journey to south

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Out of the never-ending flow of stories: Journey to the South by Michal Ajvaz

“Little did he know—or maybe he refused to acknowledge—that there are no pure story streams; all stories are scary, all come from a single strange-smelling wellspring that seeps into the folds of things and collects in dirty corners of the spaces we inhabit, all trace patterns of desire and fear that aren’t even ours but those of a monster whose dream is our life.”

Here’s a story that starts innocently enough, like so many stories before it, with a murder—no, make that two. Of course, that’s too simple. No murder mystery, if you’re expecting a story that will attempt to reach some kind of conclusion, an explanation, starts with the act itself alone; it begins somewhere else, somewhere back where the story really begins… But here’s a warning: this is a murder mystery that will wind its way through more than a few wildly unlikely stories on the way from execution to explanation.

The novel opens in the isolated village of Loutro on the south shore of Crete, where an unnamed narrator chances upon a young man, a Czech it would seem, with an unusual assortment of reading material. Overcome with curiosity, he decides to eschew his typical tendency to avoid engaging with fellow countrymen when abroad, and comment on the books. Thus begins a lengthy conversation that will extend over several evenings and countless glasses of wine and ouzo as Martin, a philosophy student working on a PhD thesis on Kant, shares the strangely convoluted tale of the circumstances that have led him to travel from Prague to Crete.

One evening some four months earlier, on his way home from the library, Martin had chanced upon a poster advertising a ballet based on The Critique of Pure Reason by Emmanuel Kant. The show was playing every Wednesday for two months and, this being a Wednesday, he headed to the theatre that very night. According to the program, the composer Tomáš Kantor was a writer with little published work who had “died tragically in Turkey in July or August 2006”—the summer before. As the show began, the young Kant scholar endeavoured to interpret the meaning and roles of the dancers onstage. To his surprise it really did begin to make sense to him. Certain dancers were clearly portraying sensory matter, others pure form, with a violet clad figure to represent Transcendental Apperception, that which we call “I.” Standing in the back, was a veiled mysterious figure that could only be Ding an sich —“The Thing in Itself” or the true status of objects which we cannot know. All was going well until the end of the second act when suddenly The Thing In Itself emerged from the shadows and began to move about, throwing off the dancers. The figure advanced to centre stage where it stopped, pulled out a pistol and shot straight into the audience, killing a man seated in the front row.

Martin, like everyone else in the theatre, is now witness to a murder. But before long he is even more deeply involved. The victim, it turns out, was a wealthy businessman, Petr Quas, and the step brother of the ballet’s composer, Tomáš Kantor. However, what captures Martin’s interest is the lovely red-headed woman he sees, first at the police station and again at the university. Drawn to her, he discovers that she is Kristyna, Tomáš’s ex-girlfriend who is still holding an inextinguishable torch for him since he abruptly broke up with her two months before his mysterious death. Smitten, he arranges to meet with her daily so she can tell him all about Tomáš on the pretence of wanting to understand if and how the two brothers’ death may be linked.

So, now we have Martin reporting what Kristyna told him about the unhappy childhoods of Tomáš and Petr, the former’s multiple attempts at creative expression that ultimately ended in darkness and despair, and the latter’s brief success as a poet. But where one brother finds his way from poetry into business, the other settles into a post as a transportation dispatcher at the end of the tram line. Then, one day, while off sick, a novel suddenly starts to take shape before Tomáš’s eyes, first as an empty city, then as a coastal town in an imagined nation complete with characters and strange occurrences. A series of events ultimately leads to the injury of his protagonist, Marius, who is taken to recover at the home of his lover’s grandparents where he is told a story, second-hand, which in turn contains a novel—science fiction this time—and by this point the depth of stories within stories is running very deep, taking us to cities and countries, real and imaginary, across oceans and continents. However, when he finally winds his way to the end of his composition, the author is unsatisfied. Tomáš feels that his book, which had arisen out of nothing, has failed to correspond to the nothingness he carries inside:

“There was nothing so rich that it could be expressed merely by an endless proliferation of stories, a never-ending cascade of events in which other events spurted forth from every object, space, and gesture, then yet more events from the spaces, objects, and gestures of these. Tomáš felt that even the entire cosmos would be too little for the expression of nothing; a cosmos that expressed emptiness would have to be endless.”

His overarching novel then starts to mutate and grow, sending out tendrils, so to speak that branch off and flower in unexpected ways forming part of a network of signs and rebuses that Martin and Kristyna will follow as they eventually travel from Prague to Crete in search of Tomáš’s killer.

If Journey to the South sounds like a baggy monster of a book, well, it would be if Ajvaz didn’t have both feet firmly planted in the tell-don’t-show school of storytelling. The ungainly nest of narratives he constructs has its own internal cohesion and propulsive energy—no matter how strange or how far reaching—because at the end of the day, Martin is reporting it all to his audience, the narrator who interjects when he wants to clarify something and reminds us that we are actually at a quiet resort in Crete. And, of course, Martin himself is an active participant in the story he is relaying, driven by his attraction to Krystina if nothing else. Their fanciful journey through Europe from one unlikely—and strangely unravelling—clue to another is marked by their own doubts about the reasonableness of the entire enterprise. At one point, Martin even wonders if he has gotten caught up in a cheap Dan Brown novel, his own private Da Vinci Code . But this is a murder mystery and our amateur detectives do manage to make their way to an oddly satisfying conclusion. If, in fact the story actually ends when this book does…

Journey to the South is, then, classic Ajvaz territory. Structurally he favours the mise-en-abîme, the story with a story framework (fittingly, “placed into the abyss”), and delights in cliché genre tropes like car chases, monsters, cartoon villains and more. Woven into this are philosophical, scientific and theoretical references, often in unexpected contexts. I suspect that one will either welcome the kind of world he creates and his exploration of the possibility of reaching some semblance of truth (reality) in the stories we read and tell, or find his work hopelessly restricted to a game of limited scope and value. However, although he likes to keep his fiction separate from his theoretical work, like fellow Czech postmodern novelist Daniela Hodrova, Ajvaz is a respected literary critic and it is unlikely that his critical principles have not seeped into his fantastic storyscapes to some degree. (For a discussion of his academic work see David Vichnar’s essay on the Equus site.) Nonetheless, some critics have accused Ajvaz of repeatedly playing in the same sandbox, hauling out the same tired toys. Vichnar also answers this complaint cleverly:

What this wide-spread, if also reductive and simplifying, viewpoint fails to acknowledge is that Ajvaz’s fictional world leaves unresolved, and thus in perpetual motion and fruitful exchange, the dynamics of opposing principles which his thought strove to bring to a stasis of resolution. His fiction is, thus, bound to repeat itself, again and again, in all of his attempted re-writes of the impossible accounts of all the other cities, all the other intimations of pre-articulated fields, approachable in fiction only through linguistic articulation, and thus always already pre-fabricated. If this be the failure of Ajvaz’s fiction—a simple formula repeated ad nauseam without conclusive progress—then its saving grace, like that of Beckett’s, is its continuous effort to “fail better” – imaginatively, challengingly, and ultimately, enjoyably.

At the end of the day, I am hard pressed to express how effectively Ajvaz manages to pull off such a multi-layered, wildly entertaining feat of storytelling making it intelligent and thought provoking at the same time. It’s easy to lose track just how deeply embedded you are in the stories within stories (or even now to unwrap them to remember just who was telling what when), but somehow it works. It’s serious and absurd, sad and funny, cheesy and moving. So, although it may have been my first Ajvaz adventure, it won’t be my last.

Journey to the South by Michal Ajvaz is translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland and will be published by Dalkey Archive Press on March 28, 2023.

Author: roughghosts

Literary blog of Joseph Schreiber. Writer. Reader. Editor. Photographer. View all posts by roughghosts

17 thoughts on “Out of the never-ending flow of stories: Journey to the South by Michal Ajvaz”

It does sound a bit intimidating to me, but then, some of the books I read probably seem the same to people reading my reviews. Would you suggest that I start with something else (shorter?) by this author?

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This was, of course, my first Ajvaz but I’ve been wanting to read him for years. His fans all seem to have a favourite of the translated titles, but I would think that one of his earliest books, The Other City would be a good place to start. It’s apparently the most conventional of his books – I have yet to read it myself though I’ve had it forever.

*Gasp!* I just looked it up at Amazon.au and it’s $104 AUD!!! Not such an absurd price at AbeBooks but there aren’t any copies in Australia so of course postage is horrible. I wonder why Dalkey doesn’t publish digital editions…

It is only $22.50 here, but no e-book. Now that Dalkey is based out of Texas with Deep Vellum and Open Letter, I imagine the newer titles will have digital options. This book I just read will when it comes out.

Smart move on their part!

I really want to see that ballet…the fearsome Ding an sich! thanks for another intriguing review

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Sadly, the third and final act was cancelled that night. so we don’t find out how it would have been staged!

Never heard of this author. I may well like this, thanks

This is the 4th of his books to be published in English. It’s strange, but fun and not difficult to read. He’s a writer I’ve been meaning to read without really knowing what I was in for!

Wow this sounds like a lot of fun. I may have to read it, when I can acquire a copy and settle my mind to it. I really like the idea of the stories within stories, and whilst it sounds quite intellectual it also seems to be a bit of a romp!

It was not what I expected when I started it, definitely not like anything else I’ve read!

Ajaz has been recommended to me by a friend who loves in Czechia and this does sound like my kind of thing, though I might start with something a little shorter!

I also wanted to read him for a long time so the opportunity to read this as a review copy seemed to be the push I needed. He is in his unique universe for sure, but I definitely want to read more now.

I mean ‘lives’ of course, though I’m sure ‘loves’ is equally applicable!

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Fascinating. I love the element of absence and reader imagination created by the fact that the third act was suspended.

I recall going to the theatre in London when a piece of the set fell down after a door slammed. There was that moment when everyone wondered if it was part of the drama, until realising two audience members had been injured. An unscheduled interval, one person dispatched by ambulance, the other tended to, then the play continued.

Wow, that would be an unforgettable evening out!

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Journey to the South 2022 (China)

Journey to the South 2022 (China), also known as Journey to the South: Chaos in the Three Realms, 南游记之三眼神将, South Journey: Three Eyes God General is China drama premiere on Oct 28, 2022

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"Journey to the South" or "Southern Journey: Three-Eyed God General" tells the story of Hua Guang who has been dependent on his mother since he was a child. Unexpectedly, one day a monster captures his mother, and Hua Guang is rescued by King Long Rui whom he follows to practice the fairy law. A few years later, Hua Guang and his senior sister Su Su cast down demons in the Three Realms. During his adventures, competing with other entities, Hua Guang finds himself involved in a conspiracy involving the safety of the Three Realms. Edit Translation

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A repository for research on the great 16th-century chinese classic, tag journey to the south.

Buddhist Deities Exiled From the Western Heaven in Chinese Vernacular Literature

Anyone who has read Journey to the West ( Xiyouji , 西遊記 , 1592) will know that the Tang monk Tripitaka ( Tang Sanzang , 唐三藏; a.k.a. Xuanzang ) is said to be an incarnation of Master Golden Cicada ( Jinchan zi , 金蟬子), the Buddha’s second disciple. The full picture of his past can be pieced together from verse and character dialogue throughout the narrative. This culminates with the Tathagata ‘s explanation in chapter 100:

Because you failed to listen to my exposition of the law and slighted my great teaching, your true spirit was banished to find another incarnation in the Land of the East [i.e. China]. Happily you submitted and, by remaining faithful to our teaching, succeeded in acquiring the true scriptures (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 4, p. 381). 因為汝不聽說法，輕慢我之大教，故貶汝之真靈，轉生東土。今喜皈依，秉我迦持，又乘吾教，取去真經 …

In the course of my research, I’ve come across two other examples of Buddhist deities from Ming-Qing Chinese vernacular literature that are exiled from the Western Heaven. In this article, I would like to highlight these stories, as well as analyze them alongside Master Golden Cicada’s tale to record parallels. It’s important to note that all examples are connected to the Journey to the West story cycle. Finally, I will show that the presented examples share similarities with Greek philosophy.

I wrote this to better understand how the story of Master Golden Cicada’s exile may have come about.

