Production Notes - Episode 4 | Bi Ma Wen as an insult/Heavenly King Li and Ne Zha

0:06 Journey to the West. An audio drama series, production notes, episode 4. Hello, dear listeners. This is Lynn, the voice of the fifth monkey. We are at episode for now and in this episode we will focus on two main topics. One becomes new job in the Heavenly Palace. And to the mythical origins of heavenly King, Li the Pagoda Bearer and his son, the jaw.

0:33 So in chapter 4 will come has obtained, the new title female when we purposely didn't translate his name at all because it is two iconic to be turned into another language. Let Me Explain why. First, we need to dissect the name by character be Marwan, is a made-up title that doesn't actually exist for real life. Stableman.

0:55 In fact, the name is almost designed specifically to humiliate The Monkey King. The phrase, be my win in folk language and popular understanding, why a straightforwardly means averting horse owners with ma, meaning course. However, the creators of Journey to the West, replace the characters, be meaning to avert and one meaning disease plague with more decent-looking homophones. So they appear more like an official title. So even just on the surface, the name email when it's already and alright, pun handed out by the Jade Emperor. The title does not refer to any real position in the real world. Very respectful there, but it gets worse. The reason why this name is meant to humiliate. The Monkey King is because

1:44 monkeys were traditionally kept in Stables as some sort of mascot that keeps the horses. Healthy, this tradition dating back, centuries before the novel was written, you can find numerous age. Ian drawings and carvings in China, featuring a monkey Tied by the neck up here in close to horses. And other livestock the 6th Century, agricultural classic team in yoshu or essential techniques for the welfare of the people quota.

2:11 In their chapter about raising livestock often tying a cog in the stable could keep the horses free from Fright evilness and disease. Basically monkeys have for centuries been kept in Stables to protect horses. They're often tied with a rope and don't seem to have anything to do other than just being there.

2:33 In other words and enslaved mascot. So be, my one is not only upon that. Make sure no one would take a week off, seriously. It is also a direct insult to a monkey by indicating that he was nothing more than a stable mascot, Wukong was fooled. Because at this stage His life. He was obviously, too naive to understand such ill intentions. Interestingly, if you look at his record in the Imperial Stables, he obviously loved the job. He enjoyed spending time with the horses and he took pride in doing a good job.

3:08 So the job content was not the issue. The issue was the title is self, and how others would perceive him, he was okay with the labor but not okay, with other people looking down on him and treating him as some low skilled worker. And from this point forward, the name beam Wouldn't became a stain in his life. You will hear this title in vote again and again by various opponents in the future.

3:34 All with the purpose to insult will go n hurt his pride and almost every single time will come would be successfully agitated and go into a rage. That's why we chose to keep the name. Be my wouldn't the way it is because at a certain point is literal, meaning no longer matters and it has turned into a curse word directed at home.

3:56 Andrew:? Alone. We want to keep that emotional impact in the story. So you know, when is the way to go speaking of horses in chapter 4 part 1, We briefly introduce the Heavenly horses without mentioning any specific name in the original text. There was a lengthy poem listing these famous and legendary horses by name, including shoe to the red hair.

4:22 A horse, famously owned by General Blue, Boar of the late. He's Han or three kingdoms period. Period. But clearly, we do not have the timing capacity to explain the backstory of every horse. So, we went for a more General description, only painting, the big picture for more details on these horses.

4:40 Please refer to the complete English translations, where mr. Anthony. You admitted that the poem was quote exceedingly difficult to translate unquote. Moving on to the next Topic in chapter 4, we were introduced to two new characters have leaking leeching the Pagoda Berra and his youngest son, lower jaw. The third Prince, these two guards and their towels are extremely iconic.

5:09 And well-known in Chinese culture, you either or, you know, their stories by heart, or have seen some reason adaptations about them, but we won't go into those today. Instead we would like to take you back in time time and see how these two characters came into place. Let's start with that. Who is leaching leading?

5:29 In fact, was a well-known General in early Tang Dynasty, who made crucial contributions to the dynasties quest to unify China. He was believed to be alive between 571 2649 ad and remained a much regarded figure after his death which means he was very much a contemporary options on the monk who actually took the journey.

5:52 E to the West within two centuries. After leading surpassing there have been text indicating that he was beginning to be deified due to his military accomplishments. At this point in time, he was very much still himself Tang Dynasty. God of War type of character. No, Pagoda, no children yet. The things started to change as the Buddhist god named Vashon.

6:16 Wanna enter the picture vaishravana is one of the four Great Heavenly Kings of Buddhist Legend. Also known as the war went here. Wang in Chinese, we have met some junk in one more heavily King virudhaka in chapter 4, he guarded. The southern Gate of Heaven, whereas fashion wanna was in charge of the North.

