hope that gives you as much Sun Wukong, Sha Wujing, Zhu Bajie, and Guanyin as you could desire! I will look forward to any art you make of this wildly diverse cast of characters, and if you just type in "anthony c. yu" on this website you should be able to find a number of posts that provide you with links to pdfs of his full translation for free :)

weraeafds full disclosure but the numerous different names and titles for different deities and other characters was something that left me very confused when I first started to read JTTW as well...but yes, you live and learn. For a raw beginner such as myself I did find it very helpful to have a few notes about who's called what and what the implications of the title for a certain context are, i.e. Sun Wukong, aka The Monkey King, Si Hou (stone monkey), Bimawen (manager of the Heavenly Stables--it's a title he hates), Quitian Dasheng (Great Sage Equal to Heaven, self-given title), Pilgrim (given to him by Tang Sanzang), Buddha Victorious in Strife (the role given to him by Buddha at the end of the journey), Son Goku (Sun Wukong's name in Japan), etc...

#message answered #journey to the west #jttw #xiyouji #anthony c. yu

[antidotefortheawkward-art]

菩萨的爱徒 :) 。。。孙悟空也在

#my art #journey to the west #jttw #xiyouji #Bodhisattva Guanyin #sun wukong #monkey king #red boy #li muzha #longnv #longnü #translation: the Bodhisattva's beloved disciples :) ....Sun Wukong is also here #IM NOT DUNKING ON HIM ITS JUST THAT HE'S NOT OFFICIALLY HER TUDI GJFDKSDSDKSD #*might be more actually translated as 'favorite disciples' #yes this is referencing the 'mom helping her kids beat super mario' picture :) #anyways i think when longnü and red boy became Guanyin's disciples- #-muzha took one look at them- was reminded of zhenying and nezha- and immediately went 'my siblings now' #it took a bit for longnü to warm up to him though gfdksdksdsd #muzha: 师妹!!! :D .longnü: your little brother murdered my big brother #also i made red boy's design a bit babier to match longnv being like eight #also because i MISS MY BABY COUSINS

[the-monkey-ruler]

who were Nezha's brothers, also why did he try to kill his father?

Nezha has two brothers Muzha and Jinzha, and a sister Zhenying, as well as an adopted sister Lady Earth Flow.

Muzha who we actually see quite a bit in Xiyouji as he is GuanYin's disciple, whom she often takes with him on her outings and fights by her side. He did most of his work in the first few chapters fighting Bajie and Wujing but he plays as more of a message for the rest of the series, making people forget about him a bit. He was also in Fengshen Yanyi though I haven't gotten around to reading that yet.

And Jinzha who honestly I know less about since I still have not read Fengshen Yanyi despite being watching the 2003 Nezha series. He is the disciple of Wenshu Guangfa Tianzun.

King Li tried to kill Nezha when he was born, not because he hated Nenzha but because he was not born a baby. He was born a ball of flesh, and they thought he was a Demon. Until the flesh ball was cut and out came a new three old baby boy! But even then Nezha was the one to give his life for his family after he ripped out Ao Bing's spine, and his entire village was in danger of being drowned, he took his own life. But while his mother Madam Yin made a temple for Nezha that was worshipped, King Li found out about it and burned it because he was still upset at Nezha for putting them at odds with the heavens in the first place. When Nezha was brought back to life he did a "Nezha will remember that for later" and certainly didn't forget that his father burnt his temple down. Nezha went to confront his father and fight him but Muzha stood in his father's place as King Li ran away. And Nezha did end up accidentally killing Muzha hi throwing a gold brick at him… he came out fine! I think... still need to read up. I mean he’s alive now, so you know probably got better. The family relationships are very strange in this. King li have two kids that got dead and both are traumatized and very good at fighting

#anon ask #jttw #journey to the west #xiyouji #Investiture of the Gods #Fengshen Yanyi #li nezha #nezha #li muzha #muzha #jinzha #li jinzha #ask

[journeytothewestresearch]

is muzha also called moksa? (i believe that’s how you spell it) their both disciples of guanyin and it’s always mentioned how they fought sha wuijing but those are the same people, yes?