1. Master Golden Cicada

For the record, the fullest account of Tripitaka’s past is described by Sun Wukong in chapter 81:

“You don’t realize that Master was the second disciple of our Buddha Tathagata, and originally he was called Elder Gold Cicada. Because he slighted the Law, he was fated to experience this great ordeal.” “Elder Brother,” said Eight Rules , “even if Master did slight the Law, he had already been banished back to the Land of the East where he took on human form in the field of slander and the sea of strife. After he made his vow to worship Buddha and seek scriptures in the Western Heaven, he was bound whenever he ran into monster-spirits and he was hung high whenever he met up with demons. Hasn’t he suffered enough? “Why must he endure sickness as well?” “You wouldn’t know about this,” replied Pilgrim. “Our old master fell asleep while listening to Buddha expounding the Law [fig. 1]. As he slumped to one side, his left foot kicked down one grain of rice. That is why he is fated to suffer three days’ illness after he has arrived at the Region Below.” [1] Horrified, Eight Rules said, “The way old Hog sprays and splatters things all over when he eats, I wonder how many years of illness I’d have to go through!” “Brother,” said Pilgrim, “you have no idea either that the Buddha is not that concerned with you and other creatures. But as people say: Rice stalks planted in noonday sun Take root as perspiration runs. Who knows of this food from the soil Each grain requires most bitter toil? Master still has one more day to go, but he’ll be better by tomorrow” (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 4, p. 82). 你不知道。師父是我佛如來第二個徒弟，原叫做金蟬長老，只因他輕慢佛法，該有這場大難。」八戒道：「哥啊，師父既是輕慢佛法，貶回東土，在是非海內，口舌場中，託化做人身，發願往西天拜佛求經，遇妖精就捆，逢魔頭就吊，受諸苦惱，也夠了，怎麼又叫他害病？」行者道：「你那裡曉得。老師父不曾聽佛講法，打了一個盹，往下一試，左腳屣了一粒米，下界來，該有這三日病。」八戒驚道：「像老豬吃東西潑潑撒撒的，也不知害多少年代病是。」行者道：「兄弟，佛不與你眾生為念，你又不知。人云：『鋤禾日當午，汗滴禾下土。誰知盤中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。』師父只今日一日，明日就好了。」

Fig. 1 – Master Golden Cicada falls asleep during the Buddha’s sermon ( larger version ). Screenshot from episode one of the 1996 Journey to the West TV show .

2. Miao Jixiang

Miao Jixiang ( 妙吉祥 ) is a former oil lamp-turned-humanoid Buddhist disciple who briefly appears in chapter one of Journey to the South ( Nanyouji , 南遊記 , c. 1570s-1580s). He is exiled from the Western Heaven for using his holy flame to kill a belligerent sage. But Miao escapes underworld punishment thanks to the intervention of the Bodhisattva Guanyin . He is later reborn in China as a number of figures, most famously the popular martial deity Huaguang dadi (華光大帝; variously translated as “Great Emperor of Flowery/Resplendent/Magnificent/Majestic Light”):

That Great King of the Single Flame [ Duhuo dawang , 独火大王] … wanted to incinerate Spirit Mountain . Fortunately, the Tathagata foresaw this with his all-seeing eyes, and so he recited a mantra, summoning five hundred dragons that brought forth dew and fog to cover the mountain. Unable to unleash his fire, this Single-Flame demon became angry, rampaging to the left and right of the temple and hurling insults. Miao Jixiang [2] offered a word of advice, “You are not the same caliber of wisdom as we Buddhist disciples. You can leave if you want; it makes no difference.” “If you enrage my heart-mind , I will burn your dog bones to death!” replied the Great King of the Single Flame. Miao Jixiang laughed, “You can only burn others. You can never burn me. If you can burn me, I will acknowledge you as superior.” Anger racing through him, the Great King set loose his Fire of the Five Dippers, but Miao Jixiang remained perfectly still. He laughed, “You monster, how could your fire burn me? I used to be the oil lamp before the Tathagata’s Dharma Hall, burning brilliantly day and night, listening to the sutras, and inquiring about the Dharma. I have accumulated many candle wicks during this time. But one day, Tathagata recited a spell and bestowed onto me a human body. With my appearance, spirit, hearing, and origins all arising from fire, how could you burn me? You monster, if you continue to harass our Spirit Mountain and cause us unease, I will inevitably bring forth my Perfected Fire of Samadhi to burn you monster to death, so as to avoid any future troubles.” Watching this with his all-seeing eyes, the Tathagata was about to stop Miao Jixiang, but the latter had already unleashed his fire and burned that damnable Single Flame to death [fig. 2]. Furious, the Tathagata summoned heavenly generals to arrest Miao Jixiang, “You beast, how dare you break my precepts?” Tathagata scolded, “Although he is wrong, you and I are Buddhists ( chujia zhi ren , 出家之人, lit: “people who have left their families”); we’re supposed to be infinitely merciful. Why did you burn him to death? Such an act is intolerable by the Buddhist Dharma. I shall banish you to the underworld ( yinshan , 陰山; lit: “mountain of yin/darkness”) to suffer.” Miao Jixiang begged for forgiveness. The Reverend Mother Guanyin came forward from one said to defend him by saying, “Although he is guilty, Miao Jixiang is a disciple of Spirit Mountain. He should not be banished to the underworld. When he was still alive, the Great King of Horse-Ear Mountain approached our Spirit Mountain to pray for a son. Now that his wife is pregnant, why not send Miao Jixiang to be reincarnated as her son? After Miao Jixiang goes through this catastrophe, he shall be allowed to return to Spirit Mountain and serve the Master. Why not do this?” Nodding, Tathagata was about to send Miao Jixiang away. “My master, you order me to reincarnate,” Miao Jixiang said in tears, “but if I am deprived of the Divine Way, I am afraid that I will be bullied.” Sitting atop his treasured throne, Tathagata recited a spell, “I shall now bestow you with the five supernatural powers: the heaven power, with which you can travel freely to heaven; the earth power, with which the earth will crack by itself if you want to get inside; the wind power, with which you are shadowless in the wind; the water power, with which you can travel without any obstacle in water; the fire power, with which you feel ease in the fire.” Tathagata pointed his dharma finger at Miao Jixiang’s forehead, saying, “I will also bestow you with a heavenly eye, with which you can see all across the three realms .” Tathagata ordered the Reverend Mother Guanyin to deliver Miao Jixiang to his reincarnation (adapted from pp. 10-11 of this PDF ). 那大王 … 即要放火烧灵山。幸如来慧眼一见，便念动咒语，放出五百条逆龙，涌起露雾罩住灵山，此火便不能发。独火鬼见火不发，十分著恼，于寺中左冲右撞，出言不逊，妙吉祥进言曰：「我们佛家弟子，亦不比你见识，你可去也罢。」独火大王曰：「恼得我心一边来，把你这狗骨头亦将来烧死。」妙吉祥笑曰：「你的火只好烧别人，烧得我不成；你若烧得我，便见你高。」大王怒起，就放出五斗火，便烧吉祥，吉祥端然不动。笑曰：「你这妖怪，你那火如何烧得我？我乃如来法堂前一盏油灯，昼夜煌煌，听经问法，灯花堆积，一日如来念咒，咒成人身。我这火之相，火之灵，火之听，火之起，你焉能烧我？你这妖怪，今你若再在整日闹我灵山，不得自在，我不免请出三昧真火，烧死你这妖怪，免致后患。」如来慧眼看见，便叫不可之时，独火鬼已被他烧死在地。如来大怒，喝声叫将妙吉祥拿下，责曰：「你这畜生如何敢破我戒？他虽不是，我你俱出家之人，当大慈大悲终是，为何将他烧死？佛法难容，贬去阴山受罪。」吉祥告饶。观音老母在旁保曰：「妙吉祥虽然有罪，乃灵山弟子，不可贬去阴山。当日马耳山大王在日之时，来我灵山祈嗣。今日那娘娘有孕有身，不如送去投胎，等他大难满日，取回灵山，伏侍师父，何不可也。」如来依言，便欲送去。吉祥流泪告曰：「师父命我投胎，奈我不晓神道，恐后被人欺负。」如来于宝座中，念动咒语，说：「我就赐你五通：你一通天，天中自行；二通地，地赶自裂；三通风，风中无影；四通水，水中无碍；五通火，火里自在。」又用法手一指顶门：「赐你一个天眼挪门，可见三界。」就叫观音老母送去投胎。

Fig. 2 – Miao Jixiang kills the Great King of the Single Flame ( larger version ). From a modern lianhuanhua comic. Image found here .

3. The Great Peng

The Complete Vernacular Biography of Yue Fei ( Shuo Yue quanzhuan , 說岳全傳 , 1684) depicts the Great Peng, the Golden-Winged King of Illumination ( Dapeng jinchi mingwang , 大鵬金翅明王 ), [3] as a hot-tempered avian dharma protector stationed above the Buddha’s head (fig. 3). He is exiled from the Western Heaven for killing a bat-spirit who farts during the Buddha’s sermon, and the bird is later reborn in China as the famed Song-era General Yue Fei (岳飛, 1103-1142):

Let’s talk about the Buddha Tathagata at the Great Thunderclap Monastery in the Western Paradise . One day, he sat on a nine-level lotus throne , and the Four Great Bodhisattvas , the Eight Great Vajra Warriors , the five hundred Arhats , the three thousand Heavenly Kings , nuns and monks , male and female attendants , all of the heavenly sages who protect the Dharma , gathered to listen to his lecture on the Lotus Sutra . His words were like flowers and precious jewels raining from the heavens. But, at that time, a star-spirit , the Maiden Earth Bat , who had been listening to the lecture from beneath the lotus throne, couldn’t bear it any longer and unexpectedly let out a stinky fart. The Buddha was a great, merciful lord, so he didn’t mind even the slightest bit. But don’t console the Dharma protector above his head, [4] the “Great Peng, the Golden-Winged King of Illumination,” whose eyes shone with golden light and whose back was a scene of auspiciousness. He became angry when he saw the nasty, filthy Maiden Earth Bat, and so he unfurled both his wings and dropped down to kill the spirit by pecking her on the head. The light-point of her soul shot out of the Great Thunderclap Monastery and went to the Lands of the East (China) in the world below to find a mother and reincarnate. She was reborn as a daughter of the Wang clan. She would later marry the Song Prime minister Qin Hui (1091-1155) and come to cruelly kill the righteous (Yue Fei) as a means to get revenge against today’s enemy. We will talk about this later. Let’s return to the Buddha, who saw what happened with his all-seeing eyes and exclaimed, “Good! Good! It turns out that this is an episode of karma (cause and effect).” Then he called the Great Peng bird to come closer and shouted, “You evil creature! You already took refuge in my teachings. How can you not follow the five precepts by daring to commit such a horrible crime? I don’t need you here; you will descend to the mortal world to pay off your (karmic) debt and wait until you have fulfilled your work. Once that is completed, only then will I allow you to return to the mountain to achieve the right fruit (Buddhist merit).” The Great Peng complied with the decree, flying out of the Great Thunderclap Monastery directly to the Lands of the East to be reincarnated. We will stop here (translated by the author). 且說西方極樂世界大雷音寺我佛如來，一日端坐九品蓮臺，旁列著四大菩薩、八大金剛、五百羅漢、三千偈諦、比丘尼、比丘僧、優婆夷、優婆塞，共諸天護法聖眾，齊聽講說妙法真經。正說得天花亂墜、寶雨繽紛之際，不期有一位星官，乃是女土蝠，偶在蓮臺之下聽講，一時忍不住，撒出一個臭屁來。我佛原是個大慈大悲之主，毫不在意。不道惱了佛頂上頭一位護法神祗，名為大鵬金翅明王，眼射金光，背呈祥瑞，見那女土蝠污穢不潔，不覺大怒，展開雙翅落下來，望著女土蝠頭上，這一嘴就啄死了。那女土蝠一點靈光射出雷音寺，徑往東土認母投胎，在下界王門為女，後來嫁與秦檜為妻，殘害忠良，以報今日之讎。此是後話，按下不提。且說佛爺將慧眼一觀，口稱：「善哉，善哉！原來有此一段因果。」即喚大鵬鳥近前，喝道：「你這孽畜！既歸我教，怎不皈依五戒，輒敢如此行兇？我這裡用你不著，今將你降落紅塵，償還冤債，直待功成行滿，方許你歸山，再成正果。」大鵬鳥遵了法旨，飛出雷音寺，徑來東土投胎不表。

Fig. 3 – Detail of an altar to the Great Peng, the Golden-Winged King of Illumination ( larger version ). Full image found here .

4. Analysis

There are four parallels shared between these stories. First, each character is exiled for disrespecting the Buddha. Master Golden Cicada falls asleep during the Tathagata’s sermon. Miao Jixiang kills a belligerent sage on the grounds of the Thunderclap Monastery. And the Great Peng kills the Maiden Earth Bat in the same hallowed place during the Buddha’s lecture. The latter two examples are similar in that both characters are admonished by the Tathagata for breaking the precept against killing. For the former, the Buddha exclaims, “You beast, how dare you break my precepts? … Such an act is intolerable by the Buddhist Dharma” ( 你這畜生如何敢破我戒？… 佛法難容 ). And for the latter, he screams, “You evil creature! You already took refuge in my teachings. How can you not follow the five precepts by daring to commit such a horrible crime?” ( 你這孽畜！既歸我教，怎不皈依五戒，輒敢如此行兇？ ). Admittedly, these acts make Master Golden Cicada’s sleeping far less serious in comparison.

Second, each is exiled from the Western Heaven in India to be reborn as a hero in China. Master Golden Cicada lives out a number of pious incarnations before his final life as Tripitaka, a learned monk who procures scriptures needed to release untold numbers of orphaned souls from the underworld. Miao Jixiang experiences several adventurous incarnations before his final life as Huaguang dadi, a martial deity who rids the world of evil spirits. And the Great Peng is reborn as Song Dynasty General Yue Fei, a patriot who fights against invading Jurchen forces which threaten the Middle Kingdom.

