Liu Hong

Hongjiang Ferry, deep in the night. The newly minted top scholar Chen Guangrui, accompanied by his wife Yin Wenjiao, was traveling to take up his post in Jiangzhou and needed to cross the river. The boatman was a river bandit named Liu Hong—he and his accomplice, Li Biao, had long set their sights on this naive scholar and his young, beautiful wife. There was no moonlight upon the water, and not a soul was in sight. Taking advantage of Chen Guangrui's lack of caution, Liu Hong beat him to death and cast his corpse into the river. He then donned the scholar's official robes and led Yin Wenjiao to Jiangzhou to assume the post. From that day forward, a murderer usurped the identity of a top scholar, seizing both his wife and his office—a deception that would persist for eighteen years. This plot is the core of the tragedy surrounding Tang Sanzang's origins and is the segment of Journey to the West that most closely resembles a "secular crime novel." There are no demonic arts, no divine powers, and no heavenly soldiers or generals; there is only the murder, impersonation, and possession of one mortal by another.

The Murder at Hongjiang Ferry: The Tragedy of Tang Sanzang's Origins

Chapter 9 (in some versions, an appendix) details this murder. After placing first in the imperial examinations, Chen Guangrui was appointed as the Prefect of Jiangzhou. He set out from Chang'an with his pregnant wife, Yin Wenjiao, and upon reaching Hongjiang Ferry, he hired a boat to cross. Liu Hong and Li Biao were habitual bandits of the region who specialized in setting traps at ferries, using the guise of boatmen to kill and rob travelers.

Wu Cheng'en's depiction of this murder is remarkably restrained—there are no gory details, only a minimalist account of the process: in the dead of night, Liu Hong and Li Biao beat Chen Guangrui to death and pushed his body into the river. Yet, this restraint only heightens the horror. The ferry, the darkness, the strange boatman, and a journey far from any village or inn—all these elements point to a primal anxiety regarding personal safety: you have entrusted your life to a stranger, and that stranger wants your life.

Yin Wenjiao's situation in the wake of this calamity was utterly desperate. She witnessed her husband's murder with her own eyes, but as she was heavily pregnant, she was powerless to resist. Liu Hong threatened her: if she did not comply, he would kill her as well. To protect the child in her womb—the future Tang Sanzang—Yin Wenjiao was forced to submit. This choice represents the heaviest ethical dilemma in the entire story: caught between "dying for her husband's honor" and "surviving for her child," a woman chose the latter. Wu Cheng'en offers no moral judgment on this choice, though later readers and critics have debated it endlessly.

After the child was born, Yin Wenjiao knew that Liu Hong would never tolerate the offspring of Chen Guangrui. She placed the infant upon a wooden plank, bit her finger to write a letter in blood, and set the baby adrift in the river. This is the origin of the name "Jiang Liuer"—Tang Sanzang's childhood name. The infant floated downstream to Golden Mountain Temple, where he was adopted by the temple's Elder Fa Ming. Eighteen years later, the grown Xuanzang (Tang Sanzang) learned of his origins, returned home to recognize his mother, and reported the crime to the authorities to seek justice, finally uncovering this long-buried blood feud.

Eighteen Years of Impersonation: The Longest Deception in the Book

Liu Hong's impersonation is the longest-running deception in the entire novel. Eighteen years—a span of time long enough for an infant to grow into a man. For these eighteen years, Liu Hong wore Chen Guangrui's official robes, sat in the seat of the Prefect of Jiangzhou, lived in Chen Guangrui's residence, and shared a roof with Chen Guangrui's wife.

Logically, this is difficult to justify—how could a river bandit replace a Prefect who was a top imperial scholar without being discovered? Was there not a single colleague, superior, or subordinate who knew the man himself? And what of Yin Wenjiao's own family—she was the daughter of Chancellor Yin—could there have been no correspondence for eighteen years? Wu Cheng'en provides almost no explanation for these loopholes. In the narrative logic of Journey to the West, Liu Hong's impersonation serves as a "story premise": it must be accepted as fact so that the reader can experience the subsequent mystery of Tang Sanzang's birth and the twists of his quest for maternal recognition and revenge. One does not ask "how is this possible," but simply accepts "this is what happened."

However, if viewed through the lens of psychology, eighteen years of living a lie could not have been easy for Liu Hong. Every day, he had to play a man he was not: reviewing official documents, meeting superiors, and navigating various social obligations. The tension and camouflage required for a river bandit to maintain the dignity of a Prefect are easy to imagine. Yin Wenjiao's presence was a sword hanging over his head—she knew the truth and could betray him at any moment. Liu Hong's ability to suppress her for eighteen years must have relied not only on the threat of force but on a form of sustained psychological control.