I've answered this before. See this reply:

#Moksha #Mucha #Muzha #Nezha #Sun Wukong #Monkey King #Journey to the West #Creation of the Gods #Investiture of the Gods #Lego Monkie Kid #LMK #Guanyin #JTTW

[fgodump]

Connections to “The Poppy War”

The setting and characters to The Poppy War has derived a lot of inspiration from historical events and myths alike. This is meant to discuss which characters have a relation to those preexisting. Of course, you do not need to know this information to enjoy the books, but I think knowing them will elevate your reading experience. None of this information is official. This is just the conclusions I came to while reading. Feel free to make comments

MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL BOOKS

Locations

Nikara: Qing Dynasty. 

Mugen: Japan (Meiji Period)

Hesperia: Britain

The Hinterlands: Mongolia (unsure)

Murui: Yellow River

Tianshan: Kunlun

The different provinces were based off the Chinese Zodiac

The Poppy Wars: the Opium wars, as they have the heavy involvement of foreign invaders

Fang Runin: Rin’s character does not seem to take from a specific person, however the wiki stats that she was inspired by multiple people, such as Azula from ATLA and Mao Zedong

Chen Kitay: It's pretty obvious his character is inspired by Zhuge Liang in Romance of the Three kingdoms. In actual history, he wasn't that much, but in the book, Zhuge was a monster at strategy. 

In the first book, Irjah proposes a question, which Kitay replies “to bait the enemy into giving them arrows by rolling out a boat of strawmen”. This is something that Zhuge did as well.

Sring Venka: Honestly I'm blanking on Venka. I think perhaps Venka isnt supposed to represent a character at all, but instead all the comfort women and victims of the Rape of Nanking, based on what happened to her during Golyn niis. 

Yang Souji: He and his group the “Iron Wolves” remind me so much of the Shinsengumi. He even shares a name with Okita Souji, the captain of the first unit. 

The Shinsungumi were also nicknamed “The wolves of Mibu”

I know the glaring problem with this is that the Shisungumi are Japanese, and should have been Mugini in this book, but I think these parallels are pretty cool in any case.

Chiang Moag- Ching Shih. Woah, as soon as I heard Lady Pirate, it was undeniable who Moag is. Ching Shih, the most famous pirate in China perhaps, and she was a woman.

Their backstories share similarities too. Ching shih was a prostitute, just like rumors around Moag. 

The Cike: During the Zhou Dynasty, Wu Zetian (China’s only female emperor) had a secret police force that assassinated everyone she needed. This sounds incredibly similar to the way Daji used the Cike. 

Altan Trengsin: I believe that Altan is like Rin; either an amalgamation of many characters or simply someone Kuang made for the sake of the story.

Ramsa: I believe him to be Nikara’s representation of the creation of fireworks. Not based off a person, but instead one of the Four great inventions of China. Or maybe I’m looking too far into it lol, since he doesn't strike me as being inspired from a myth, since he is not a shaman

Baji: Zhu Bajie of Journey to the West. Based on his description and his name, I had him guessed before they even said anything about pig.

His weapon is even the same as Bajie’s, a nine-toothed rake. 

He also shares his desires, both of them being lusty for beautiful women

Suni: Sun Wukong. I had him guessed by his name as well. Although I believe the connection to be true, I cannot help but feel disappointed that the avatar of Sun Wukong was killed off so easily

The traits that these two characters share are pretty different, much more different than Baji had Bajie. 

For one, Suni is generally calm when he is not being taken over by his god, and is pretty gentle and nice actually. This is very unlike Sun Wukong, and also the reason why I think Suni was a bad body for Wukong to take over, since I think their desires do not match up like Rin and Phoenix

Aratasha: The last in the trio, Sha Wujing. I was confused at first, since Aratasha is no fighter, but I realized his name sounds incredibly similar to Sha Wujing. Wujing was a sand river demon in JTTW, so I don’t think it was a stretch to believe that Aratasha was based off of him (his god is a river god, after all)

Plus, Aratasha died before Baji and Suni did. Wujing in JTTW was weaker than both of his companions. 

Chaghan and Qara Suren: This may be a stretch, but I think Chaghan was inspired from Genghis khan. Gengis Kahn united the Mongols, like Chaghan united the Ketreids and Naimads. Even though the time period would be centuries apart (Genghis 1206, Qing Dynasty 1644-1912), it is the most likely option. It is unrecorded whether Gengis had any sisters, so I believe that Qara was made for the sake of plot (anchor). 

