Tiger-Power Great Immortal

Five hundred monks, backs bent under a scorching sun, pull heavy carts laden with bricks and stones. Ropes bite deep into the flesh of their shoulders, and whips lash their backs, layering fresh bloody welts over old ones. On the construction sites outside the city of Chechi Kingdom, two young Daoist boys ride high above, overseeing the labor; should anyone's pace slacken, they are met with a sudden strike of the whip. This is not a scene from some slave state, but the daily reality of a dignified great power of the West: monks are seized for forced labor, those who flee are beaten to death on the spot, and notices posted at the city gates warn that any commoner sheltering a monk will face the execution of their entire family. In Chapter 44, this is the first scene Sun Wukong and his companions encounter upon entering Chechi Kingdom—a vision of a living hell on earth. The architects of this misery are three demon Daoists whom the King honors as "National Teachers"—Tiger-Power Great Immortal, Deer-Power Great Immortal, and Ram-Power Great Immortal. Tiger-Power Great Immortal is the leader of the three and the first demon to perish in the Chechi Kingdom story arc. His death is utterly absurd: his severed head is carried off by a wild dog.

The Three National Teachers of Chechi Kingdom: An Abnormal Ecology of Daoist Dominance over Buddhism

The story of Chechi Kingdom serves as a political allegory within Journey to the West. The catalyst is simple: twenty years ago, Chechi Kingdom suffered a great drought, and the King ordered both the Buddhist and Daoist sects to perform rituals for rain. The monks established an altar and chanted scriptures, but it was futile; the three Daoists ascended their altar to pray, and the rain fell immediately. From then on, the King concluded that Daoism was more efficacious than Buddhism and decreed that the nation should "revere the Dao and eliminate the monks." The Daoists moved into the spacious Three Pure Ones Temple to enjoy state patronage, while the monks were seized as free labor to build roads, construct bridges, haul bricks, and pull carts—a plight that lasted twenty years.

This setting contains a very specific historical reflection of religious backgrounds. During the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty, the Jiajing Emperor was obsessed with Daoism and placed his trust in Daoists such as Tao Zhongwen and Shao Yuanjie. He built numerous Daoist temples and refined elixirs, even neglecting his imperial duties to sequester himself in the Western Gardens for rituals. Confucian officials who repeatedly offered remonstrances were beaten with palace canes, while Buddhist monasteries were restricted or even demolished. When Wu Cheng'en wrote of Chechi Kingdom's "revering the Dao and eliminating the monks," his target was not Daoism itself, but the exploitation of religion by power. The King treated religion as a tool; he believed in whoever could bring the rain. This logic has nothing to do with faith, but everything to do with utilitarianism.

It was true that Tiger-Power Great Immortal could pray for rain—he did indeed possess some cultivation. In Chapter 45, when the King of Chechi Kingdom set up an altar for rain, Tiger-Power Great Immortal ascended the high platform, burned talismans, and chanted incantations; the wind rose and clouds surged, and rain seemed imminent. The problem is that the ability to pray for rain does not equate to being a righteous practitioner. A tiger that cultivates into a spirit and learns some Daoist arts to summon wind and rain is nothing remarkable in the worldview of Journey to the West; half the demons in the mountains possess such superficial skills. However, the King of Chechi Kingdom was ignorant of this context. Seeing only that these three Daoists were more effective than the monks, he staked the entire nation's religious policy on them.

How did these three National Teachers live during their twenty years in Chechi Kingdom? The Three Pure Ones Temple was built in magnificent splendor. Whenever the King had a matter to attend to, he first consulted the National Teachers, and the entire court treated the three Great Immortals with utmost reverence. Tiger-Power Great Immortal styled himself a "National Teacher," traveling with carriages and attendants, and lecturing on scriptures before an audience of civil and military officials. A tiger spirit had infiltrated the center of human power, donned Daoist robes, and occupied a position akin to a Prime Minister. More ironic still is that their victims—those five hundred monks—were likely more devout, more knowledgeable in the scriptures, and closer to true cultivation; they simply lost on the "performance review" of praying for rain.

Wukong's reaction to this was direct: first, he released the five hundred monks; then, he threw the statues of the Three Pure Ones from the temple into the latrine. He then transformed himself into Taishang Laojun to sit upon the offering table, while Zhu Bajie became the Primordial Heavenly Lord and Sha Wujing became the Lord of the Spirit Treasure. When the three demon Daoists came at midnight to seek the Golden Elixir, Wukong gave them horse urine to drink—this sequence is one of the most satisfying yet crude pranks in the entire book.

Decapitation Race, Disembowelment Race, and the Oil Pot: Three Life-Wagering Contests

Upon discovering they had been tricked, the three Great Immortals flew into a rage and petitioned the King to compete against the pilgrims. The King granted this, leading to three life-wagering contests in Chechi Kingdom. The setup of these three trials is highly unique—they are not tests of martial prowess or magical skill, but rather tests of "who can return to life after dying."

