The story of Four Heavenly Kings

The Four Heavenly Kings are the four Mo brothers of Investiture of the Gods — Mo Liqing, Mo Lihong, Mo Lihai and Mo Lishou — brothers of the Mo house of Jiameng Pass. Each led a body of troops and carried a singular treasure, and together they held the pass against the Western Qi army’s advance east.

Mo Liqing, the eldest, was tall and heavy, and carried a sword of blue light engraved with the four words earth, water, fire and wind; when it was raised, wind came and fire rose, sand flew and stones ran, so that an opponent could not open his eyes or keep his feet in the dark and the flame.

Mo Lihong, the second brother, carried the Mixed-Origin Pearl Umbrella on his back. It was hung all over with jewels; opened, it darkened heaven and earth, and turned, it could take an opponent’s treasures and weapons.

Mo Lihai, the third brother, held a jade pipa. It had four strings, and when they were plucked wind and fire rose together and the sound rolled into the enemy ranks so that men could not stand.

Mo Lishou, the fourth brother, carried a flowered marten. It was no ordinary beast: released, it became a creature the size of a white elephant with wings at its flanks that ate enemy officers, and often caught opponents unprepared.

On the campaign against King Zhou, the four Mo brothers were ordered by the king to bring troops down and hold the country about Jiameng Pass. They faced Jiang Ziya’s Zhou army several times and, with their four treasures, had the better of it for a while, and a number of Zhou officers were worsted.

Mo Lishou loosed the flowered marten, which swallowed Yang Jian whole. Yang Jian worked the Eighty-Nine Arts, killed it from within, and returned to the Shang camp in the marten’s own shape.

Deep in the night Yang Jian resumed his own form, stole Mo Lihong’s Mixed-Origin Pearl Umbrella, and carried it back to Jiang Ziya. Having lost one of the things they relied on, the four had to wait for another day.

Huang Tianhua then rode out on his jade qilin, and the four met him together. Huang Tianhua threw the Heart-Piercing Nails one after another, and their light passed among the four.

Mo Liqing, Mo Lihong, Mo Lihai and Mo Lishou were struck in turn and fell from their mounts, and all four brothers died before the lines; the garrison of Jiameng Pass had lost its commanders.

With the four dead, the blue-cloud sword, the jade pipa and the Mixed-Origin Pearl Umbrella lay on the field, and the flowered marten had already been killed by Yang Jian. The Western Qi army then went on east.

Jiang Ziya afterwards mounted the terrace and invested the gods, making Mo Liqing the Heavenly King Zengchang, Mo Lihong the Heavenly King Guangmu, Mo Lihai the Heavenly King Duowen and Mo Lishou the Heavenly King Chiguo.

With their divine offices, the four brothers each held one gate of heaven. The four titles — Zengchang, Guangmu, Duowen and Chiguo — were proclaimed one by one from the investiture terrace, and the four Mo brothers passed from dead men below a pass into guardians of the Heavenly Court.

Buddhist temples already had their own four heavenly kings guarding east, south, west and north. Storytellers and the stage later joined them to the four Mo brothers, so that the sword, the pipa, the umbrella and the strange beast came with them into the temple gate.

In Journey to the West the Four Heavenly Kings appear in several chapters as the standing guardians of heaven’s gate. When Sun Wukong made havoc in heaven they were ordered into the line and joined the siege of Mount Huaguo with the heavenly host under the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li Jing.

After Wukong was released from Five Elements Mountain and went west with Tang Sanzang, he repeatedly went up to heaven for help or to ask where a monster had come from, and the southern gate of heaven the Four Heavenly Kings held was the way he had to pass; scenes of them meeting him and carrying word appear in several chapters.

When heavenly officers came down to take a monster on the road west, or when Sun Wukong went up to borrow troops, the Four Heavenly Kings sometimes went out with the rest of the host and helped subdue whatever was troubling the world below.

In the pilgrimage story the Four Heavenly Kings are already the guards of the southern gate. When Wukong made havoc in heaven they spread the net of heaven and earth with Li Jing; and later, when the monkey came up to borrow troops, he passed in and out through the gate they kept.

Sometimes they left the gate by order and went down with the other gods to close on a demon king. When the fighting was done, the four took up their weapons again and returned to the southern gate to hold the road between heaven and the world below.