6:36 As the worship of Vashta wanna became popular in China, around the Tang Dynasty. The character also became known for God of War characteristics, there will be Legends of him bringing heavily troops to help a battle in crisis. And in, relics from the period, we started to see the Pagoda and a baby boy appearing alongside of asjuan.

6:55 The baby boy, of course would eventually become knowledge. Ah, the name, the lower jaw is also a transliteration from the Sanskrit name, not Ava. Who was the son of heavenly King, vashti? Wanna because it is a transliteration of the Sanskrit. Name, different places and dialects. They have different pronunciations for nausea. We chose to call him go job because this is the name used in standard Mandarin and basically, everyone would know who we are talking about regardless of what dialect they speak. So in earlier texts, knowledge, art was related to Heavenly King, rash, fauna, but has nothing to do with the DFI General named leaching just yet.

7:38 By Yuan Dynasty. The period preceding Ming Dynasty during which Journey to the West came in, to form the images of leaching and heavily Kingfish wanna began to merge. And remember what we said about Journey to the West being the product of the collective imagination. The same goes for heavily King leading.

7:56 Who by this time has been created as a hybrid of two distinct figures storytellers, began expanding his family story, adding a wife and two, older Sons prior to nurture Ah, which is why I know job became the third Prince. It was also during the Yuan Dynasty. That the commonly known folklore surrounding the adjust birth.

8:16 Misbehavior, suicide and rebirth, solidified. Coincidentally a lot of the stories and elements of Journey to the West. Also, originated from the same period, which was why we always reiterated. The fact that Journey to the West Was Not the product of one man's creativity but a collective project involving artists from centuries prior. So by the time Journey to the West Was Written. The wise rest story of heavily kingly the pakoda Berra and lower jaw was not very different from how we know them today. I like either Li Jing or have any Kingfish wanna this hybrid have any King leading.

8:52 The Pagoda para has a complicated relationship with his son. The powerful and rebellious new age are the Pagoda leading held in his hand, with a symbol of new, adjust our mission to Buddha. Not to teaching himself this meant that without the Pagoda Noah Gaston had every reason to seek Vengeance from his father.

9:11 We will go more into this in the future a very distant future that is Basically, by showing the origins of these two characters we want. You dear listeners to know where they came from, but also not to mix them up with their Source characters. Rio General Li Jing was a renowned military genius, heavily, Kingfish fauna is a Buddhist deity. Heavenly King.

9:34 Leaching is a character based on the aforementioned two figures, but became a man of his own, the Pagoda, and his son new. Ajar also originated from Buddhist texts would have taken on new. New meanings, Heavenly King leads, you needed, the Pagoda in his hand. So he son. Raja was still obey him. Journey to the West, did not spend a lot of time explaining their backstory but treated it almost like a known, fact indicating that. By the time the novel was being created and circulated, the Tells of Father and Son have become common knowledge, that required no further explanation.

10:10 Before we wrap up this episode, we would like to cover a couple more smaller things. First is the Royal first person pronoun. In the original text, the Jade Emperor called himself gin, which is the first person pronoun, reserved exclusively for Empress following the UN General translations. We went with the Royal plural as a translation for Jen, which was why in chapter 4, you hear him referring to himself as we that is Is the Majestic plural, and not the common. We, the same goes for other Emperor's in the story, and by the same principles, you will find descriptions of an empress appearance and actions to be distinct from that of the common person.

10:55 For example, an imprecise are not just eyes, but Dragon, Popo's and Phoenix eyes, you will easily pick up these details as you listen on. We also saw many Star gods in chapter 4 star names like animal names can be just as confusing. You can have multiple titles for the same Celestial body and multiple titles for the god of that Celestial body on top of that. While some stars are real and you can find them in the night sky.

11:27 Some aren't actually stars in the astrological sense. I will go into more detail when we meet more of these dots in future chapters. But for now it's just a fun fact for y'all. And that's all for this episode will you would like to thank dear Patron, Kelly for sponsoring this episode all of our members at the fifth monkey are working for free on this project.

11:53 So we would really appreciate if you could support us on patreon and keep the project running. Our patreon page is in the descriptions and there are several perks for you to unlock before you leave. Don't forget to eat the insulin or subscribe. This is the fifth monkey, and thank you for listening. Journey to the West and Audio.

12:18 Drama Series is a production by the fifth monkey. If you enjoy our work, please support us on, patreon.com slash the fifth monkey or head to www.wymt.com to support us on social media shares, comments, emails, all are welcome. This is Lynn. See you in the next episode.