The first match featured Tiger-Power Great Immortal: decapitation. The rules were simple and brutal—have your head cut off; whoever can grow it back wins. Tiger-Power Great Immortal went first. The executioner's blade severed his head, and blood sprayed forth. However, Tiger-Power Great Immortal possessed some cultivation; from within his abdomen, he called out, "Head, come!" and his head should have flown back automatically to reattach. This was his life-saving trump card, and he was utterly confident.

Yet Wukong did not play by the rules. He plucked a body hair and transformed it into a yellow dog. At the exact moment Tiger-Power Great Immortal's head was about to fly up from the ground, the dog lunged forward, snatched the head in its mouth, and bolted away, carrying it far off into the moat. Tiger-Power Great Immortal's body waited on the execution platform for the head to return; after a long while, the head was gone. A mass began to grow from his neck—not a new head, but a clotting of struggling blood as the body froze in place. At that moment, Wukong withdrew his magic, and Tiger-Power Great Immortal's true form was exposed: lying on the platform was a headless giant tiger.

This manner of death is unique in the history of demon deaths in Journey to the West. Other demons, even when killed, usually go out in a blaze of glory—Red Boy was locked by five golden hoops and lost to Guanyin; White Bone Demon was struck dead by three blows in a direct confrontation. Tiger-Power Great Immortal's death was "cutting off his own head, only for it to be carried away by a dog"—the most pathetic and blackly humorous death in the entire book, without exception. A demon Daoist who had styled himself a National Teacher for twenty years and oppressed five hundred monks had his fate decided by a dog. Wu Cheng'en's brush here is as cold as a knife.

A Dog Snatches the Head: The Absurd Death of Tiger-Power Great Immortal

The absurdity of Tiger-Power Great Immortal's death warrants further exploration.

It is not that he lacked strength. He could pray for rain—which in the world of Journey to the West means he could indeed communicate with the qi of heaven and earth. He could make his head fly back after decapitation—proving his cultivation was not low, and that he had mastered some form of "life-extending" art. Viewed in isolation, Tiger-Power Great Immortal was not weak; he was far stronger than any random minor demon found by the roadside.

But his problem was that his opponent was Sun Wukong. Wukong does not compete with you on the level of cultivation; he competes on who can be more unscrupulous. The decapitation match was intended to be a contest of "who can return from the dead." Tiger-Power Great Immortal had prepared his life-saving spell and believed his victory was certain. He never anticipated that his opponent would conjure a dog to steal his head—this was entirely outside the "rules of the contest." Wukong did not win through cultivation, but through trickery.

Yet Wu Cheng'en clearly viewed this "trickery" as justified. Tiger-Power Great Immortal was never a righteous practitioner to begin with—a tiger spirit masquerading as a National Teacher, oppressing five hundred monks, and deceiving the King for twenty years with the petty trick of praying for rain. He played a game outside the rules, so it is a karmic symmetry that he died by means outside the rules. The image of a dog carrying off the head is a degradation—a dignified National Teacher and tiger spirit ends up with his head carried away like a scrap of bone by a dog, dying without a shred of dignity.

More poignant still are the reactions of the King and his officials. The moment Tiger-Power Great Immortal's headless corpse reverted to its tiger form, the King was "struck with horror"—the National Teacher he had trusted for twenty years was actually a tiger. The civil and military officials of the court looked at one another in silence—they had spent twenty years kowtowing to a tiger. Five hundred monks had been enslaved by a tiger for twenty years, some of whom died in forced labor because the King believed a tiger's magic was more efficacious than the monks' scriptures.

The satire of this plot is very clear: the blind trust of power is more terrifying than the demons themselves. Tiger-Power Great Immortal's cultivation could not deceive Sun Wukong, but it deceived the King for twenty years. The problem was not that the demon was too strong, but that the human was too foolish.

Related Characters

• Deer-Power Great Immortal — The second of the three state teachers of Chechi Kingdom; a White Deer Spirit who died during the disemboweling competition when an eagle flew off with his internal organs.
• Ram-Power Great Immortal — The third of the three state teachers of Chechi Kingdom; an antelope spirit who was fried into mutton after the Cold-Dispelling power was removed during the boiling oil competition.
• Sun Wukong — The primary antagonist to the demons; he saw through the true identities of the three great immortals and used stratagems to kill the three demons one by one across the three competitions.
• Tang Sanzang — Represented the Buddhist faith in the competitions and escaped danger through Wukong's secret assistance.
• Zhu Bajie — Transformed into the Primordial Heavenly Lord during the prank at the Three Pure Ones Temple.
• Sha Wujing — Transformed into the Lingbao Daoist Lord during the prank at the Three Pure Ones Temple.