Third, a ll are exiled with the understanding that they will return once they have accumulated enough Buddhist merit and/or paid off a karmic debt. This is more implied in Master Golden Cicada/Tripitaka’s case when the Buddha reveals his past transgression and then grants him an elevation in spiritual rank to an enlightened being , thereby allowing him to return to the Western Heave n at the end of his story arc (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 4, p. 381). Whereas with Miao Jixiang, this is openly suggested by Guanyin: “After [he] goes through this catastrophe, he shall be allowed to return to Spirit Mountain and serve the Master. Why not do this?” ( 等他大难满日，取回灵山，伏侍师父，何不可也。 ) The Tathagata agrees to this arrangement. As for the Great Peng, the Buddha states,

[Y]ou will descend to the mortal world to pay off your (karmic) debt and wait until you have fulfilled your work. Once that is completed, only then will I allow you to return to the mountain to achieve the right fruit (Buddhist merit). 今將你降落紅塵，償還冤債，直待功成行滿，方許你歸山，再成正果。

And fourth, all are connected to the Journey to the West story cycle. For instance, in chapter one of Journey to the South (c. 1570s-1580s), “Pilgrim Sun” ( Sun xingzhe , 孫行者 ; i.e. Sun Wukong) wins first place in a competition between the gods of the Buddho-Daoist pantheon to see who owns the greatest celestial treasure (see pp. 6-7 of this PDF ). And in chapter 17, Monkey fights Miao Jixiang’s reincarnation, Huaguang dadi, because the latter framed the former for the theft of immortal peaches. The Great Sage initially wins the encounter, but he is unexpectantly burned at the last minute, leaving his non-canonical daughter to finish the fight (see pp. 107-110 of this PDF ). And the Great Peng originally appears as a demon king named the “Peng of Ten Thousand Cloudy Miles” ( Yuncheng wanli peng, 雲程萬里鵬 ) in chapters 74 to 77 of Journey to the West (1592). At the end of his arc, he is trapped above the Buddha’s head (fig. 4):

Perceiving the Peng’s intentions, Tathagata produced a golden light and, facing the wind, and gave his head (which had once supported the nests of magpies) a shake. The head changed at once into a piece of meat dripping with fresh blood. Stretching out his claws, the monster-spirit drew near and tried to clutch at the piece of meat. Our Father Buddha pointed at him with his finger and immediately the monster-spirit felt such cramps throughout his huge wings that he could not fly away. He was trapped above the Buddha’s head in his true form: the Great Peng, a golden-winged eagle [fig. 4] (based on Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 4, p. 31). 如來情知此意，即閃金光，把那鵲巢貫頂之頭迎風一幌，變做鮮紅的一塊血肉。妖精掄利爪叼他一下。被佛爺把手往上一指，那妖翅膊上就了筋，飛不去，只在佛頂上不能遠遁，現了本相，乃是一個大鵬金翅鵰。

The Great Peng later begrudgingly agrees to submit to Buddhism (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 4, p. 31). Therefore, this explains his lofty position in The Complete Vernacular Biography of Yue Fei (1684).

Fig. 4 – The Great Peng trapped above the Buddha’s head ( larger version ). An AI upscaled version of a blurry image found randomly online. The original comes from Chen Huiguan’s Newly Illustrated and Complete Journey to the West ( Chen Huiguan Xinhui Quanben Xiyouji , 陈惠冠新绘全本西游记, 2001).

5. Similarities to Western Philosophy

McEvilley (2002) comments that the Greek philosopher Empedocles (5th-c. BCE) wrote of gods being exiled for ten thousand years for the crime of murder or lying under oath. The fallen deity was believed to reincarnate into every creature of land, air, and sea, and when their long punishment was over, they were reborn in their last life as a person of high culture, such as royalty, religious leaders, and scholars. They then returned to their former heavenly station upon death (McEvilley, 2002, pp. 106-107). These beliefs mirror the misdeeds (sleeping and murder), exile from heaven, experience of reincarnation, and then eventual return to heaven of Master Golden Cicada, Miao Jixiang, and the Great Peng. These similarities likely point to a broader concept in Greco-Indian philosophy that made its way into Chinese vernacular fiction.

1) Tripitaka’s additional punishment points to the supreme importance of rice in an agrarian society like ancient China.

2) Miao Jixiang should not be confused with the Bodhisattva Manjushri , who has the same Chinese name in some older Buddhist literature (Von Glahn, 2004, p. 214).

3) The mingwang (明王, “illumination king”) of the Great Peng’s Buddhist title could also mean “wisdom king,” which refers to spiritual knowledge.

4) My previous article traces the religious motif of a bird ( Garuda ) hovering above the heads of Buddhist personages to Hindo-Buddhist architecture in ancient India.

McEvilley, T. (2002). The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies . New York : Allworth.

Von Glahn, R. (2004). The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture . United Kingdom: University of California Press.

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vols. 1-4) (Rev. ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

Archive #42 – PDFs of Journey to the West Translations

Note : My blog is not monetized, so I am not making any money from this post. My hope is that the PDFs will make this legendary story more accessible to a wider audience. If you enjoyed the digital versions, please, please, please support the official releases.

Last updated : 08-17-2023

I’m happy to host a number of foreign language translations of the noted Chinese classic Journey to the West ( Xiyouji , 西遊記 , 1592 CE). This archive currently houses the following editions:

French (only part two of two)
Italian (see below)

As of this writing, I don’t yet have a modern Japanese translation. But you can read an original copy of the 1835 translation here .

I have also included translations of the unofficial sequel, A Supplement to the Journey to the West ( Xiyoubu , 西遊補 , 1640), in the following languages:

I will add more languages to this archive as they become available. Please let me know if you have access to other editions.

Journey to the West ( Xiyouji )

1.a. complete.

1) This is a PDF for The Journey to the West (2012 Rev. ed.) translated by Anthony C. Yu.

Archive #11 – PDFs of the Journey to the West 2012 Revised Edition

2) This is a text PDF for Journey to the West (1993/2020) translated by W. J. F. Jenner.

Click to access Wu-Chengen-Journey-to-the-West-4-Volume-Boxed-Set-2003.pdf

The four-volume box set in my collection ( larger version ).

1.B. Abridged

1) This is a PDF for Monkey (1942/1984) translated by Arthur Waley in 30 chapters (1 to 15, 18 and 19, 22, 37 to 39, 44 to 46, 47 to 49, and 98 to 100). See past book covers here .

Click to access Wu-Chengen_-Arthur-Waley-Monkey-Grove-Press-1984.pdf

2) This is a PDF for The Monkey and the Monk (2006): An Abridgement of The Journey to the West translated by Anthony C. Yu in 31 chapters (1 to 15, 18 and 19, 22 and 23, 44 to 46, 53 to 55, 57 and 58, 84, and 98 to 100)

Click to access Anthony-C.-Yu-The-Monkey-and-the-Monk_-An-Abridgment-of-The-Journey-to-the-West-2006.pdf

The official cover ( larger version )

1.C. Audio Drama

I just learned of “The Fifth Monkey” and their Journey to the West – An Audio Drama Series , which presents a new English translation alongside the original Chinese . They explain:

One reason that led our team to start this audio drama project is to correct some of the mistranslations found in the Yu/Jenner translations. Most of them are very minor and we certainly understand what could have led to those mistakes, but we think it is worth exploring how we can help bring a more accurate presentation of the original text in the English language ( source ).

Patreon (They post most regularly here)

The official logo ( larger version ).

This is a PDF for volume two (of two) for La Pérégrination vers l’Ouest (Xiyou ji) (1991) translated by André Lévy in 100 chapters. I was told by one French academic that this edition “is one of the best available in Western languages.” Hopefully I will find a PDF for volume one in the future.

Thank you to jyeet on the Journey to the West discord for locating the file.

Vol. 1 – [NOT YET AVAILABLE]

Vol. 2 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/French-JTTW-la-peregrination-vers-louest-Vol-2.pdf

The original two-volume boxed edition ( larger version ). Image found here .

This is a PDF for Die Reise in den Westen. Ein klassischer chinesischer Roman (2016) t ranslated by Eva Lüdi Kong in 100 chapters. It was awarded the Leipzig Book Fair prize in 2017. This version was converted from an ebook.

Click to access German-JTTW-Die-Reise-in-den-Westen.pdf

4. Hungarian

These are text PDFs for Nyugati utazás: avagy a majomkirály története (1969/1980) translated by Barnabás Csongor in two volumes. While the work covers the full 100 chapters, I’ve been told that it deletes the poems and occasionally paraphrases long-winded sections of text.

Thank you to Twitter user Jakabfi Károly for locating the files.

Vol 1 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Hungarian-JTTW-Nyugati-Utazas-Vol-1.pdf

Vol 2 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Hungarian-JTTW-Nyugati-Utazas-Vol-2.pdf

The official covers for volumes one and two ( larger version ). Image found here .

[ Note 10-19-23 : I was asked to remove the PDF from the archive per the publisher. I’m leaving the title here so others will know an Italian translation exists.]

The Italian text is called Viaggio in occidente (1998/2008) . It was translated by Serafino Balduzzi and published in two volumes. It is based on the French edition published in 1991. The work covers all 100 chapters.

This is a PDF for Małpi bunt (1976) translated by Tadeusz Żbikowski. It is a 14 chapter abridgement of the first 20 chapters of the original.

Thank you to Twitter user Friend_Pretend for locating the file.

Click to access Polish-JTTW-Malpi-bunt-1976.pdf

The official cover ( larger version ).

7. Romanian

This is a text PDF for Călătorie spre soare – a pune (1971) translated by Corneliu Rudescu and Fănică N. Gheorghe. It appears to be an abridgment.

Thank you to greencicadarchivist on the Journey to the West discord for locating the file.

Click to access Romanian-JTTW-U_Ceng_En_Calatorie_Spre_Soare_Apune_pdf.pdf

11. Vietnamese

This is a text PDF for Tây Du Ký translated by Như Sơn, Mai Xuân Hải, and Phương Oanh. The 100 chapters were originally split between 10 volumes and published from 1982 to 1988. The volumes were later transcribed and combined to make a single eBook via an online community in 2013 ( see here ). I have converted it into a PDF.

Click to access Vietnamese-JTTW-Tay-Du-Ky.pdf

The covers for the original ten volumes ( larger version ). Image found here .

A Supplement to the Journey to the West ( Xiyoubu )

A) This is a PDF for Further Adventures on the Journey to the West – Master of Silent Whistle Studio (2020) translated by Qianchng Li and Robert E. Hegel.

Click to access Further-Adventures-on-the-Journey-to-the-West-Master-of-Silent-Whistle-Studio-2020.pdf

B) This is a PDF for Tower of Myriad Mirrors: A Supplement to Journey to the West (2000) translated by Shuen-fu Lin and Larry J. Schulz. This version was converted from Mobi.

Click to access English-Xiyoubu-Lin-Shuen-fu_Dong-Yue-Schulz-Tung-Yueh-The-tower-of-myriad-mirrors_-a-supplement-to-Journey-to-the-West.pdf

2. Hungarian

This is a text PDF for Ami a nyugati utazásból kimaradt (1957/1980) translated by Barnabás Csongor.

My thanks again to Twitter user Jakabfi Károly.

Click to access Hungarian-Xiyoubu-tung_jue_ami_a_nyugati_utazasbol_kimaradt.pdf

Update : 08-17-23

I forgot to mention that I have previously archived two other Chinese classics. The first is Creation of the Gods ( Fengshen yanyi , 封神演義 , c. 1620; a.k.a. Investiture of the Gods ), a sort of prequel to JTTW.

Archive #17 – PDFs of Creation of the Gods Library of Chinese Classics Chinese-English Bilingual Edition (Vols. 1-4)

The second is Journey to the South ( Nanyouji , 南遊記 , c. 1570s-1580s). This is NOT a direct sequel to JTTW. It instead follows the adventures of a martial god from Chinese folk religion. However, Sun Wukong makes a guest appearance in chapters one and seventeen.

Archive #40 – Journey to the South (Nanyouji) English Translation PDF

These have been posted for educational purposes. No malicious copyright infringement is intended. If you enjoyed the digital versions, please support the official releases.

Journey to the South ( Nanyouji , 南遊記 , c. 1570s-1580s), [1] is one of four shenmo novels, dubbed the Four Journeys ( Siyou ji , 四遊記), (re)published during the Wanli era by Yu Xiangdou (余象斗, c. 1560-c. 1640). This eighteen chapter work follows the adventures of the martial deity Huaguang dadi (華光大帝) (fig. 1), variously translated as “Great Emperor of Flowery/Resplendent/Magnificent/Majestic Light.” He begins the story as a divine disciple of the Buddha who is exiled from paradise for taking a life. But after a series of rebirths in which he causes trouble as a trickster, Huaguang redeems himself by using his powers to subdue evil.

