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answer two interesting journey to the west questions.

question 1: why is the centipede monster considered a monster with “aspirations”?

there is a centipede monster in "journey to the west", called "the demon lord with a hundred eyes", who is a monster with great aspirations.

in the tv series, he looks very fierce and even fights with sun wukong shirtless. in fact, in the original novel, when the centipede demon first appears, he is a taoist priest who looks quite honest and decent.

his pursuit is to become an immortal, and to transform from the "demon lord of a hundred eyes" into the "immortal lord of a hundred eyes".

unlike the seven man-eating spider spirits, the centipede spirit just makes pills in the taoist temple every day.

when tang seng entered the temple, he was sitting in the east corridor pounding medicine, and he was not pretending.

the couplet on his door read: "yellow buds and white snow are the immortals' residence, jade grass and beautiful flowers are the feathered scholar's home." it tried hard to be elegant, and the rhythm of the couplet was harmonious and well-balanced, which was not easy for a monster.

what's more interesting is that this centipede demon was really hospitable and polite at the beginning. when tang monk and his disciples arrived, he was very polite, inviting them to sit down and pouring tea.

his junior sister, the spider spirit, wanted to talk to him in private, but he seriously refused, saying "there is a guest outside".

the junior sister pulled him to talk again, and he actually said solemnly: there are rules for entertaining guests. don’t say that i am a "quiet and immortal person". i am just an ordinary family. even if i have a wife, elderly and children, and other household chores, i have to wait until the guests arrive before dealing with them.

look, what a hospitable monster!

of course, later when he heard from his fellow apprentice sisters that they were bullied by tang seng and his gang, he believed them and poisoned tang seng without knowing the truth, in order to vent his anger for his fellow apprentice sisters. that was wrong on his part.

but the interesting thing is that before poisoning, he confirmed again and again, asking tang seng whether he was from the tang dynasty in the east, for fear of poisoning the wrong person.

from the actions of the centipede monster, we can also see that monsters actually have many sides. each monster has different personalities, hobbies, and pursuits. not everyone wants to eat tang monk’s flesh. they also have their own careers.

it's just that if you do something wrong, you will be punished. poisoning someone is a serious and unforgivable offense, so it's not surprising that the bodhisattva punishes you!

question 2: who is the most honest monster on the journey to obtain buddhist scriptures?

it’s the yellow lion demon from yuhua prefecture.

on the journey to obtain the scriptures, there are countless demons and monsters. some have great magical powers, such as the great peng golden winged eagle; some have powerful magical weapons, such as the green bull demon with a diamond cutter.

but when it comes to the most honest monster, none is better than the yellow lion demon.

in the original version of journey to the west, the yellow lion demon organized a "dingba party" and needed to purchase some pigs and sheep to hold a banquet.

if it were an ordinary goblin, it would probably just rob or steal. but the yellow lion goblin arranged two little goblins (tricky and weird) to go to the market and buy honestly with money.

the two little demons also learned that the demons under the control of the yellow lion demon lived in poverty and did not even have a cotton coat for the winter. the little demon said, "we were lucky enough to earn two or three taels of silver from him, so we bought a cotton coat for the winter."

even pigs, sheep and cotton-padded jackets have to be saved up to buy. this monster is worse than beasts.

there are two other details in the book that also show that the yellow lion demon is very "honest".

one is that wukong and his fellow apprentice transformed themselves into little demons and lied to the yellow lion demon, saying that they still owed a merchant five taels of silver. the yellow lion demon immediately arranged for his men to deliver the money in order to calm the situation.

she's actually a goblin who doesn't leave any money overnight.

another scene is when wukong continues to deceive the yellow lion demon, saying that the small vendor also wants to enter the cave to see the rake club. the yellow lion demon's first reaction is to worry about the news leaking out, fearing that king yuhua will come to ask for weapons:

“what if this guest sees it and goes to that state to spread the story, and it gets to everyone, and the prince comes to visit me, what should i do?” he was afraid that someone would block his way at the door and make sense.

in people's impression, monsters are ferocious and cruel, they eat people at will, and they usually kill and rob people in their daily life. but this yellow lion monster is a bit "cowardly", he pays for things he buys, pays back debts, provides meals to fake vendors who enter the cave, and even worries that mortals will come to him to ask for weapons, thinking that he is in the wrong. he is so "honest".

it is sad to say that the yellow lion demon did not have a good ending. in the end, the "dingba club" failed, his cave was burned down, and he died under the golden hoop.

of course, it was the yellow lion demon who was at fault in all this. why would he steal other people's weapons for no reason? who else should he attack?