Niu Mowang

In his early years Niu Mowang swore brotherhood with Sun Wukong and five others, seven of them in the country of Mount Huaguo. Niu Mowang, the eldest, took the title Great Sage Who Levels Heaven, and Sun Wukong stood seventh.

After the oath the seven went their own ways. Niu Mowang settled about the Plantain Cave on Mount Cuiyun and married Princess Iron Fan, who held a plantain fan that could put out the fire of the Flaming Mountains at a wave.

Niu Mowang and Princess Iron Fan had a son, Red Boy, who later held the Fire Cloud Cave by Withered Pine Ravine on Mount Hao, lay in wait with the samadhi fire, and once took the whole pilgrim party.

After Guanyin subdued Red Boy she took him as the Boy of Wealth and carried him to Mount Luojia to serve. Niu Mowang and Princess Iron Fan were left without their son, and both raised it later when Wukong came to borrow the fan.

Besides his home on Mount Cuiyun, Niu Mowang kept a second household at the Moyun Cave on Mount Jilei with the fox spirit Princess Jade Face, whose family was rich and who kept him in food and clothing; so he passed his years travelling between Mount Cuiyun and Mount Jilei.

When the pilgrims came west to the Flaming Mountains, the fire had burned there for years and closed the western road, and only the plantain fan could put it out. Learning that Princess Iron Fan had it, Sun Wukong went to the Plantain Cave on Mount Cuiyun to ask for the loan.

Princess Iron Fan, who blamed Wukong for what had become of Red Boy, would not lend it; after they fought she took out the fan and blew him far away with a single wave. Wukong came back after much trouble, turned into a small insect, got into her belly, and forced her to agree.

She gave up a fan under compulsion, and Wukong carried it to the Flaming Mountains and fanned; but it was a false fan, and the fire only burned higher, so he went back to Mount Cuiyun to find another way to the true one.

Learning that Niu Mowang lived at the Moyun Cave on Mount Jilei, Wukong went there to ask for the fan. Princess Jade Face quarrelled with him first, Niu Mowang came out at the noise, and the two fought a hundred passes and more without a decision.

Niu Mowang broke off partway to attend a banquet at the dragon palace of Green Wave Pool. Wukong followed him in secret, led away his water-parting golden-eyed beast, took Niu Mowang’s shape, rode back to Mount Cuiyun and tricked the true fan out of Princess Iron Fan.

Niu Mowang then took Zhu Bajie’s shape, met Wukong on the road and offered to carry the fan for him. Wukong, not seeing through it, handed it over; Niu Mowang showed his own form, turned and fled back to the Plantain Cave, and the fan was in his hands again.

Realising he had been tricked, Wukong went again to the Plantain Cave to demand it. Niu Mowang shut the door and would not come out; Wukong changed shape to get in and to draw him out, and after several passages Niu Mowang became a white crane and then a musk deer, while Wukong became a hungry tiger and a hunting dog, each using everything he had.

Niu Mowang then showed his true form as a huge white bull and closed with Wukong, who showed his own; the two fought in the air a long while without a decision.

Zhu Bajie, having settled Tang Sanzang, came up to help and joined Wukong against Niu Mowang. Niu Mowang fought and fell back all the way to the Moyun Cave, and Princess Jade Face was killed by Bajie in the confusion.

The Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King and Nezha came down at the Jade Emperor’s order with the heavenly host, reached the Flaming Mountains, and closed with Wukong and Bajie on Niu Mowang from every side.

In the melee Nezha raised the wind-fire wheels and drew the demon-slaying sword and cut off Niu Mowang’s head; where the head fell a new one grew, and it was cut off again and again. Nezha then set the fire wheel over Niu Mowang and pressed him with the samadhi fire.

Nezha cut off the bull’s heads one after another and set the fire wheel on his horns. Heavenly soldiers and the vajra guardians of the Buddhist gate closed the road on every side; with nowhere to go, Niu Mowang gave up his transformations and let himself be led away.

Seeing her husband taken, Princess Iron Fan gave up the true fan; the pilgrims carried it to the Flaming Mountains, fanned several times, and put out the fire that had burned there for years.

With the fire out, the pilgrims returned the fan to Mount Cuiyun. Princess Iron Fan shut her cave and kept to the empty mountain in cultivation, while Niu Mowang was taken west and never came back to the Moyun Cave.

At the oath on Mount Huaguo, Niu Mowang had sat first of the seven great sages; when they met again below the Flaming Mountains the old brothers each held a weapon. The plantain fan went back into the cave, and the escort taking Niu Mowang went on westward.