What’s interesting for the purposes of this blog is that the Monkey King appears as a tertiary character in chapters one and seventeen. The latter is notable among fans of Journey to the West as it mentions that our hero has children . One in particular, his monstrous daughter Yuebei xing ( 月孛星 , “Moon Comet Star”), is shown to be a powerful sorceress who can threaten even the lives of immortals with her magic skull weapon.

Here, I would like to archive an English translation of Journey to the South by a translator with the penname “Peter Pan.” A big thank you to Monkey Servant (a.k.a. Monkey-Ruler ) for converting the original ebook into a searchable text PDF.

Fig. 1 – A modern Huaguang dadi idol ( larger version ). Readers will notice that he shares many iconographical similarities with Erlang shen . Image found here .

I. Synopsis

After killing a havoc-wreaking Single-Flame King, Manjusri is banished by Tathagata [Buddha] to reincarnate into Spirit Light as a son of Mount Horse-Ear King, endowed with five accesses to natural elements and a heavenly eye. [ Jim here : One of Manjushri’s old Chinese Buddhist names is Miao Jixiang (妙吉祥) . Huaguang’s previous incarnation, a divine flame-turned-Buddhist deity, also shares this name , but the two are not related (Von Glahn, 2004, p. 214). Therefore, translating the name as Manjushri is not accurate. ] During his trip to the Spiritual Void Palace, Spirit Light frees two ghosts by stealing a golden spear, but he is killed by Purple Subtlety Heaven Emperor. He again reincarnates as Three-Eye Spirit Flare in the family of Blazing Darkness Heavenly King. He steals from his master Wonderful Joy Celestial Being a golden broadsword, to make it into a triangular golden brick as his divine weapon. Later, he wreaks havoc in the Jade Flower Gathering in the heavens and assumes the title of Huaguang, but he is subdued by Black Sky Heaven Emperor. Afraid of being punished by the Jade Emperor, Huaguang reincarnates again into Xiao’s Family Village, where he subdues demons and evil spirits with his divine power. Considering his meritorious deeds, the Jade Emperor grants pardon to him. Huaguang has no idea that his mother is a man-eating monster named Ganoderma who is later detained by Dragon Auspice King in Fengdu, the demon capital. Searching around for his mother, Huaguang cheats the Goddess Jade Ring for her pagoda, intending to melt it as his weapon. He meets her daughter Princess Iron Fan and takes her as his wife. He continues to subdue more demons and evil spirits. Still missing his mother, Huaguang learns she was in the underworld and ventures there without hesitation. Could Huaguang save his mother? Could he prevent his mother from eating humans again? What stories occur between Huaguang and the legendary Monkey King? What is the fate of Huaguang himself after his undulating reincarnations? Read on to know more about the making of Heavenly King Resplendent Light, a renowned divine figure in Chinese mythology.

II. Archive Link

Click to access Journey_to_the_South_ENG.pdf

III. Disclaimer

This has been posted for educational purposes. No malicious copyright infringement is intended. If you liked the digital version, please support the official release when it once again becomes available on Amazon.

1) Evidence suggests that the book was originally published prior to the 1590s (Cedzich, 1995, as cited in Von Glahn, 2004, p. 311 n. 145). Yu Xiangdou later renamed the book when he combined it with the other novels to create the Four Journeys . Von Glahn (2004) explains:

The full title of the earliest known copy of Journey to the South , the 1631 edition in the British Museum, is Quanxiang Huaguang tianwang nanyou zhizhuan [全像華光天王南游志傳] ( A Fully Illustrated Chronicle of the Journey to the South by the Heavenly King Huaguang ) (p. 311 n. 145).

Von Glahn, R. (2004). The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture . United Kingdom: University of California Press.

Yuebei xing, Daughter of the Monkey King

Last updated : 04-27-2024

Ever since I published my article “ The Monkey King’s Children ” (2021), I’ve noticed that people have fallen in love with Sun Wukong’s monstrous, magic skull-wielding daughter Yuebei xing ( 月孛星 , “Moon Comet Star”) from Journey to the South ( Nanyouji , 南遊記 , c. 1570s-1580s). For instance, search Tumblr and you will find plenty of art and short stories featuring her. The character does not appear in the original Journey to the West ( Xiyouji , 西遊記, 1592) novel, so I’m honestly surprised that she has captured the imagination of so many.

Here, I would like to collect all that I’ve written about her, along with new information, into a single article. This piece discusses her brief character arc, her astrological origins, her appearance in other literature, and her religious iconography.

I. Character arc

In chapter 17 of Journey to the South , Sun Wukong is framed for once again stealing immortal peaches . The Jade Emperor threatens to remand him to the Buddha for punishment but is convinced to give him a month-long reprieve to find the true culprit. Monkey returns to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit , and it is here, among his people, that the story briefly mentions three children, including sons Jidu (奇都, “Ketu”) and Luohou (羅猴, “Rahu”) and daughter Yuebei xing (月孛星, “Moon Comet Star”).

Sun eventually seeks out Guanyin , who reveals that the troublemaker is the rogue immortal Huaguang (華光). Returning home once more, Monkey’s news prompts his daughter to volunteer to battle the impostor. But her tribe simply pokes fun at her monstrous appearance. Yuebei Xing is said to have a crooked head with huge eyes and a broad mouth, coarse hands, a wide waist, and long legs with thunderous steps.

Sun travels with his daughter to Huaguang’s home of Mt. Lilou ( Lilou shan , 離婁山) to provoke battle by chastising him for stealing the immortal peaches. Monkey strikes at him with his magic staff , causing Huaguang to deploy his heavenly treasure, a golden, triangular brick ( sanjiao jinzhuan , 三角金磚). But Sun responds by creating untold monkey clones that not only confiscate the weapon but also overwhelm the immortal. Huaguang is seemingly defeated at this point; however, he manages to deploy one last treasure, the Fire Elixir ( Huodan , 火丹). This weapon engulfs the Great Sage in heavenly flame (akin to the Red Boy episode ), causing him to flee to the Eastern Sea . Yuebei xing then calls Huaguang’s name while holding her own magic treasure, a skull ( kulou tou , 骷髏頭). The immortal is immediately stricken with a headache and stumbles back to his cave in a daze. Her weapon is said to be quite dangerous; anyone whose name is called will die within three days.

Huanguang’s religious teacher, the Flame King Buddha of Light ( Huoyan wang guangfo , 火炎王光佛), then intervenes in order to sooth the situation between his disciple and the Great Sage. He promises to bring the rogue immortal to justice on the condition that Yuebei Xing withdraws her deadly magic. In the end, all parties are pardoned by the Jade Emperor, and Huaguang and Monkey become bond brothers (Yu, n.d.).

II. Astrological origins

The Monkey King’s daughter is based on Yuebei xing, a shadowy planetary deity representing the lunar apogee, or the furthest point in the moon’s orbit . They are counted among the “Eleven Luminaries” ( Shiyi yao , 十一曜) of East Asian astrology (fig. 1). These include the “ Nine Planets ” (Sk: Navagraha ; Ch: Jiuyao , 九曜, “Nine Luminaries”) of Hindu astrology, namely the Sun , Moon , Mars , Mercury , Jupiter , Venus , Saturn , and Rahu and Ketu (Gansten, 2009), as well as Yuebei and another shadowy planet called Ziqi (紫氣/紫炁; “Purple Mist”) (Kotyk, 2017, p. 60). The latter two are mentioned in Daoist writings as early as the late-9th-century (Kotyk, 2017, pp. 61-62).

Fig. 1 – A Chinese depiction of the Eleven Luminaries from the Ink Treasure of Wu Daozi (Daozi mobao , 道子墨寶, c. 13th-century) ( larger version ). Yuebei xing is located first from the left on the top row. Image found here .

The late- Yuan to early- Ming scripture Secret Practice of the Primordial Lord Yuebei ( Yuanhuang Yuebei mifa , 元皇月孛祕法; Secret Practice hereafter) describes them having two forms, one human and the other monstrous:

姓朱, 諱光, 天人相, 披髮裸體, 黑雲掩臍, 紅履鞋, 左手提旱魃頭, 右手杖劍, 騎玉龍, 變相青面獠牙, 緋衣, 杖劍, 駕熊。 Surnamed Zhu [ Vermillion ] with the honorific title of Guang [Luminous]. In the form of a celestial human, their hair is let down over their naked body. Their mass of black hair covers the navel. Red sandals. Their left hand holds the head of a drought demon. Their right hand holds a blade. They ride a jade dragon. In their modified form, [they display] a blue face with long fangs, a crimson garment and blade, while driving a bear (Kotyk, 2017, p. 62).

Both versions are known from late- Xixia dynasty (1038-1227) art. The first figure takes the form of a lightly clad or even topless woman with long, sometimes unkempt hair and red garments. One painting shows her with a bloody head in her right hand and a sword hanging from her hip (fig. 2). (Though, I should point out that she isn’t always depicted with the head in Xixia or Chinese art (fig. 3 & 4).) The second figure is much rarer and takes the form of a yaksha -like guardian with green skin, a fiery red beard and hair, and red garments. He wields a flaming sword in his right hand and a bloody head in the other (fig. 5). Thank you to Dr. Jeffrey Kotyk for bringing these to my attention.

Fig. 2 – Yuebei as a woman ( larger version ). Take note of the severed head in her right hand and the sword at her waist. Detail from a 13th to 14th-century Xixia painting in the Hermitage Museum . Fig. 3 – A topless Yuebei wielding only a sword ( larger version ). Detail from a 13th to 14th-century Xixia painting in the Hermitage Museum . Fig. 4 – Detail of Yuebei from the Chinese Ink Treasure of Wu Daozi (c. 13th-century) ( larger version ). She too is holding only a sword. Take note of her lunar halo. Fig. 5 – Yuebei as a man ( larger version ). He clutches a small head in his left hand. Detail from a 13th-century Xixia painting in the Hermitage Museum .

What’s interesting about the yaksha-male Yuebei is that his iconography is strikingly similar to Arabo-Persian depictions of al-Mirrīkh ( Mars ), who is also known for wielding a sword and head. Dr. Kotyk has directed me to several examples (fig. 6-8). Carboni (Carboni & MET, 1997) suggests that the war god’s imagery is connected to another deity:

The bold iconography of the severed head underscores the warlike character of the planet but it probably is also related to the astronomical image of the constellation of Perseus , called in Arabic ḥāmil ra’s al-ghūl (“the Bearer of the Demon’s Head”), which represents a transformation of the Greek iconography of the severed head of Medusa [fig. 9] (p. 17).

The literary Yuebei’s use of a deadly skull is fitting considering its possible link to the beheaded Gorgon . [1] Remember that the Secret Practice describes Yuebei’s symbol as that of a “drought demon’s head” ( batou , 魃頭), and Arabic sources call Perseus’ symbol the “demon’s head” ( ra’s al-ghūl ). This shows that both cultures considered the head some kind of supernatural monster.

Fig. 6 – Detail of al-Mirrīkh (Mars) on a late-12th to early-13th century bowl from Central or Northern Iran ( larger version ). From the Met Museum website . Fig. 7 – Detail from The Wonders of Creation (‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara’ib al-Mawjudat, 13th-century) ( larger version ). Found on the Library of Congress website . Fig. 8 – Detail from the Degrees of Truths (Daqa’iq al-haqa’iq, 1272) ( larger version ). Found on the Bibliothèque nationale de France website . Fig. 9 – The Perseus constellation from the early-11th-century Book of Pictures of the (fixed) Stars (Kitāb Ṣuwar al-kawākib (al-thābitah) ( larger version ). Found on the Bodleian Library website .

Dr. Kotyk tells me that East Asian depictions of Mars do not show him holding a head. But given the similar iconography of the Arabo-Persian deity and the yaksha-male Yuebei xing, there could be a South Asian intermediary. Bhattacharyya (1958) describes the Indian Buddhist iconography of Maṅgala (Mars) in similar terms: “[He] rides on a Goat. He is red in colour. In the right hand he holds the Kaṭṭāra (cutter) and in the left a severed human head in the act of devouring” (p. 368). But I don’t know how established this description is considering that a cursory search doesn’t turn up any ancient depictions of the Hindo-Buddhist deity holding a head (I’ll update the article if new evidence arises). Another possibility is that the similarities are evidence of cultural exchange between Muslim and Xixia ( Tangut ) astrologers. Either way, I should point out that the paintings of the yaksha-male Yuebei xing and al-Mirrīkh come from the same time period, the 13th-century.

Recall that Xixia dynasty art (refer back to fig. 2) and the Secret Practice associate the human-female Yuebei xing with the head and sword, showing that it’s not the purview of the yaksha-male figure. It’s interesting to note that both the female figure and Mars are associated with the color red. Kotyk (2017) explains that there is a likely connection between Yuebei xing and the Irano-Semitic Āl – Līlīṯ (a.k.a. Lilith), who is also described as a demoness with a red, naked body and long, unkempt hair (pp. 63-64).

