Cold-Dispelling King

The Lantern Festival in Jinping Prefecture is the grandest day of the entire city. The streets are as bright as day with lanterns, and the populace pours out into the city. Hundreds of golden lamps are lit in the temples—burning suhe fragrant oil, which costs two taels of silver per catty, with over fourteen thousand catties consumed each year. This has been the way for ages. Every Lantern Festival night, three Buddha statues drift down from the heavens, radiating ten thousand rays of golden light and a thousand streaks of auspicious qi. They hover above the golden lamps for a moment to "collect the lamp oil" before drifting away. The citizens of the city kowtow in worship, deeply believing this to be a manifestation of the Buddha—for who would ever doubt the Buddha?

For many years, no one doubted. It was not until the master and disciples of Tang Sanzang passed through Jinping Prefecture that Sun Wukong's Fire-Golden Eyes saw through the true identities of those three "Buddhas": three rhinoceros spirits. The Cold-Dispelling King, King Bishu, and King Bi-Chen—three brothers from the Xuanying Cave of Azure Dragon Mountain—had been performing this play over Jinping Prefecture for countless years. This is one of the most ingenious scams in Journey to the West: it relies not on the plunder of force, but on the harvest of faith. By transforming into Buddhas and exploiting the piety of the people, the three rhinoceroses obtained exorbitant lamp oil for free every year. With zero cost and a return of over fourteen thousand catties of suhe fragrant oil annually, the profit margin of this "business" was countless times higher than that of robbery.

The Three Rhinoceroses of Xuanying Cave: The Oil-Swindling Brothers Impersonating the Buddha

The Cold-Dispelling King is the eldest of the three brothers and the mastermind behind this scam. He resides in the Xuanying Cave of Azure Dragon Mountain with King Bishu and King Bi-Chen. Each of the three rhinoceros spirits possesses a pair of horns—horns that become critical plot devices in the later story.

The division of labor among the brothers is clear: every Lantern Festival in Jinping Prefecture, the three use their magic to take the form of Buddha statues and ride clouds to the skies above the city. Their transformation art is remarkably sophisticated—not only is their appearance lifelike, but they can also release golden light and auspicious qi to create the visual effect of "Buddha's light illuminating all." In an era where ordinary citizens could not distinguish between true and false divine light, this disguise was nearly flawless.

Chapter 91 details the economic scale of this fraud. The amount of suhe fragrant oil prepared annually by Jinping Prefecture for the "Buddha's manifestation" reaches over fourteen thousand catties; by the market prices of the time, this was a staggering expense. Every year, the officials and citizens of the entire city exhausted their financial resources to prepare the oil, viewing it as a supreme religious obligation. The three rhinoceros spirits enjoyed the fruits of this labor without needing to fight or risk anything—they simply flew in once a year for a "manifestation" performance, and the oil was delivered automatically.

Wu Cheng'en is writing more than just a monster's scam here; he is crafting an allegory about the "economics of faith." The people of Jinping Prefecture were not stupid—they were devout. Devotion itself is not a mistake; the mistake lies in the fact that no one ever verified the authenticity of the "Buddha." When faith becomes an unquestionable premise, the swindler gains infinite room to maneuver. The three rhinoceros spirits exploited not the ignorance of the people, but their faith—which is far more terrifying than exploiting ignorance, for faith is harder to break than ignorance.

The Cold-Dispelling King's weapon is a battle-axe, and he possesses considerable strength in direct combat. However, his true brilliance lies not in force, but in strategy: he chose a method of "subduing the wealth of others without fighting" to acquire resources, a level of wisdom rare among the monsters of Journey to the West. Most monsters operate on a model of "robbery"—blocking roads to seize people or attacking cities to take land. The Cold-Dispelling King's model is "fraud"—donning the cloak of the Buddha to make the victims willingly offer up their treasures. The former is inefficient and high-risk; the latter is efficient and nearly risk-free—until one encounters Sun Wukong.

The Lamp Oil Scam of Jinping Prefecture: Over Fourteen Thousand Catties of Suhe Fragrant Oil Annually

Just how precious is suhe fragrant oil? Why did the three rhinoceros spirits target lamp oil instead of stealing gold, silver, or jewelry?

The answer lies in the nature of the rhinoceros. In ancient Chinese mythology, the rhinoceros is associated with "warding off evil"—rhinoceros horns were believed to possess spiritual powers to expel evil and suppress demons. Suhe fragrant oil is an extremely precious offering for the Buddha, made from a blend of various aromatics and animal fats. When lit, it produces a lingering fragrance and is regarded as the highest grade of fuel for offering lamps in Buddhist rituals. For the rhinoceros spirits, this oil likely served a purpose in their cultivation—similar to the value of the Ginseng Fruit to other monsters.

Chapter 91 mentions the figure for the annual oil offering in Jinping Prefecture: over fourteen thousand catties. This number was not chosen at random. Converted into the silver of that era, the value of this oil was enough to support a medium-sized town. The people of Jinping Prefecture bore this immense economic burden year after year without complaint, believing it to be a merit-earning act of supporting the Buddha. The citizens preferred to live frugally rather than save money on the "Buddha's lamps."

This method of operating a "faith tax" is not unfamiliar in Chinese history. During the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty, when Wu Cheng'en lived, Taoism flourished, and the Emperor himself led the way in practicing it. It was common for temples and monasteries across the land to consume the wealth of the people. The lamp oil scam of Jinping Prefecture is less a story about monsters and more a metaphor for the reality of "plundering in the name of religion." The setting—monsters disguising themselves as Buddhas—is in itself a sharp piece of irony.

