● The second son of Li Bing, the prefect of Shu County in Qin Dynasty, helped his father lock dragons and build weirs to prevent disasters. Shu people regard it as Erlang God, and have always worshipped it. Also known as Erlang Pass.
Zhao Yu, the satrap of Sui Dynasty, was determined to be affected by the disaster, and later appeared to quell the flood. The people felt his virtue, built a temple to fill the gap and regarded him as Erlang God. Also known as Erlang Pass.
The Journey to the West is related to Yang Jian, the nephew of the Jade Emperor recorded in The Romance of Gods. He once killed six monsters and split Taoshan, which was called Erlang Pass.
● Jin Dengya is the satrap of Xiangyang, breaking dumplings to get rid of troubles. Villagers built temples and shrines, and were later honored as Erlang God because they tasted Erlang God.
● According to legend, the second son of the most famous king among the four heavenly kings in the north, Pishamen Tianwang, was the only one who led the heavenly soldiers to save Emperor Tang Ming from danger and was also one of the protectors of Buddhism. King Vishnu has five sons (it is said that each of the four heavenly kings has 9/kloc-0 sons). Zhang cited the Book of Rites of Vishnu Temple. Du Jian led the heavenly soldiers to rescue Anxi, pointing out that Erlang God was this Du Jian, which could explain why Erlang God's early dramas were closely related to Nezha, because Nezha was the third son of Vishnu, a famous king, and Du Jian was a brother. He also talked about the connection between Du Jian's golden mouse and Jiro's thin waist dog.
The image of Yang Jian in the Romance of the Gods seems to be related to the above Erlang God. "Romance of Gods" narrates Yang Jian's appearance, saying that he was "sanctified in the flesh and sealed the source of wisdom and truth", obviously from the title of Zhao Yu. Back to the 47th Yang Jian War, "the roaring dog was released in the dark, shaped like a white elephant". This roaring dog is one of the symbols of Erlang God, which is mentioned in The Journey to the West's novels and plays. It is related to Xu Meng and Zhao Yu. Of course, this may also be due to the unique health of the golden mouse, as Zhang said. The fifty-fifth chapter of Romance of Gods tells that Yang Jian went into a cave to chase monsters, got a three-pointed double-edged knife and a pale yellow fairy robe, and took two blond teenagers as disciples, which is also a symbolic feature of Erlang God. In the novel Journey to the West, Erlang holds a three-pointed double-edged knife, and in the drama "Erlang Locks the Monkey King", a fine dog and a three-pointed double-edged knife are also mentioned. The pale yellow fairy robe borrowed the image of Xu Meng; There is a lyric cloud in the sixteenth play of The Journey to the West's Zaju: "Guo presses the soap eagle straight, and the golden head slave attracts the fine dog. Carrying a crossbow and carrying a projectile. " Golden boy is the golden slave here; Even when Yang Jian chased the monster into the cave, there seemed to be ice and the shadow of chopping jiaozi in the water.
Liu Yisheng wrote that the description of Yang Jian in the Romance of the Gods became clear gradually. At first, the author didn't regard Yang Jian as Erlang God. This is a very insightful point of view, but I want to point out that this does not mean that all descriptions of Erlang God are later supplements. Maybe the author is about to write a history of Emperor Wen of Sui's life growth. In addition, the Romance of Gods describes several people with strange eyes (for example, Wenzhong, Yin Jiao, Liang Wen, Mashan and Lu Yue all have three eyes; Gao Ming is clairvoyant; Yang Ren has hands in his eyes and eyes that can see through the ground), probably in order to avoid too much repetition, or just because the author is biased when mixing a variety of Jiro quotations, so the Romance of the Gods does not highlight Yang Jian's three eyes (this is the most important feature of Jiro), but Yang Jian is "lucky and fascinated, and Yuan Honghua is known as a strange stone" (back to 92)
As for why Yang Jian was regarded as Erlang God in The Romance of Gods, there are different opinions. Hu Shi believed that Emperor Wen of Sui was a scratching figure in history, and Erlang God was the most admired in the Song Dynasty. On his birthday, a good man and a woman will take a piece of soil to his temple as a gift, which is similar to scraping the ground, so Yang Jian can be confused with Erlang God. Rong Zhaozu quoted this view, but gave another explanation. He said that the necessary sacrifice of Erlang God was sheep, and every sheep had to pay 500 yuan tax when entering the city. Sheep and Yang are homonyms, which means Erlang God replaces Emperor Wen of Sui. This may be the nickname used by ordinary people who dare to speak out. After a long time, Erlang God really said it was Yang Jian. Li Pinghua Erlang Shen quotes the records in Two Books, Erlang Shen in Broken Boots and Records, and speculates that they may be "the foundation of the novelist's foundation based on emptiness". In fact, Erlang's surname "Yang" should be influenced by the legend of Yang Shen, probably by the legend of the general. As for the name "sword", I think it may come from the "sword" of "Dujian". In other words, the name "Yang Jian" is probably a combination of two legends of Erlang God, and it is not necessarily associated with Yang Jian in history.