While I’m unsure if there is a connection, Yuebei’s imagery brings to mind the Hindo-Buddhist goddess Chinnamastā – Chinnamunda ( Vajrayoginī ) . She is commonly shown as a naked, red-bodied figure holding a bloody head in one hand and a sword in the other (Kinsley, 1997, p. 144). In this case, the severed head is her own. Her sister attendants are also sometimes shown holding a head and sword (fig. 10).

Fig. 10 – A 19th-century lithograph of Chinnamastā ( larger version ). Image found on Wikipedia .

Beyond art, I learned that the respective astrological paths of Yuebei xing and Mars can cross in East Asian astrology. According to Wan Minying (萬民英), author of the Great Compendium of Astral Studies ( Xingxue dacheng , 星學大成, 1563):

If Yuebei and Mars are conjunct in the same sign, [the native’s] heart will enjoy virtue, but they will be unable to actually act. They will also have many noxious sores, and pus and blood 孛火同宮心好善而實不能行亦多癰疽膿血 . [2]

III. Appearance in other literature

Apart from Journey to the South , Yuebei briefly appears in an earlier Ming-era fiction titled Drama of Yang Jiajiang ( Yang Jiajiang yanyi , 楊家將演義 , 16th-century). Kotyk (2017) explains that she is depicted as a red-skinned figure “holding in her hand a skeleton ( 手執骷髏骨 )” (p. 63). I should note that the kulou (骷髏) in kulou gu (骷髏骨) can also mean “skull”, which aligns with her iconography.

Recall that the Irano-Semitic demoness Lilith and the Hindo-Buddhist goddess Chinnamastā-Chinnamunda are described or depicted as having red skin. This might explain Yuebei xing’s vermillion body in the novel.

IV. Religious iconography

I know nothing of the actual worship of Yuebei xing, but Ronni Pinsler of the BOXS project was kind enough to show me a pattern sheet of her from an idol-maker’s shop in 1970s Singapore (fig. 11). She wears flowing robes just like her ancient Chinese depictions (refer back to fig. 4), but the signature sword and head are not included. They are instead replaced by a fly-whisk and a placard marked “moon” ( yue , 月), which compliments the lunar halo behind her head. Additionally, she is labeled the “Vermillion (Comet) Inspiring Goddess, Heavenly Lord of the Moon Comet” ( Zhuli[bei?] fu niang Yuebei tianjun , 朱李[孛?]孚娘月孛天君). This is similar to the way it’s listed among the 36 celestial generals of the Journey to the North ( Beiyou ji , 北遊記, 1602), the “Vermillion Comet Goddess, Heavenly Lord of the Moon Comet” ( Zhubei wei Yuebei tianjun , 朱孛娘為月孛天君 ). I also found a more recent religious drawing that appears to mix the feminine and masculine iconography to depict her as an armored general named “Stellar Lord of the Great Monad Moon Comet” ( Taiyi Yuebei xingjun (太一月孛星君) (fig. 12). Both the head and sword are present.

Fig. 11 – The vintage Yuebei pattern sheet from a Singaporean idol shop ( larger version ). Original photograph by Keith Stevens . Fig. 12 – The Yuebei general image ( larger version ). It was posted by an Indonesian Daoist priest of the Quanzhen school on Facebook .

IV. Conclusion

Yuebei xing (月孛星, “Moon Comet Star”) briefly appears in chapter 17 of Journey to the South ( Nanyouji , 南遊記, c. 1570s-1580s) as the Monkey King’s monstrous daughter who uses a magic skull weapon to curse a rogue immortal. The demoness is based on a shadowy planetary deity from East Asian astrology that represents the lunar apogee. Xixia dynasty art and the Yuan-Ming Secret Practice scripture depict this deity having two forms, a lightly clad or even topless human-female with red clothing and long, disheveled hair, or a green-skinned, red-bearded yaksha-male. Both of these forms are sometimes depicted wielding a sword and a disembodied head.

The yaksha- male Yuebei xing surprisingly shares iconography with Arabo-Persian depictions of al-Mirrīkh (Mars), who is also represented as a bearded figure wielding a sword and head. Carboni (Carboni & MET, 1997) suggests that the Middle Eastern iconography is related to the constellation of Perseus (a.k.a. “ Bearer of the Demon’s Head” ) in which he holds the head of Medusa. This is interesting as the head held by the human-female figure is called a “drought demon” in the Secret Practice . This suggests a possible connection between the literary Yuebei xing’s skull and the deadly Gorgon.

Kotyk (2017) notes a possible connection between the human-female Yuebei xing and the Irano-Semitic Lilith. The latter too is described as having a red, naked body and unkempt hair. This same iconography is shared by the Hindo-Buddhist goddess Chinnamastā-Chinnamunda, who is also depicted bearing a sword and (her own) head. This may then explain why Yuebei xing is described as having red skin in the Drama of Yang Jiajiang (16th-century), which predates Journey to the South .

Yuebei xing is worshiped in modern Chinese folk religion. Religious art depicts them as either a robed figure or an armored general. In both cases, the deity is a woman, but only the martial aspect is shown with the head and sword.

Update : 01-11-2023

Bunce (1994) describes Maṅgala (Mars) just like Bhattacharyya (1958) (refer back to the material below figure 9):

Face: one, angry; arms/hands: two, right hand holds ritual chopper ( karttrika, grig-gug ), left hand holds severed human head (emphasis added); legs: two; color: red; vahana: goat (p. 328).

But I still haven’t been able to find any ancient drawings of the planetary deity like this.

The iconography of the Hindu goddess Kālī also includes a sword and severed head (fig. 13). I didn’t mention her in the original article because she is traditionally depicted with dark skin, but she likely influenced the red-skinned Chinnamastā-Chinnamunda. It’s important to note that her mythos also associates the head with demons ( asuras ). For example, the Devī-Māhātmyam (c. 400-600 CE) reads:

Mounting her great lion, the Goddess ran at Caṇḍa, / And having seized him by the hair, she cut off his head with her sword. / On seeing Caṇḍa slain, Muṇḍa rushed at her. / She caused him to fall to the ground, wrathfully smitten with her sword. / On seeing Caṇḍa slain, and also the valorous Muṇḍa, / What was left of the assaulted army was overcome with fear and fled in all directions. / Picking up the heads of Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, Kali / Approached C’aṇḍikā [ Durgā ] and spoke words mixed with loud and cruel laughter: / “Here, as a present from me to you, are Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, two beasts / slain in the sacrifice of battle…” (Coburn, 1991, p. 62).

This adds to our list of sword-wielding, demon head-holding deities: 1) Perseus-Medusa; 2) Yuebei xing-Drought Demon; and 3) Kali-Asura.

Fig. 13 – An early-20th-century painting of Kali by Raja Ravi Varma ( larger version ). Image found here .

Update : 01-16-23

I thought of a way for artists and fan fiction writers to mix Yuebei xing’s skull with Medusa’s head. But first recall that section 1 reads:

Yuebei xing then calls Huaguang’s name while holding her own magic treasure, a skull . The immortal is immediately stricken with a headache and stumbles back to his cave in a daze. Her weapon is said to be quite dangerous; anyone whose name is called will die within three days.

Perhaps the skull’s gaze can turn any living thing into stone, but this lithic death happens over the aforementioned three days. After the target’s name is called, the skull’s glowing eyes open wider and wider upon the dawn of each successive day, causing compounding confusion and pain. The final dawn sees the eyes open wide (fig. 14), making the unfortunate soul (no matter their location) turn to stone.

Refer back to note #1 for a possible defense.

Fig. 14 – The skull would look something like this on the third and final dawn (minus the bullet hole) ( larger version ). Image found here .

Update : 01-17-23

“Who is the mother of Sun Wukong’s children in Journey to the South ?” This is a question I’ve been asked a few times on Tumblr. The novel never answers this, but one can make an educated guess for the purposes of fan fiction.

Each child is based on one of three lunar deities appearing among the “Eleven Luminaries” ( Shiyi yao , 十一曜) (mentioned above). The specific gods are:

Jidu (奇都, “ Ketu ”) = Represents the southern (descending) lunar node , or the point where the moon crosses the earth’s orbit around the sun . Associated with eclipses.
Luohou (羅睺, “ Rahu ”) = Represents the northern (ascending) lunar node. Also associated with eclipses.
Yuebei Xing (月孛星, “Moon Comet Star”) = Represents the lunar apogee, or the furthest point in the moon’s orbit .

Given their close connection to the night time celestial body, it would make sense for the mother to be Taiyin xing (太陰星, “Star of Supreme Yin ”), goddess of the moon from the Eleven Luminaries.

Taiyin xing is commonly equated with Chang’e , goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology. However, Journey to the West chapter 95 depicts her as a separate deity and the leader of an unknown number of Chang’e moon goddesses (cf. Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 4, p. 302).

Fig. 15 – A detail of Taiyin xing from the Ink Treasure of Wu Daozi (Daozi mobao , 道子墨寶 , c. 13th-century) ( larger version ). See figure 1 for the complete image. She is the fourth person from the left on the top row.

Update : 01-18-23

I’ve decided to make this the only article on my blog where Yuebei xing information can be found. Therefore, I have removed all of it from “ The Monkey King’s Children .” This means I have to also transfer some previous updates.

Posted : 02-13-22

I’ve recently started watching the Lego Monkie Kid series, which follows the adventures of Sun Wukong’s human disciple, MK , in a very toyetic, Lego-inspired world. This is why @TustiLoliPop ‘s lovely drawing of Yuebei xing (fig. 16) really stood out to me. They were kind enough to give me permission to post it here. It’s based on the Xixia dynasty painting from figure 2.

Fig. 16 – The Lego Monkie Kid-style Yuebei xing by @TustiLoliPop ( larger version ). Used with permission.

Posted : 07-13-22

Tumblr user @sketching-shark has drawn some great pictures of Monkey and his children. Here is one of them (fig. 17). I love the alternating black and white color scheme of Rahu and Ketu, as well as Yuebei xing’s size.

Fig. 17 – Monkey’s family by @sketching-shark ( larger version ). Used with permission.

Update : 07-23-23

Tumblr user @MarxieReplies has drawn two Lego Monkie Kid-inspired pictures of Yuebei xing (fig. 18 & 19). Her clothing is based on the Xixia dynasty paintings of the lunar goddess (refer back to figure 2). I love the glowing skull and the flow of her ponytail and divine sashes.

Fig. 18 – A full body drawing of Yuebei ( larger version ). Fig. 19 – A head and torso drawing ( larger version ). Used with permission.

Update : 01-06-24

I just learned that a “ Sun Yuebei ” (孫月孛), daughter of the Monkey King, appears in the Japanese video game Touhou Monjusen ~ Bubbling Imaginary Treasures (東方門殊銭～ Bubbling Imaginary Treasures, 2021). She looks like a young, pink-haired human girl wearing red, femine clothing with a bright green bow and light, red armor. And like her old man, she wears the golden headband and tiger skin and wields the iron staff along with her magic skull (video 1).

Video 1 – Sun Yuebei appears at min 3:34. I am 100% positive that the programmers hate people with epilepsy.

On a related note, Journey to the South fans wanting to write fanfiction about our monkey demoness can call her Sun Yuebei, [3] but as mentioned above, the original astrological goddess is surnamed Zhu (朱, “vermillion,” i.e. a shade of red). If anyone wants to create a version of Monkey’s daughter that is more in line with her religious counterpart, then she should be called “Zhu Yuebei” (朱月孛). I’m sure someone can think of a reason for why she wouldn’t take her father’s surname.

Given the connection of Sun Wukong’s children to the moon, it’s interesting to note that he displays an intimate knowledge of the Earth’s satellite as both an astrological body and alchemical symbol. He explains in chapter 36:

When the moon reaches the thirtieth day, the metal [phase] in its yang spirit is completely dissolved, whereas the water [phase] of its yin soul is filled to the brim of the orb. This is the reason for the designation of that day with the term Obscure [ Hui , 晦], for the moon is completely dark and without light. It is at this moment also that the moon copulates with the sun, and during the time of the thirtieth day and the first day of the month, it will become pregnant by the light of the sun. By the third day, one [stroke] of the yang will appear, and two [strokes] of the yang will be born by the eighth day. At this time, the moon will have half of its yang spirit in the middle of its yin soul, and its lower half is flat like a rope. That is the reason why the time of the month is called the Upper Bow [ Shangxian , 上弦]. By the fifteenth day, all three [strokes] of the yang will be ready, and perfect union will be achieved. That is why this time of the month is called To Face [ Wang , 望]. On the sixteenth day, one [stroke] of the yin will be born, and the second stroke will make its appearance on the twenty-second day. At that time half of the yin soul will be in the middle of the yang spirit, and its upper half is flat like a rope. That is the reason why this time of the month is called the Lower Bow [ Xiaxian , 下弦]. By the thirtieth day; all three [strokes] of the yin will be ready, and the moon has then reached the state of obscurity once more. All this is the symbol of the process of cultivation practiced by nature (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 2, pp. 159-160).

