Sha Wujing
Chinese · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
The quiet one, and the only member of the party who does what he is told. Chinese readers have argued for four hundred years about whether that makes him the steadiest of the four or the least interesting; the novel gives him the fewest lines and the fewest failures, which may be the same observation. He was wearing the skulls of the nine previous pilgrims who had tried to cross his river, which is the detail that keeps him from being merely dull.
Domains
- rivers
Relations
- student of: Tang SanzangReference treatment of Sha Wujing as the third of Xuanzang's disciples. (secondary)
Sources
- Sha Wujing is the third disciple of Tang Sanzang, a banished immortal found preying on travellers at the Flowing Sands River, defeated by Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie and taken into the pilgrimage.: Reference treatments of Sha Wujing and of the Journey to the West. (secondary)