When Wukong exposed the scam and smashed the "Buddha statues," the initial reaction of the people of Jinping Prefecture was not gratitude, but shock and terror—their system of faith had been demolished. To have a "Buddha" they had trusted for years suddenly turn into a rhinoceros spirit was a shock no less than being told the sun rises in the west. Wukong did not just subdue demons; he destroyed the spiritual pillar of a city. The price of this "rescue" was the total collapse of faith in Jinping Prefecture.

The Joint Assault of the Four Wood Stars: Jiao Wood Dragon, Dou Wood Xie, Kui Wood Wolf, and Jing Wood Han

The three rhinoceros spirits did not just steal oil; they also captured Tang Sanzang. At the end of Chapter 91, the Cold-Dispelling King took advantage of the chaos to seize Tang Sanzang and bring him back to the Xuanying Cave. Eating Tang Sanzang's flesh was not their original intent, but since he had delivered himself to their door, why not take the opportunity?

Wukong found it difficult to deal with the combined strength of the three rhinoceros spirits alone. He ascended to heaven for help and summoned the Four Wood Stars of the Twenty-Eight Mansions: Jiao Wood Dragon, Dou Wood Xie, Kui Wood Wolf, and Jing Wood Han. Why these four? Because the rhinoceros is a "land beast," and the "Wood" constellations of the Twenty-Eight Mansions govern "birds and beasts." The Four Wood Stars naturally counter land-dwelling beast monsters. This is a rare example in Journey to the West of "precise military deployment based on the Five Elements system of counters"—he did not simply ask for a few heavenly soldiers, but found the natural nemesis of the rhinoceros spirits.

The battle in Chapter 92 was a coordinated hunt. The Four Wood Stars returned to their original forms—Jiao Wood Dragon became a blue dragon, Dou Wood Xie became a xiezhi, Kui Wood Wolf became a giant wolf, and Jing Wood Han became a great hound—each attacking the three rhinoceros spirits in their true forms. Simultaneously, Prince Moang, son of the Dragon King, led water troops to block their retreat by sea. The three rhinoceros spirits were attacked from both front and rear, and their formation fell into chaos.

The Cold-Dispelling King was the last of the brothers to be captured. He struggled to hold on using his battle-axe and superior strength, but he finally fell under the combined assault of the Four Wood Stars and the dragon soldiers. All three rhinoceros spirits were killed—not subdued, not taken back to the heavenly realm, but killed outright.

This ending is uncommon in Journey to the West. Most monsters with a pedigree are eventually reclaimed by their original masters—the Azure Lion returns to Manjushri, the White Elephant to Samantabhadra, and the Nine-Spirit Primal Sage to Taiyi Tianzun. But the three rhinoceros spirits had no heavenly background and no one to "claim" them. Thus, their fate was the simplest and most brutal of all: death.

Rhinoceros Horns Offered to the Jade Emperor: The Political Economy of Demon Corpses

The story does not end with the death of the three rhinoceros demons. At the conclusion of Chapter 92, there is a detail easily overlooked: the horns of the three rhinoceros demons were sawn off, with a portion offered to the Jade Emperor and the remainder distributed among the participating Heavenly Generals.

In ancient China, rhinoceros horn was an extremely precious material—used in medicine, for warding off evil, and in the crafting of ritual implements. The three rhinoceros demons possessed six horns in total, each representing the distilled essence of countless years of cultivation. Once sawn from the corpses, these horns were transformed into spoils of war and tributes.

The cruelty of this plot point lies in its "materialization." A living demon—even one who was a fraud and a villain—is dismembered upon death, and the valuable parts of his body are used as gifts. There is no fundamental difference here between this act and a human hunter killing a rhinoceros for its horn. Here, Wu Cheng'en blurs the line between "subduing demons" and "hunting animals": once the demon is slain, the corpse is no longer viewed as a "life that once lived," but as a heap of distributable resources.

The offering of rhinoceros horns to the Jade Emperor is treated in the narrative as a matter of course. No one finds it wrong; no one expresses unease. The Four Wood Bird Stars and the dragon soldiers divide the horns, report to the Heavenly Palace, and all are pleased. However, if we juxtapose this scene with the scenes of the Heat-Dispelling King defrauding the people of their oil while he was alive, we find a satirical symmetry: in life, the Heat-Dispelling King relied on "posing as a Buddha" to swindle the wealth of the commoners; in death, his body was "naturally" carved up by the Heavenly Realm. He was an exploiter in life, only to become the object of exploitation in death. On the power ladder of Journey to the West, every level consumes the value of the level below—the commoners are cheated by demons, the demons are slain by heavenly soldiers, and the heavenly soldiers harvest materials from the demons to offer to a higher power. This food chain is cold and complete.

Related Characters

• King Bishu — The second brother, the second of the three rhinoceros demons; resided in Xuanying Cave with the Cold-Dispelling King and was bitten to death by the Four Wood Bird Stars.
• King Bichen — The third brother, the last of the three rhinoceros demons; executed after being captured by Chuanbi.
• Sun Wukong — The primary adversary; he exposed the fake Buddha scam and summoned the Four Wood Bird Stars from heaven to assist in the battle.
• Tang Sanzang — Captured and imprisoned in Xuanying Cave by the three rhinoceros demons.
• The Four Wood Bird Stars — Consisting of Jiao Wood Dragon, Dou Wood Xie, Kui Wood Wolf, and Jing Wood Han; these stars of the Twenty-Eight Mansions naturally counter beast-type demons and joined forces to hunt the three rhinoceros demons.
• Prince Moang — Son of the West Sea Dragon King; he led the water troops to block the rhinoceros demons' retreat and participated in the encirclement.
• Jade Emperor — The supreme authority who received the offering of the rhinoceros horns.