Yang Jian

Yang Jian left home as a boy and entered the Jinxia Cave on Mount Yuquan to study under Yuding Zhenren. He cultivated there for years, mastered the Eighty-Nine Arts and the seventy-two transformations, and refined a third eye in his forehead that could see the true shape behind any spirit.

Seeing his foundation firm, Yuding Zhenren passed him the three-pointed double-edged blade and a full training in arms. Yang Jian also gained the howling celestial hound as a companion, and master and disciple practised together in the hills of Yuquan until his blade-work was complete.

During the Investiture war, as Jiang Ziya led the Western Qi army east, Yuding Zhenren sent Yang Jian down to help. He came into the Zhou camp at his master’s order, and Jiang Ziya, knowing what his transformations could do, sent him again and again to scout the enemy.

While the armies faced each other, Yang Jian first took the shape of an ordinary woodcutter and slipped near the enemy lines, and only after he had learned the layout of their camps and the numbers of their troops did he return and report.

When the four Mo brothers came with an army, Mo Lishou loosed the flowered marten, which swallowed Yang Jian whole. Yang Jian worked the Eighty-Nine Arts, killed it from inside, and returned to the Shang camp in the marten’s own shape.

By night he resumed his own form, stole Mo Lihong’s Mixed-Origin Pearl Umbrella and other treasures, and brought them back to Jiang Ziya. Deprived of what they relied on, the four Mo brothers fought again and were destroyed.

When Lü Yue spread plague through Western Qi, Yang Jian shielded himself with his arts and went out of the city for the antidote; when Yu Hua wounded men with the blood-transforming blade, he was sent to find a counter, carrying word between the enemy camp and the immortals’ mountains.

After the Zhou army moved east, Yang Jian repeatedly changed identity to get inside the passes and look over their garrisons, then worked with Nezha, Lei Zhenzi and the rest from within and without to take the army through the Shang barriers.

The seven monsters of Meishan later took service in the Shang camp: the white ape Yuan Hong, the water buffalo Jin Dasheng, the boar Zhu Zizhen, the goat Yang Xian, the wild dog Dai Li, the long snake Chang Hao and the centipede Wu Long. Yang Jian was ordered to fight them one after another.

Zhu Zizhen swallowed Yang Jian whole, and Yang Jian worked his arts inside him until he was forced back into his true shape; Yang Xian, Dai Li, Chang Hao and Wu Long were also destroyed in turn, in pursuit or in contests of art.

Yuan Hong was as skilled in transformation as he was, and the two fought from the lines out into the hills, changing shape again and again, neither able to take the other on the spot.

Nüwa afterwards granted the Map of Mountains and Rivers, and Yang Jian used the illusions inside it to lure Yuan Hong in and take him back to the Zhou camp. Neither blade nor axe could hurt Yuan Hong, and in the end the Immortal-Slaying Flying Blade Luya had left behind took his head.

With the seven monsters of Meishan destroyed, Yang Jian went east with the Zhou army until Muye was fought and Chaoge fell.

After Shang was destroyed, Yang Jian did not enter the Investiture List; he attained sainthood in the body with Nezha, Lei Zhenzi and others. The Investiture story stops there and does not describe how he came to settle at Guanjiangkou.

Back at Guanjiangkou, Yang Jian was honoured by later ages as the Manifest Sage Erlang Zhenjun. A temple was raised there, its incense kept up through the year, and the local people made offerings and prayers at it.

Once the Heavenly Court had established its order, Yang Jian, though he kept his own temple at Guanjiangkou, remained subject to its summons; he took the field when something went wrong, and never held a permanent post in the heavens.

When Sun Wukong made havoc in heaven, the Jade Emperor sent the Four Heavenly Kings and the heavenly host to besiege Mount Huaguo. Battle followed battle without a decision, and Guanyin recommended the Manifest Sage Erlang Zhenjun of Guanjiangkou.

The Jade Emperor issued the order accordingly. Yang Jian left Guanjiangkou with the howling celestial hound and his six brothers of Meishan, came to Mount Huaguo to take his orders and set out his lines, and at once faced Wukong.

The two used everything they had before the lines. Wukong changed shape again and again to escape, and Yang Jian saw through each of them with the seventy-two transformations and stayed on him; they fought for a long time without a decision.

Wukong then fled as a cormorant, a sparrow, a fish and a water snake in turn, and Yang Jian changed after him each time and drove him back into his own shape more than once; they fought down to a mountain stream, still evenly matched.

Taishang Laojun, watching from the clouds for his moment, threw down the Diamond Bracelet and struck Wukong on the crown. Caught off guard, Wukong stumbled; Yang Jian closed at once, the howling celestial hound seized his leg, and he was brought down.

Wukong was taken there. Yang Jian and the brothers of Meishan bound him together and sent him to the Heavenly Court for judgement, after which Yang Jian went back to Guanjiangkou, kept his local offerings, and did not stay long in the heavens.