月至三十日，陽魂之金散盡，陰魄之水盈輪，故純黑而無光，乃曰『晦』。此時與日相交，在晦朔兩日之間，感陽光而有孕。至初三日一陽現，初八日二陽生，魄中魂半，其平如繩，故曰『上弦』。至今十五日，三陽備足，是以團圓，故曰『望』。至十六日一陰生，二十二日二陰生，此時魂中魄半，其平如繩，故曰『下弦』。至三十日三陰備足，亦當『晦』。此乃先天採煉之意。

1) I’ve already suggested that an acquaintance draw Yuebei wielding Medusa’s head in place of her signature skull. The real question is, “Could Medusa’s glare actually kill an immortal?” This insightful reddit post provides evidence from the Dionysiaca showing that even the god Dionysus considered it deadly enough to bring a magic diamond to protect himself from the Gorgon’s death stare:

The thyrsus was held up in his hand, and to defend his face he carried a diamond, the gem made stone in the showers of Zeus which protects against the stony glare of Medusa, that the baleful light of that destroying face may do him no harm (Rouse, 1940, vol. 3, p. 413).

2) Translation by Dr. Kotyk .

3) Xing (星) just indicates her position has a planetary body.

Bhattacharyya, B. (1958). The Indian Buddhist Iconography: Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals (2nd ed.). Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay.

Bunce, F. W. (1994). An Encyclopaedia of Buddhist Deities, Demigods, Godlings, Saints and Demons: With Special Focus on Iconographic Attributes (Vols.1-2). New Delhi: D.K. Printworld.

Carboni S. & Metropolitan Museum of Art. (1997). Following the Stars: Images of the Zodiac in Islamic Art . New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Coburn, T. B. (1991). Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devī-Māhātmya and a Study of its Interpretation . Albany: State University of New York Press.

Gansten, M. (2009). Navagrahas. In K. A. Jacobsen (Ed.), Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Vol. 1) (pp. 647-653). Leiden: Brill.

Kinsley, D. R. (1997). Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahāvidyās . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Kotyk, J. (2017). Astrological Iconography of Planetary Deities in Tang China. Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies , 30, 33-88, Retrieved from http://enlight.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/bj001575268.pdf

Rouse, W. H. D. (Ed.) (1940), Nonnos. Dionysiaca, with an English Translation by W. H. D. Rouse, Mythological Introduction and Notes by H. J. Rose and Notes on Text Criticism by L. R. Lind (Vols. 1-3). Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca03nonnuoft/page/412/mode/2up .

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vols. 1-4) (Rev. ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

Yu, X. (n.d.). Nanyouji: Huaguang sanxia Fengdu [ Journey to the South: Huaguang goes to the Underworld Three Times ]. Retrieved from https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=506975&remap=gb#%E5%8D%8E%E5%85%89%E4%B8%89%E4%B8%8B%E9%85%86%E9%83%BD

Archive #28 – Tripitaka’s Reincarnation and its Connection to Ancient Greek and Egyptian Philosophy

Last update : 02-16-2024

The Tang monk Tripitaka ( Tang Sanzang , 唐三藏; a.k.a. Xuanzang ) is depicted in Journey to the West ( Xiyouji , 西遊記, 1592) as the earthly reincarnation of Master Golden Cicada ( Jinchan zi , 金蟬子) (fig. 1), the Buddha’s fictional second disciple. This deity is banished to live out ten pious lives in China until the time comes for him to build merit as the scripture pilgrim, thereby gaining reentry into paradise. His crime of not paying attention to the Buddha’s lectures and subsequent exile to the mortal realm is encapsulated in part of a poem from chapter twelve:

Gold Cicada was his former divine name. As heedless he was of the Buddha’s talk, He had to suffer in this world of dust, To fall in the net by being born a man […] (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 275).

Fig. 1 – A modern interpretation of Master Golden Cicada as a literal insect by Taylor-Denna ( larger version ). See here for the full version and the artist’s statement. Used with permission.

I. Similarities to Western philosophy

McEvilley ‘s (2002) The Shape of Ancient Thought shows that Greek Orphic and Egyptian philosophy also believed in exiling gods from the heavens as a form of punishment. For example, Empedocles (5th-c. BCE) wrote of gods being exiled for ten thousand years for the crime of murder or lying under oath. The fallen deity is believed to reincarnate into every creature of land, air, and sea (fig.3), and when their long punishment is up, they are reborn in their last life as a person of high culture, such as royalty, religious leaders, and scholars. They then return to their former heavenly station upon death (McEvilley, 2002, p. 106). Plato (5th to 4th-c. BCE) specifically mentions the god undergoing ten reincarnations interspersed with thousand-year-long periods of afterlife reward or punishment (McEvilley, 2002, p. 108). The multiples of ten mentioned here fascinate me as they relate to the number of Tripitaka’s incarnations.

Fig. 3 – A symbolic painting showing the course of life, death, and reincarnation ( larger version ). Artist unknown.

McEvilley (2002) continues by tracing these and related Greek and Indian beliefs to the Egyptian Book of the Dead :

The deceased must somehow be regarded as a king or prince before he is eligible to “get thee back to the heights of heaven.” Thus Ani declares, “I am crowned like unto the king of the gods, and I shall not die a second time in the underworld.” Again, the prayer is made, “May Osiris , the scribe Ani, be a prince … and may the meat offerings and the drink offerings of Osiris Ani, triumphant, be apportioned unto him.” “I am crowned,” Ani claims, “I am become a shining one, I am mighty, I am become holy among the gods.” “I am the prince of eternity.” “May it be granted that I pass on among the holy princes,” Ani prays, and he is reassured: “The god Tmu hath decreed that [Ani’s] course shall be among the holy princes.” “Horus,” the Book of the Dead says, “was like unto a prince of the sacred bark, and the throne of his father was given unto him.” Something very like the doctrine of Empedocles is suggested, and possibly related to it as forerunner. The ba , which was once a god among the other gods, descends to earth, that is, into a body, in order to right some wrong it has done in the past; either it descended as a pharaoh or it has somehow been processed through nature for long ages until it has purified itself sufficiently to be reborn as a pharaoh; after its purification it is ready to return to the company of the gods in heaven, and this is signified by the status as pharaoh. Empedocles said the final incarnation was as a prince, a poet, or a healer. Plato said the last reincarnation was as a philosopher—but he meant philosophers to be kings. They both may be echoing an Egyptian idea either that gods are incarnated only as pharaohs or that the last incarnation is as a pharaoh. A parallel is found in the Hindu caste system, in the idea that only brahmans can attain moksa —that is, “become Osiris”; the soul must reincarnate upward through the castes before it is in position to get off the wheel. The nature of the primal crime or ancient wrong which the soul “descended on to the earth” to set right is not clearly stated, as it is not in the Greek versions of the myth, where it is either left undefined or ambiguously declared to be either perjury or bloodshed. The Egyptian texts dwell repeatedly on this subject, but with an ambiguity not unlike that of the Greek texts. Various clues in the Greek tradition indicate that the crime which the Orphic was attempting to expiate was either the ancient war of the Titans against the gods, for which they were exiled from heaven and imprisoned in Tartarus , or their rending and devouring of Dionysus Zagreus , or both. (In the Greek tradition, as West says, “The Titans are by definition the banished gods, the gods who have gone out of this world.”) The Egyptian texts may foreshadow the Greek myth of the Titans when they refer to a primal rebellion of one group of gods against another. “O ye gods of the underworld,” Osiris Ani says, “who set yourselves up against me, and who resist the mighty ones …” Again, he says: Hail, Thoth ! What is it that hath happened unto the holy children of Nut ? They have done battle, they have upheld strife, they have done evil, they have created the fiends, they have made slaughter, they have caused trouble; in truth, in all their doings the mighty have worked against the weak …I am not one of those who work iniquity in their secret places; let not evil happen unto me. The children of Nut include Osiris, Horus , Set , Isis , and Nephthys . When Ani claimed “before Isis I was,” he was dissociating himself from this contentious generation of deities in which the primal murder of Osiris by Set occurred, and claiming to have been one among the earlier generation, the “gods of the first time.” But there are also suggestions that the crime might be Set’s dismemberment of Osiris, whom Ani, in his role as Horus, avenger of his father, has to reconstitute to make reparation. Ani, in other words, might be expiating either or both of the Egyptian versions of the crimes of the Titans, and part of his strategy in doing so is to claim that he belongs to the earlier generation of gods ( pp.131-133).

So the crime of murderous rebellion or bearing a false oath became inattentiveness to the Buddha’s teachings in Journey to the West . And the gods of ancient Greece and Egypt became a son of Buddha punished to ten reincarnations as a mortal, his last one as a holy monk. This final point mirrors the concept of the last incarnation being a grand one as a king or holy person.

How these beliefs or related proto-beliefs came to China is unknown to me. If pressed, I would venture it involved some Buddhist text containing an ancient Indian arm of this philosophy.

II. Connection to the other pilgrims

I can’t pass up the opportunity to mention how this also relates to the other pilgrims, who are portrayed as former gods exiled from heaven for some offense. In place of several rounds of reincarnation, they are (among other punishments) forced to serve as Tripitaka’s guardians, protecting him from leagues of demons wanting to jump ahead in the cosmic hierarchy by eating the monk’s flesh and gaining immortality. Marshal Tianpeng (Zhu Bajie) is banished for drunkenly forcing himself on the Moon goddess and reborn as a grotesque pig spirit (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 212) (fig. 2). The Curtain-Raising General ( Sha Wujing ) is banished for breaking a treasure cup at a heavenly banquet and reborn as a monstrous water spirit plagued by a magic sword that stabs at him weekly (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 209-210). [1] The dragon prince, son of the Western Sea Dragon King Aorun , is banished for burning a heavenly pearl (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 213-214), but in place of execution, he agrees to transform into a dragon horse (a kind of rebirth) and serve as Tripitaka’s mount (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 328). And even Sun Wukong is banished for his rebellion (the divine crime mentioned above) and punished to imprisonment under Five Elements Mountain . It’s interesting to note that one scholar suggests this punishment represents a symbolic death, leading to his eventual reincarnation (see Shao, 1997 ). (I’d like to add Sun’s additional punishment of eating a hellish diet of molten copper and hot iron balls speaks to a transitional period of afterlife punishment.) And once the pilgrims complete their penance (i.e. the journey), all are welcomed back into heaven, in this case the Buddha’s paradise .

Fig. 2 – A Taiwanese stamp featuring Zhu Bajie and the moon goddess.

III. Archive

Click to access Thomas-McEvilley-The-Shape-of-Ancient-Thought_-Comparative-Studies-in-Greek-and-Indian-Philosophies-Motilal-Banarsidass-2008.pdf

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This has been uploaded for educational purposes. No malicious copyright infringement is intended. Please support the official release.

Update : 04-05-22

I’ve archived a paper suggesting that Sun Wukong and Erlang’s magic battle of transformations was influenced by ancient Greek (and by extension Near Eastern) stories.

Archive #36 – Sun Wukong and Battles of Magical Transformations

Update : 02-16-24

I’ve written an article recording other examples of Buddhist deities from Chinese fiction being exiled from heaven much like those in Greek philosophy.

1) It could be argued that Zhu and Sha do not reincarnate but simply take on monstrous forms upon being banished to earth because they still retain their memories, weapons, and magical skills. But maybe, as immortals, they are able to affect their own rebirth by directing the final destination of their primal spirit, thereby bypassing the normal mode of reincarnation that results in the loss of memory. An example of this is the rogue immortal Huaguang (華光) from Journey to the South ( Nanyouji , 南遊記, 17th-c.), who is reborn several times and still has memories of his past and access to his holy weapons.

McEvilley, T. (2002). The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies. New York : Allworth.

Shao, P. (1997). Monkey and Chinese Scriptural Tradition: A Rereading of the Novel Xiyouji (UMI No. 9818173) [Doctoral dissertation, Washington University]. Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vols. 1-4) (Rev. ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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The Modern Novel

The world-wide literary novel from early 20th century onwards, ajvaz: journey to the south.

Home » Czech Republic » Michal Ajvaz » Cesta na jih (Journey to the South)

Michal Ajvaz:Cesta na jih (Journey to the South)

Any novel that more or less starts with a ballet version of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and where one of the dancers, playing the role of Das Ding an sich (Thing-in-itself) , murders an audience member and where this is perhaps one of the least strange parts of the book, is definitely my kind of book.

The book actually starts in Loutro, a small resort in South-west Crete where we meet the unnamed narrator. He sees a fellow Czech reading Sinbad the Sailor and this, like many other events in the book is relevant, even though its relevance is not immediately apparent. He also notices that the man has has several other books including a James Bond novel, a Sherlock Holmes novel, a book by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , an Italian Renaissance philosopher and the aforementioned Critique of Pure Reason in the original German. All will turn out to be relevant to the story.

Our narrator tends to avoid fellow Czechs when abroad but he is curious about the man and his books and they start talking. The man – Martin – proceeds to tell our narrator his story and a hell of a story it is. Martin starts by saying that he had intended only a one day journey from Prague to Bratislava but, for various reasons, as we shall see, he had travelled all over Europe moving further South each time, till he ended up in Loutro. His story is very long and he will recount it over several days and it includes not just his story but several stories within stories within stories.

