#Luohan

[journeytothewestresearch]

12th-Century Sun Wukong

I was happy to learn that the Monkey Pilgrim (Hou xingzhe, 猴行者), Sun Wukong's antecedent, appears among a large set of late-12th-century ritual scrolls portraying the famed 500 Arhats. [1] He is depicted as a monkey-headed, black robe-wearing figure with the lower half of his body obscured by clouds, making him hard to see unless you zoom in on the image. He holds what appears to be the head of a staff in his left hand (fig. 1). Our hero is located just behind Tripitaka, who is riding a white horse led by a spirit-soldier(?) or perhaps Sha Wujing’s antecedent (fig. 2). The full scroll shows this scene happening above the heads of four arhats (fig. 3), indicating that the Tang Monk is considered to be one of these Buddhist sages.

I actually found the simian immortal by accident while researching an article about Tripitaka’s Buddha title. Dr. Meir Shahar tells me that this depiction of Monkey doesn’t appear to have been mentioned in previous JTTW scholarship (personal communication, June 3, 2023). [2] Therefore, I’m so very happy that I can share this discovery with my readers!

For more ancient depictions of Sun Wukong, please see my past article:

Fig. 1 – A detail of the Monkey Pilgrim (larger version). From Lin Tinggui and Zhou Jichang, Images of the 500 Arhats (Wubai Luohan tu, 五百羅漢圖, 1178-1188 CE). Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk. Image from Nara kuniritsu hakubutsukan, Tōkyō bunkazai kenkyūjo, 2014, p. 86. Courtesy of Dr. Liu Shufen, a research fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.

Fig. 2 – A detail of Xuanzang on his his horse (larger version).

Fig. 3 – The full scroll (larger version).

Notes:

1) To learn more about these paintings, see Zhou (2021).

2) Dr. Benjamin Brose tells me that the painting appears in a Japanese source, but the Monkey Pilgrim is only listed as an “ape-like figure” (personal communication, June 3, 2023). See Nara kuniritsu hakubutsukan, Tōkyō bunkazai kenkyūjo henshū, 2014, p. 86.

Sources:

Nara kuniritsu hakubutsukan, Tōkyō bunkazai kenkyūjo henshū [Nara University Tōkyō Research Institute for Cultural Properties (Ed.)]. (2014). Daitokuji denrai gohyaku rakan zu [Daitoku Temple’s Tradition of the 500 Arhats Paintings]. Kyōto: Shitau bungaku.

Zhou, Y. (2021). The Daitokuji Five Hundred Arhats Paintings and Their Beholders [Master’s dissertation, University of Alberta]. Education and Research Archive. https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/f0bf436c-f6e5-46a2-920a-91c8b9dd5ba9

[mafubrah]

Luohan 18 Palms Applications (video)

[quanronggallery]

A Set Eighteen Chinese Shoushan Stone Tianhuang Stone Carved Eighteen Arhat Seal Statue

[zegalba]

Although located in the heart of Chongging, one of China's mega cities, Luohan Temple was constructed over 1000 years ago. Its ancient corridors lead to worn stone depictions of the Buddha while its wooden halls wafts with incense and are adorned with hundreds of local colourful deities.

[tbgkaru-woh]

Word of Honor modern!AU

[zazrichor]

🕯️🩸 | two standalone contributions for @trappedfanzine and one companion piece for the The Body Without Organs written by the brilliant @owlpockets | ☠️👻

Get the free zine here!

[ladynamie]

Sword and Fairy 祈今朝 (2024) | Episode 6

[wisedo]

Scars make the queen!

girls sitting on the throne cause they deserve it

[gabi-theladylover]

Shaved Luohan Shaved Luohan

[stopaskingmetocreateanaccount]

i don’t use slurs lightly,

however,

[orchisailsa]

Just Girly Things

[deepestbluesky]

shl women thought of the day: i think du pusa and qiao luohan should have like seventeen different bets and or competitions going just all the time. how many knives can they sneak into qin song’s bed before he notices. who can kill more people on their next assignment. who can drink more and stay standing on one foot. whether xie wang is going to have them go north or south next. if that guy they saw staring last night will show up at the inn again tonight and if he’ll try to flirt with du pusa or not. like just so many weird silly way to entertain themselves and compete with one another, and they’re constantly bickering about who’s winning overall and in any given challenge and no one else understands why they focus on this so hard when none of it matters.

[quanronggallery]

A Set Vintage Chinese Tianhuang Stone Eighteen Arhat Seal Statue

[tbgkaru-woh]

Word Of Honor screencap redraws with my re-designs that can be found here: https://tbgkaru-woh.tumblr.com/post/699971568676290560/word-of-honor-tian-ya-ke-own-interpretation

[aurumcalendula]

Wicked Ones

premiered at CONfabulation 2022!

AO3 | DW

[aiyexayen]

Clean

(DZZS LNY Mini Prompt Fest Day 6, also on ao3.) (rated M for some nsfw lines and pretty canon-typical killing spree aftermath)

.

Everyone knows Du Pusa likes messes.

She'll make a mess of her lover--pour jiu in their mouth as it overflows; scatter their clothes across the room; let their hair down and bury her hands in it and squeeze; lower her own dripping mess of a pussy onto their face and grind it in until she gets what she wants.

She'll make a mess of her target--poison their skin; get into their head; kill them slowly while gleeful laughter fills the spaces between screams.

Watching her is like watching a storm, if storms could be as vicious as they are fickle. It's difficult not to comment.

"Oh, no, jiejie," Du Pusa answers, sultry and decadent as an overripe plum, "I love cleaning the most."

As if to demonstrate, she poses on the edge of the table in her pristine slip of a dress and polishes her daggers. Liu Qianqiao does not make a disparaging noise of dissent, too trained in the art of refinement, but Qiao Luohan does. Qianqiao barely hears it over the ambient cacophony.

Du Pusa laughs. "Why, just look around." She gestures like a noblewoman in a newly-renovated hall. "I got myself into the Du Xie years ago, and here I am, finally cleaning it up."

With a hop she gets down and steps deliberately across the chest of her one and only personal victim of the day.

"Now," she says, "let's go tell Xie-wang the good news."

Behind her, Zhao Jing's body slowly cools.