Through Liu Hong, Wu Cheng'en presents a very secularized form of evil. The demons on the pilgrimage have various supernatural motives for their malice—eating Tang Sanzang's flesh for immortality, seeking Buddha treasures to advance their cultivation, or the karmic baggage of heavenly mounts descended to earth—but Liu Hong's motives are entirely human: greed, lust, and a thirst for power. He killed for money and women; he impersonated for power and pleasure. He requires no "cultivation" as a justification; his evil is pure, worldly, and the closest to reality.

Disemboweling at the River: Vindicating the Father of Tang Sanzang

Eighteen years later, Tang Sanzang, raised at Golden Mountain Temple, learned of his origins. He returned to Jiangzhou and found his mother, Yin Wenjiao, who confirmed the information in the blood letter, and mother and son were reunited. Subsequently, Yin Wenjiao secretly wrote to her father, Chancellor Yin, who dispatched troops to Jiangzhou to capture Liu Hong.

Liu Hong's end after his capture is the most brutal mortal execution in the book. The original text describes it thus: Liu Hong was bound and taken to Hongjiang Ferry—the very place where he had murdered Chen Guangrui—where he was disemboweled on the spot, his heart and liver offered at the riverbank to appease the wandering soul of Chen Guangrui. This punishment of "live disembowelment" was common in Ming Dynasty vernacular stories and opera for the most heinous of criminals. Wu Cheng'en chose this method to satisfy the reader's expectation that "good and evil are rewarded accordingly," and to provide closure for Chen Guangrui, the "wronged soul of the river"—his blood-debt of hatred was finally paid.

The location of the execution is even more significant. Liu Hong was killed at Hongjiang Ferry—the starting point of his crime and the endpoint of his justice. The eighteen-year flight formed a perfect circle: he departed from here to become "Prefect," and here he was disemboweled to end it all. This "karmic closure" is a common structure in the narrative of Journey to the West, but it is exceptionally powerful in Liu Hong's story because he is not a demon; he is a mortal. When a demon is killed, they may "return to their original state" or "be reincarnated," but when a mortal is disemboweled, they are truly dead. There is no second chance, no buffer of reincarnation.

Chen Guangrui's end, by contrast, is tinged with mythology. After being pushed into the river, his body was kept by the Dragon King—it turned out the Dragon King of Hongjiang knew him (Chen Guangrui had once released a dragon), and he preserved the body, awaiting the day the injustice would be cleared. After Liu Hong was executed, the Dragon King allowed Chen Guangrui to "return to his soul" and be revived, reuniting the family. This ending creates a stark narrative contrast: the killer dies by disembowelment, an irreversible end; the victim, through karmic retribution, returns from the dead. Mortal evil receives mortal punishment, while mortal goodness receives a reward that transcends the mortal realm.

Liu Hong's story occupies a unique place in Journey to the West: it is the "emotional backdrop" for Tang Sanzang's motivation for the pilgrimage. Why did Tang Sanzang go to the West to seek the scriptures? On the surface, it was by the request of Emperor Taizong and the command of the Buddha, but the deep personal motive was that he had been an outcast since birth, facing calamity from the moment he was born—his father murdered, his mother humiliated, and he himself surviving a night adrift on a wooden plank. This trauma of origin gave Tang Sanzang a natural empathy for "suffering" and an instinctive longing for "salvation." The suffering created by Liu Hong, in a sense, forged the fundamental character of Tang Sanzang.

Related Characters

• Chen Guangrui — Tang Sanzang's biological father, a newly minted top scholar, murdered by Liu Hong at Hongjiang Ferry; his body was later preserved by the Dragon King and he was revived.
• Yin Wenjiao — Tang Sanzang's biological mother, daughter of Chancellor Yin; she was possessed by Liu Hong for eighteen years, enduring humiliation to protect her young son.
• Tang Sanzang — The primary victim of Liu Hong's crimes; cast into the river at birth and adopted by Elder Fa Ming of Golden Mountain Temple; he returned home eighteen years later to recognize his mother and seek revenge.
• Elder Fa Ming — Abbot of Golden Mountain Temple, who found the drifting infant (Tang Sanzang) by the river, raised him to adulthood, and informed him of his origins.
• Emperor Taizong — Emperor of the Great Tang; after the case of Liu Hong was brought to the imperial court by Chancellor Yin, Taizong issued an edict to capture Liu Hong and bring him to justice.