He is currently writing a thesis on the Critique of Pure Reason and had noticed an ad for a ballet of it so was naturally curious and bought a ticket. He had a vague idea of what was going on but imagined most of the audience would not. Suddenly the dancer dancing the Thing-In-Itself pulls out a gun and fires it. Was this part of the ballet? Apparently not, as an audience member was now dead. Everyone hurries to find the assailant but they have disappeared. The victim was Petr Quas, who was on the board of the Phoenix Finance Group. The author of the ballet was Tomas Kantor who had been murdered in Turkey in July or August 2006. We will soon discover that Kantor and Quas were stepbrothers. Other mysterious murders had also taken place in recent weeks.

During the investigation Martin will meet Kristyna who is a student at the university where he is studying . She had been the lover of Kantor but he had suddenly left her for another woman (we will find out why later in the book). Tomas worked as a dispatcher for the city trams. Kristyna had never met Quas as the two stepbrothers were not close. Tomas had written a long novel called Damp Walls (just a bit longer than this book). Tomas’ father had wanted to be a writer but focussed more on being a successful writer than the actual writing. He sees the same thing in his son. Tomas goes through various genres – he tries painting, poetry and music, all to no avail and ends up as a tram dispatcher, before writing his book.

Petr, however, influenced by his stepbrother becomes a poet, moves to writing lyrics for pop singers and ends up as a successful entrepreneur. Tomas, meanwhile, is dispatching, reading and wandering round the city. He wants to write a book that was nothing but endless descriptive details of city streets or country roads that ran between fields and he starts to write a book set in the imaginary city of Parca. And this is where the fun really starts.

A good part of the book is about the Lygdian revival. The Lygds were an old culture in that country that had had revivals throughout history and now has another one in the present. We follow Marius, a university professor but who resembles Tomas to some degree. (The book is full full of people in one story who resemble those in another story, events in one story that resemble events in another and so on). He has a strange love affair with Rita as Tomas does with Kristyna. Tomas had been writing this while he was off work for health reasons He realised how little he was interested in the thoughts of those who didn’t drink from the same well of emptiness as he. This theme, that ideas come from a void, also recurs throughout the book.

Tomas continues the book later and its gets stranger and stranger, not least because we meet Rita’s grandparents, Hector and Hella and Hector has invented a story to tell Hella when she was unwell and we get that long and complicated story as well. This one is set in North Floriana, a country in a certain amount of turmoil and includes the story of a novel called The Captive and we get the plot of that novel which is, of course very complicated and involves daemons, robots and robot hunters and a woman who reads her novel to one of the other characters as well as a ballet based on Critique of Pure Reason .

All this might sound tedious in the explanation but the works of fiction we learn about as well as their genesis are amazingly creative and original and well worth reading, even if you do get a bit lost at times. We of course move back through the novels where the wild imagination continues. Finally we are back at Tomas and Kristyna where we learn Tomas’ novel was not published because of a question Kristyna put to him. Because of that question, Tomas left her for another woman, and later died in Turkey . Tomas has plans to completely rewrite the book. No other book was about emptiness and nothingness only, even those in which the words emptiness and nothingness appeared on every page. All those other books had something to say . So Tomas wants to produce other works out of his book in a variety of genres. The Kant ballet is one example but not the only one as we see later.

We now move to what happened to Tomas. Martin, who has now fallen for Kristyna, and Kristyna find various clues that lead them on a wild gioose chase through Europe, travelling further South each time and getting involved with the Kabbalah and, as Martin points out, an ant mystic, statues of statues, a shootout in snowy Moscow, a student committing suicide at the Grand Canyon, a Florentine Neo-Platonist, a wryneck , a Chaldean incantation, the Kabbalah, the CIA, a comic-book bad guy, universal harmony, and now this gummy candy . He gives us another list later on: some guy called Tomas Kantor, rebuses and other puzzles, Italian gelatin candy, a suspicious Swiss company director, Renaissance magic, or the yacht of a Cretan rich man I didn’t know from Adam . And, as Martin asks himself, is the point of the journey really just to get closer to the Mediterranean? Is it to get closer to Kristyna?

As mentioned Martin and Krystina move from country to country, often on a whim, meaning that they find, often completely by chance, some seemingly trivial clue to what might have happened to Tomas and immediately head off to their next destination. Each time they are about to give up, one of them, usually though not always Kristyna, urges the other to head to the next destination where they might find the clue. You will not be surprised to know that they end up in Gavdos , the southernmost part of Europe.

I can only say that this is a most amazing and wonderfully original book. It contain four novels – Tomas’ Bare Walls , Hector’s story about Marius and Rita, The Captive as well as Martin’s account of his and Kristyna’s travels through Europe. The first three we see only in (extensive) summary, though with some excerpts and are told in different ways. The main story is narrated by Martin, while with Tomas’ story we get a summary of the book, which almost no-one else has read. Hector tells his story to his sick wife and she tells it to Marius while The Captive is actually written in wire. No, that it not a typo. It is written in wire. Each book on its own is brilliantly original but combined they make for a masterpiece.

The 1001 Nights and the Odyssey are clearly just two of the numerous influences on this book but a book featuring a Kabbalistic comic, a ballet of a serious philosophical work, a mysterious painting which luminous worms may have helped create, a variety of cryptic codes, science fiction, including robots, daemons and the end of the world (yes, it’s coming), a strange film, about a man who, among other things, discovered sweat glands, entoptic images , a tour of several European towns and cities, creative gummy sweets and a whole load more, clearly has spread its net far and wide.

I can only heartily recommend this book and thank Dalkey Archive Press and translator Andrew Oakland for bringing it to us in English.

Publishing history

First published by Druhé město in 2008 First published in English by Dalkey Archive Press in 2023 Translated by Andrew Oakland

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The Journey to the South Pole

By Google Arts & Culture

The story of the first expedition to reach the southernmost spot on our planet A frozen expanse of white as far as the eye can see, where white sky meets the white horizon. It's bitterly cold, with temperatures reaching -89.2˚ C (-128.6˚ F), and freezing winds reaching up to 320 km/h (200 mph). Welcome to the most remote place on our planet: Antarctica.

Antarctica (1964-11) by Michael Rougier LIFE Photo Collection

The underside of our world has fascinated us for centuries. Over the first few hundred years of Antarctic exploration, scientists, explorers and artists alike had one goal in mind: reaching the South Pole. 2019 marks the 107th anniversary of the first expedition to reach the southernmost point of our globe. Follow in their footsteps and discover the history of daring discoveries to the farthest and most inhospitable place on our planet...

Nova totius terrarum orbis geographica ac hydrographica tabula, Claes Jansz Visscher, Amsterdam, 1652 (1652) by Claes Jansz Visscher State Library of New South Wales

Mapping the unmappable

Polus Antarcticus (c1657) by Henrik Hondius State Library of New South Wales

Polus Antarcticus was first issued in 1637 by Hendricus Hondius. It is the earliest map to focus entirely on the Antarctic continent, which is illustrated by a chain of islands and partly by a series of lines. The original cartouche has been removed to make way for land newly discovered. Antarctica was finally on the map!

A map of the southern hemi-sphere shewing the discoveries made in the Southern Ocean up to 1770, 1772 (1772) by James Cook State Library of New South Wales

Sneaking off in the name of science

Portrait of Captain James Cook RN Portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A. National Portrait Gallery

In late 1772, Cook came upon his first iceberg in the HMS Resolution and in January 1773, he made the first ever crossing of the Antarctic Circle. However, the thick ice pack forced the ships northward. Without knowing it, Cook came within 129 kilometres of the Antarctic coast!

Ice islands, William Hodges (1772-1775) by William Hodges State Library of New South Wales

During the next two years Cook spent the southern winters in the more temperate latitudes of the Pacific. In the summers he again turned south and continued his eastward voyage around the southern continent. Towards the end of February 1775 he completed the first circumnavigation of Antarctica, proving that it was neither as large or habitable as once thought. English painter William Hodges accompanied Cook on his second voyage and completed a number of sketches and paintings of locations visited on the voyage, which we can see here...

Seal hunting on the ice, Little Whale River, QC (About / vers 1870) by James Laurence Cotter McCord Stewart Museum

The Uphill Battle to the Bottom of the World

The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

Amundsen "Fram" LIFE Photo Collection

The (Other) Space Race

LIFE Photo Collection

Meet Robert Falcon Scott...

A Cavern in an Iceberg; Scott's Last Expedition, The British Antarctic Expedition (1910 (photographed) - 1910) by Ponting, Herbert George The Victoria and Albert Museum

British Royal Navy officer, Richard Falcon Scott left Britain on June 15, 1910 aboard his ship, Terra Nova. The expedition set off from their base the following October, with Siberian ponies, motorized sledges, and dogs.

But they were struck by bad conditions - and some bad luck - from the beginning. First, they were hit by a storm leaving Australia and had to lose tons of coal, gallons of petrol and some of the expeditions animals.

An ice ravine (1911-1914) by Frank Hurley State Library of New South Wales

Once in Antarctica, the remaining tough Siberian ponies and mechanical sledges couldn’t cope with the challenging weather conditions and difficult terrain. While setting up their base camps, Scott risked his own life to rescue a dog team that had fallen into a crevasse. Several of the ponies collapsed and, with only a few remaining, the surviving ponies became caught on breaking ice. Scott’s team attempted a rescue but only two ponies returned alive. In December, the dog teams turned back and by January only five men were left: Scott, Bowers, Oates, Wilson and Evans.

Meet Roald Amundsen...

While Scott’s team struggled on the ice, a daring Norwegian explorer by the name of Roald Amundsen was making his own dash to the Pole. Amundsen’s team arrived on the ‘Great Ice Barrier’ on January 14, 1911. Eschewing mechanical sledges and ponies for skis and dog sleds, Amundsen’s small team had set out on September 8, 1911, but had to turn back due to extreme weather conditions. But Amundsen was smart: as his dogs collapsed in the extreme cold, Amundsen used them as a source for fresh meat.

Amundsen decided to forge his own path; he believed that there were other routes to the Polar Plateau, instead ascending via the Axel Heiberg Glacier.

So who won? On January 17, 1912, Scott’s team reached the South Pole… only to find that Amundsen's party had beaten them to it by just 34 days. Victory for Amundsen and the Norwegian team!

But that wouldn’t be the last problem that Scott's expedition would face…

Tragedy on the Ice

Exp Anta Scott Last Expidition 1910-1912 Ship The "Terra Nova" LIFE Photo Collection

A few weeks into the return journey of Scott's team, Edgar Evans was struck by severe frostbite. They faced terrible weather, and couldn't locate their depot. As they descended the Beardmore Glacier, Evans collapsed and died. The team reached the spot at which they were supposed to meet up with the dog teams - but they were nowhere to be found. They were abandoned by their teammates, with temperatures dropping every day and, to make matters worse, Oates was now suffering from frostbite in his left leg, slowing the team down even further.

A blizzard by Frank Hurley State Library of New South Wales

On March 16, Oates said "I am just going outside and may be some time", and walked out into the blizzard to his death... Oates' suicide increased the team's speed but was still not enough to save them. On March 29th, Scott wrote his last diary entry: "Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. Scott Last entry For God's sake look after our people."

They were only 11 miles (18 km) away from their depot.

But Amundsen's story is not without its own tragedy. In June 1928, while taking part in a rescue mission for the Airship Italia in the Arctic, the plane he was in disappeared. No trace of it has ever been recovered...

The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was later named after these two intrepid explorers.

Excavating fossils by Brandon R. Peecook The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture

Contemporary Science

A meteorite from Antarctica (2013-01-28) by Photo: Vinciane Debaille (ULB) Institute of Natural Sciences (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)

The conditions in Antarctica are particularly good for finding meteorites. Here we can see a scientist unearthing a huge meteorite. During the austral summer of 2012-2013, a Belgian-Japanese team collected no less than 425 meteorites on the Nansen Ice Field in Antarctica. Discovered on 28 January 2013, this 18kg specimen is, according to Belgian researchers, the largest meteorite found in East Antarctica for 25 years, and the fifth largest of more than 16,000 meteorites found in this part of Antarctica!

Color image of Mars from Viking Orbiter 1 (1976-06-18) The Viking Mars Missions Education and Preservation Project

The Final Frontier?

Who knows where our exploration will take us next!

Text from Natural History Museum London, World Monuments Fund, Museum of Natural Sciences (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences), and State Library of New South Wales.

Notman, creator of the first halftone

Mccord stewart museum, australia: sport and identity, national portrait gallery, ann west's patchwork, the victoria and albert museum, our 250 years of natural sciences, institute of natural sciences (royal belgian institute of natural sciences), the viking mars mission, the viking mars missions education and preservation project, antarctica before dinosaurs, the burke museum of natural history and culture, first fleet, state library of new south wales, cricket & australian identity, balenciaga: master craftsman, the bernissart iguanodons, life interrupted: from civilian to soldier.

