Xuanzang- Chinese HeroHero"Master of the Law"

Golden Cicada

Xuanzang was not born a monk. He was born a reincarnation. In Journey to the West, he is Golden Cicada, a disciple of the Buddha cast down to the mortal world for inattention during a sermon. His previous incarnations ended when demons devoured him, drawn by the supernatural purity of his flesh. This life was his last chance.

His mortal story began with murder. His father, the scholar Chen Guangrui, was killed by the ferryman Liu Hong on the way to take up an official post. His pregnant mother was forced to become Liu Hong's wife. When the infant was born, she set him adrift on a river in a basin to save his life. The abbot of Jinshan Temple found and raised him. Years later, Xuanzang reunited with his mother and avenged his father.

The Journey Begins

Emperor Taizong descended briefly into the underworld after a dispute involving the Dragon King of the Jing River. Returning to the living with twenty years added to his life, he resolved to sponsor a great Buddhist assembly to pray for the dead. He selected Xuanzang, then a respected monk in Chang'an, to preside.

During the ceremony, Guanyin appeared in disguise and presented Xuanzang with the brocade cassock and nine-ringed staff given by the Buddha. Greater scriptures existed in India, she told him. Taizong pledged Xuanzang as his sworn brother and sent him west.

The Road West

Xuanzang could not fight. He could not fly. He could not see through illusions. His flesh granted immortality to any demon who ate it, and every demon on the road to India knew it.

His protection came from three disciples assigned by Guanyin: Sun Wukong the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie the pig spirit, and Sha Wujing the sand demon. Sun Wukong was the strongest, and the hardest to control. The golden fillet on the monkey's head was Xuanzang's only leverage: when he recited the headband-tightening sutra, the fillet constricted and Sun Wukong dropped howling.

He used it unwisely. When the White Bone Demon appeared three times disguised as innocent villagers and Sun Wukong killed each form, Xuanzang saw only murder. He dismissed the monkey entirely. Without Sun Wukong, the demons took him at once.

Eighty-one tribulations stood between Chang'an and India. The Gold and Silver Horned Kings trapped him with magical gourds that swallowed anyone who answered to their name. At Flaming Mountain, the pilgrims could not pass until they borrowed Princess Iron Fan's plantain fan to extinguish supernatural fires. Through all of it, Xuanzang endured. He could offer nothing but the willingness to keep walking west.

Vulture Peak

The pilgrims reached Vulture Peak and received the scriptures from the Buddha. Crossing the Cloud-Transcending Stream, Xuanzang watched his own mortal body float away in the current. The flesh that had tempted so many demons drifted downstream, empty.

The sutras turned out to be blank. They went back. The Buddha's attendants, Ananda and Kasyapa, demanded a gift before handing over the true texts. Xuanzang had nothing to give but his golden alms bowl. It was enough. The eighty-first tribulation was complete.

He returned to Chang'an with the scriptures and was elevated to Buddhahood as the Sandalwood Merit Buddha.