Yin Family: The entire Yin family was taken from the story of Nezha. You can read more about the original story by searching his name in Wikipedia. R F Kuang kept a lot of things from the original tale, and these notes are what I have noticed

Yin Vaisra- Li Jing. Li Jing was also a great general, and in other stories, he was the head general in the Jade Emperor's Heavenly Army. If you know about “Journey to the West”, it was him who attempted to subdue Sun Wukong. 

Yin Saikhara- Lady Yin

*its interesting how Kuang decided to make the mother’s name the family name for the Yins. Originally, I would have thought it was Li instead.

Muzha and Jinzha’s name were lifted directly from the source material

Mingzha is a character Kuang added, for Li Jing only had three sons (or 2 sons and a daughter in this case). There is no source material for how Muzha and Jinzha’s characters are; even in adaptations we rarely get to see any exploration of them.

Yin Nezha- Nezha:

Yin Nezha, like his original counterpart, was the third child of his father. Since Muzha was changed to a female, he is actually the second son. 

He has the powers of the Dragon of the Western river (TBG 392), likely referring to the White Dragon in myths, who is the dragon ruler of the western sea. 

Like the Nezha in the myth, Yin Nezha had an occurrence with a dragon that changed his life. 

At the first battle between Nezha and Rin in TBG, it is stated he wears golden rings around his wrists and ankles. Guanyin bodhisattva did this to Nezha in Journey to the West, in order to placate him. 

The Trifecta: All of the figures in the Trifecta were based on the Fengshen Yanyi (AKA the Investire of the Gods).

Jiang Ziya: His name was directly taken from the novel. 

Su Daji: Her name was directly taken from the novel, as well as some of her penchants for murder. Daji, in both history and the novel, was infamous for her torture methods. 

Jingzha being delivered back to his father in a dumpling holder would qualify as a toruture method. I applaud Kaung for being creative.

Yin Riga: I do not know if Riga is meant to be King Zhou or Ji Fa (the man who overthrew Zhou). Perhaps he was inspired by both of them, or neither. 

Since Kuang did not go into depth into which gods were in the pantheon, I will make a list to who I think is there

Gods mentioned in the books:

Erlang Shen

Sanshengmu 

Sun Wukong *implied through Suni

Zhu Bajie *implied through Baji

Huxian *implied through Unegen, and also Daji

Phoenix

Nuwa

Fuxi

The Four Dragon Kings (Yin Riga was likely the Dragon of the East) *There is no confirmation that there are multiple dragons, but I believe it was strongly implied

Chang’e

Xi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the West

Zhenniao *implied through Pipaji

The Four Guardians (Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, and the Black Tortoise) *implied through Dulin, who summoned the Black Tortoise

Wong Tai sen *implied through Lianhua (Actually I am not sure, but I could not think of any other healer god in Chinese myths)

Gods not mentioned but I believe are in the Pantheon: 

Yudi: Usually depicted as the husband of Xiwangmu

Hou Yi (Since Chang’e is there. However, there is a possibility that he is in Chuulu Korikh as punishment for killing the sons of Yudi)

Shennong: He exists between Nuwa and Fuxi as the “human”

The Eight Deities

Guanyin: (Since Wukong is implied to be a god) showed up in JTTW

Yanwang: (Since Wukong is implied to be a god) showed up in JTTW

Other tidbits:

Arlong’s name may have been the combination of “Azure” and the chinese word for dragon “Long”. 

Aquebus are guns, but they shoot very slow. This aint a AK 47

The Red emperor could have been based off of Qin Shi Huang, or even the Jade Emperor himself.

Chuulu Korikh’s origin, although explained, has ties in Chinese myths. It was the mountain that encased Sun Wukong before he was broken out by Xuanzang. This means that the mountain was put there by the big B, Buddha. (Actually I can't remember if Kuang said who put the mountain down, but if she didnt specify this is what I think happened) 

I am more familiar with Chinese history and myths, rather than Japanese ones, so if im missing something feel free to correct

#i finished all of them within 24 hours #im shaking #i wrote this right afater the last page of the burning god #holy shitttttttt #the poppy war #the dragon republic #the burning god #fang rin #nezha #fang runin #books #literature #yin nezha #chen kitay #tpw