In a word, the image of Yang Jian was created by the author of The Romance of Gods, based on various legends of Erlang God, and many of his characteristics can be explained. However, as this article will talk about later, this image has another source.
Yang Jian and the Monkey King.
[Edit this paragraph]
Even the readers who have read The Romance of Gods can easily find many similarities between Yang Jian and the Monkey King. The author thinks that this is mostly due to Emperor Wen of Sui's identity as Erlang God, because in the early materials about the image of Erlang God and the Monkey King, the two sides have a close relationship. In the following, this paper first points out many similarities between Yang Jian and the Monkey King in The Journey to the West, and then traces back to the reasons for these similarities, thus showing that the image of Yang Jian in the Romance of the Gods has a certain relationship with the image of the Monkey King.
Yang Jian's positive performance in The Romance of Gods is easily reminiscent of the Monkey King in The Journey to the West. Perhaps it can be said that Yang Jian is the Monkey King in the Romance of Gods.
Judging from the macro narrative framework of the novel, the similarities between the two sides are self-evident: the Monkey King is the pioneer of the Buddhist scriptures mission and the right-hand man to protect the Tang Priest's scriptures, while Yang Jian is the pioneer of the separatist rebels and the pioneer general who helped King Wu to attack Chao Ge; The Monkey King finally became a Buddha in the flesh and was named "Fighting Buddha", and Yang Jian finally became a saint in the flesh and was named the true king of Miao Dao in Qingyuan.
As far as the microscopic details of the novel are concerned, the similarities between Yang Jian and the Monkey King are even more obvious. We can roughly list the following six items:
(1) Like the Monkey King, Yang Jian will change 72 times. Journey to the West told the Monkey King for the second time that he was willing to "learn from the changes of a detective", so "knowing everything means knowing everything". At that time, he learned the formula, practiced it himself, refined it himself, and learned all the seventy-two changes. " When Yang Jian was introduced in the Fortieth Romance of the Gods, he said that he "practiced nine turns of Gong Xuan, seventy-two changes, and infinite wonderful way", and poking fun at Zhang Kui (the eighty-sixth time) was the best interpretation of his "infinite wonderful way". The novel also specifically mentions that he has become a fox and a mink (Chapter 40), a stone (Chapter 54), a five-colored cock and a centipede (Chapter 9 1. How much has Yang Jian changed? In fact, there is no clear definition of a number in various legends of Erlang God. Generally speaking, he only said that he was miraculous and had fought with cattle. Presumably, The Romance of the Gods said with confidence that Yang Jian would "change seventy-two", probably because of the hints of stories such as "Erlang God locked the Great Sage on a monkey" and "Little Sage and Great Sage came to the world". It is believed that since Erlang God can subdue the Monkey King, at least his variable index cannot be less than the Monkey King's.
(2) Related to the above details, Yang Jian can often get into his opponent's stomach and force him to submit, which is strikingly consistent with the Monkey King's "somersault and vertical dragonfly" in the monster's stomach. At this point, the Monkey King has at least made Black Bear Essence, Princess Iron Fan, King Huangmei and Green Lion Essence suffer (see 17, 59, 66 and 75 respectively). There are three paragraphs in the Romance of the Gods: For the first time, Yang Jian got into the belly of the fox mink as soon as he appeared. "When you pinch the heart of the fox and mink, it will fall down with a loud cry, and Yang Jian will appear and hold the fox and mink in two", which greatly frustrated the enemy's spirit (40th time); The second time, after being eaten by Ma Yuan, "Yang Jian used 89 yuan's works, and the change was wonderful. He took a grain of Khitan, which made Ma Yuan diarrhea for three days and Ma Yuan diarrhea for half "(60th time); The last time, Yang Jian "put his hand on his heart" in Zhu Zizhen's abdomen, forcing Zhu Zizhen to show his true colors and kneel in Zhou Ying (92nd time). It is not the Monkey King's patent skill to defeat the enemy by making trouble in his stomach (Hua Guang in The Journey to the West also has this skill), but many Erlang gods do not have this skill except Yang Jian. Therefore, it makes sense to think that Yang Jian's specialty comes from the Monkey King.