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Journey to the South: A Calabrian Homecoming

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Journey to the South: A Calabrian Homecoming Paperback – January 1, 2005

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Print length 400 pages
Language English
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publication date January 1, 2005
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books Ltd (January 1, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014101752X
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All South Africans must be part of journey to freedom, says Cyril Ramaphosa

The president was writing after sa marked the 30th anniversary of the first democratic elections this past weekend.

The task of national reconciliation embarked on in 1994 was as much about liberating white South Africans from the shackles of prejudice and fear as it was about freeing black South Africans from the indignity of apartheid.

This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, writing after the country’s celebrations of its 30th anniversary of the first democratic elections this past weekend.

In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa said April 27 1994 was the day that changed the country forever.

“It was the day on which the country turned its back on apartheid. Beyond the great wrong that was apartheid, it was a system designed to deny people their dignity. This national humiliation and degradation ranged from bureaucratic pettiness such as whites-only benches, restaurants and beaches to the brute force that saw families torn apart and forcibly moved from their houses and land.”

The president recalled how people were tortured, imprisoned, exiled and killed, with “separate development” resulting in underdevelopment for the majority.

“As President Nelson Mandela once said, in the system of apartheid both the oppressed and the oppressor are robbed of their humanity. That is why the task of national reconciliation we embarked on in 1994 was as much about liberating white South Africans from the shackles of prejudice and fear as it was about freeing black South Africans from the indignity of apartheid.

“As we continuously strive towards nationhood, it is critical that all South Africans, be they white, black, Indian or coloured, remain part of this journey.”

Ramaphosa said South Africans should remember this matter, particularly during times of difficulty, when the temptation arises to retreat into laagers of ethnicity and race.

Democracy’s children

Despite the many challenges our country continues to experience, including the crisis of unemployment, the president said South Africans are pioneering, resourceful and resilient, often in the face of great odds.

“Young South Africans, our nation’s future, are making their mark in the workplace, in arts, culture and music, in academia, in the high-growth tech and IT sectors, and in serving their communities,” he wrote

Ramaphosa also described them as politically astute and civically engaged, with 77% of new voters registered in preparation for the forthcoming elections being young people under the age of 29.

Ramaphosa said his gratitude is knowing they will never have to endure the humility and indignity of previous generations, of being forced to sit on separate park benches, dispossessed of their land, denied opportunities for advancement and of being pariahs in the land of their birth.

“In this Freedom Month, when we collectively reflect on how far we have come in building a new nation, we know we are not as far as we had hoped to be. While we have done much to undo the devastating legacy of apartheid, we have confronted other challenges from beyond our borders, such as the global financial crisis, and here at home,” Ramaphosa wrote.

“We maintain our resolve to move forward with optimism. We have come a long, long way. We are determined to go further to achieve the free, just and equal SA for which millions voted on Freedom Day 30 years ago.”

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Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.

Reflections on Three Decades: South Africa's Post-Apartheid Journey

I t's been thirty years since Nelson Mandela was elected as the first democratic president of the Republic of South Africa. There was a great promise of equal opportunities for all. But today, the country is facing numerous problems.

South Africa (SA) fell into euphoria after the first free elections in 1994. People waited for hours to vote. The spirit of optimism accompanied Nelson Mandela, who was elected president after 27 years of imprisonment. The African National Congress (ANC), Mandela's political party and former anti-apartheid movement, still governs todayHowever, looking at the past three decades in the "land of hope," the balance of that governance is not exactly impressive.

The economy is in a poor state, society is divided, and people feel that politics doesn't concern them much. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Ironically, bridging this gap and ensuring equal opportunities for all was the main promise when South African blacks took power three decades ago.

Today, there's deep frustration over the betrayal of this dream. But there have been significant achievements. Fredson Gilenži, program director at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Johannesburg, highlights several: "We managed to introduce one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, establish independent judiciary, achieve press freedom, and create conditions for free and fair elections." In a conversation with DW , he mentions LGBTQ rights, expanded education, and better access to electricity, housing, and social services for the poor.

Moreover, SA still has a strong civil society that loudly advocates for its rights. However, in recent years, the country has suffered from internal conflicts within the ANC. Power struggles and corrupt interests have repeatedly hindered the country.

According to Gilenži, the fact that nearly every second person under 34 is unemployed further fuels social instability. This intensifies the feeling that foreigners are taking the few available jobs from locals. The ruling party has been losing trust over the years.

The ANC could fall below the absolute majority of 50% of votes in the May elections – where President Cyril Ramaphosa is running for a second term. According to economic analyst Daniel Zilke, there's deep disappointment over the liberation party's inability.

It "fails to maintain the ethical standards that Nelson Mandela especially set," Zilke tells DW . "They've abandoned the efforts to unite people into one nation that were particularly noticeable in Mandela's early years," says Zilke.

The country entered its most serious crisis under the leadership of Jacob Zuma, who ruled from 2009 until his removal in 2018.

During his tenure, through plunder and with the help of a wide corruption network, he brought the state to the brink of bankruptcy. SA hasn't recovered from this. In fact, nepotism persists to this day, emphasizes Zilke. Infrastructure collapse with a stagnant economy is a daily reminder of the decline of what was once Africa's richest industrial country.

"There's a lot of discontent among the population," says Zilke.

Deep Scars from the Apartheid Era

Critics also question whether three decades are enough to eliminate the legacy of deep colonialism and apartheid. Vern Harris, executive director of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, sees society in great difficulty.

The bar was set high. "Some young people say Mandela was a traitor," says Harris, referring to Mandela's promises of a better life in a united country. "We have to ask ourselves why we haven't done better." In the early 90s, everyone was aware that it would take several generations to heal society and anchor democracy in it.

"We were quickly deluded that we could solve things in a short time," says Harris. "In some cases, this led to quick fixes that didn't serve us well." On the international stage, SA seems to want to position itself – especially after its experience with apartheid – as a leading fighter against oppression globally, says Gilenži.

As a result, the country leads peace initiatives, sends troops to countries in the region, and goes before international courts. In late December, South Africa accused Israel of violating the Genocide Convention during the Gaza war before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The country has realized that its traditional partnership with the West is unbalanced and needs to change. "For this reason, South Africa advocates for reforms in the UN Security Council and is a member of BRICS, which claims to fight for fair rules and economic partnerships," says Gilenži. "We may become a more active South Africa in the future both in Africa and globally," DW reports.

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Inside Spencer Rattler's tumultuous journey to the NFL draft

Check out some of the top highlights from South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler. (0:53)

Staff Writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine
Joined ESPN The Magazine after graduating from Penn State University.
Covers college football and college basketball.

SPENCER RATTLER IS not done yet. He's closing in on an hour for this afternoon's throwing session, but he's just sniffed out a challenge. The road to the NFL draft is a slog -- the self-seriousness of the combine, the forensic analysis of testing numbers, the sheer quantity of questions asked and answered, then asked and answered again. (The Patriots grilled him, he says in between passing drills.) But for this one moment in late March, one month before some team in the NFL calls his name early in the draft -- or not; he's one of the draft's most intriguing riddles -- Rattler's just a kid with a ball and the chance to one-up his buddy. He tells Mike Giovando, his longtime personal coach and the man at the helm of today's training, he's not ready to call it quits right now.

"I think my arm's got one more," he yells out.

He and Jalen Daniels, who spent time at South Carolina and is one of his training partners for the day, have been heaving long balls down the sideline, trying -- and so far failing -- to overthrow the speedy wide receiver Giovando has enlisted for today's prep work. "He's like Flash Gordon!" Giovando raves.

Daniels has just given it his best, but the receiver screams out a taunt from far downfield: "I had to slow down to catch it!"

Rattler, as he often does, has thoughts: "Watch this," he says jokingly to Daniels. "Let me show you how to throw it to a fast guy."

On cue, Shawn Charles, said fast guy, streaks down the right sideline. He's a blur, like when the road, from a distance, goes wavy on a hot day. Rattler plants his right foot square on the 20-yard line, dances for a few steps, then launches one last moon shot.

The throw is hardly out of his hands before Giovando hollers his approval. "That's it, right there!" The rest of the group -- Daniels; an old teammate of Rattler's from his high school days in Phoenix; and a hotshot quarterback in the Phoenix prep scene -- lets out a collective gasp. This particular moon shot is easily 65 yards (70? 75? It all seems plausible) and Charles catches it over his shoulder, in the nick of time.

"He had to accelerate," Giovando says, laughing, giddy from Rattler's arm strength. The preposterousness of it. "He had to accelerate to it!"

Rattler is 23 years old, and it feels like he's been a part of the public discourse for just as long. In that time, he's been: the prodigy; the punk; the Heisman favorite; the flameout; the presumptive No. 1 NFL draft pick; the draft's dead-man-walking; the comeback hero. But it's this, right here -- sublime, tantalizing arm talent -- that keeps people coming back for more. It is tough to quit Spencer Rattler, even when it's not quite clear who Spencer Rattler is. Or who he'll be next.

IN THE SHADOW of some rolling Arizona mountains, Rattler ponders the climb before him.

He's worked out with teams (Falcons, Broncos) and interviewed with teams (Seahawks, Patriots) and trotted out his best sales pitch for why all these prospective employers ought to hire him. But here, miles away on a high school football field in Scottsdale, it's Denver that gnaws at him. He's tossing a football to himself, waiting for the day's throwing session to get in full swing, daydreaming aloud.

If Caleb Williams , Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye are this draft's holy triumvirate of passers, with J.J. McCarthy right on their heels, Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. are the quarterbacks most often coupled with Rattler. The next-best tier. The could-be-a-starter-one-day tier.

"They're not getting you in the third," Giovando says.

The Broncos, who are in the quarterback market this draft, have the 12th overall pick but none in the second round, so they're all dabbling in a bit of NFL draft game theory at the moment.

"Hope not," Rattler says.

Three years ago, a conversation like this would've been unfathomable. The notion of Spencer Rattler trying to separate himself from the pack? At odds with logic. He was the pack. Lincoln Riley had assembled a revolving door of Heisman quarterbacks at Oklahoma -- Baker Mayfield (winner), Kyler Murray (winner), Jalen Hurts (finalist). Rattler was the next man up, except he'd be homegrown in Norman, not a transfer finishing out his college football string there, like his three predecessors. In the early days of Rattler's recruitment, when Giovando first got on the phone with Riley, he told the Oklahoma coach at the time: "This guy is going to be like those guys."

"This kid's special," Riley concurred. "I see it."

He was both technician and showman, practically from the moment his father, Mike, realized his 2-year-old could skillfully throw and catch a Nerf football. "I would just look and go, 'Wow, that's not normal,'" he says. "And so then I knew, 'OK, we got something going on here.'"

Rattler, the technician, perfected his back shoulder throw as an eighth-grader, according to his high school coach, Dana Zupke, which is hard enough to do as an NFL quarterback, let alone a middle-schooler still clumsy in a growing body. Rattler the showman could park himself at the 50-yard line, and sitting on the field cross-legged, throw the ball 60 yards and straight through the goalposts.

The technician: In ninth grade, he'd go to his high school field to throw alongside NFL hopefuls prepping for the combine; a nearby training facility would often have their college kids use Pinnacle High's field. One time a college coach came over to marvel to Zupke: "Well, the best quarterback out here is your freshman."

The showman: A few years later, he stood at the top of Tempe Butte -- a literal mountain -- on Arizona State's campus, then fired footballs toward a trash can some 1,500 feet away and below, just because he thought he could. He nailed it on his eighth try.

Those who witnessed his feats say he'd preface them with a verbal wink. Watch this.

And we have. We were glued to the Spencer Rattler Experience, first for the come-up, and then when everything suddenly cratered. The only thing the masses love more than a conquering hero is to watch that hero's downfall.

FOR A SPELL , Rattler's story unfolded exactly as designed.

By the time he played his redshirt freshman season at Oklahoma -- a COVID-shortened one in 2020 -- he earned a 92.6 grade from Pro Football Focus. Only Mac Jones, Zach Wilson and Justin Fields, all top 15 quarterbacks in the 2021 draft, bested him, and the talk (and betting odds) turned loftier, inevitable. Rattler was at once the face of college football and the sport's most formidable marketing power. The Heisman favorite. The presumptive No. 1 draft pick.

Then, in less than one year, he was not.

He was decidedly tolerable to start the 2021 season -- a decent haul for touchdowns (10), probably a few too many turnovers (five interceptions) -- but the offense looked disjointed and the team was winning tight games that didn't need to be tight at all. Rattler wasn't lighting the world on fire, but there was a quarterback waiting just behind him who might. Midseason and still undefeated, he was cast aside just before halftime of the Texas game for Williams, who'd go on to capture everything that once seemed preordained for Rattler. A Heisman (at USC, where Williams followed Riley after the 2021 season). The top overall draft pick, too (barring some sort of shift in the tectonic plates, Williams will be called first next week).

In short order, he faded to college football afterthought, relegated to national punching-bag status (Oklahoma fans once chanted midgame for Williams to take Rattler's job), the transfer portal and the long, chastening road to starting over.

It was a dizzying paradigm shift. But for all that cratering going on around him, Rattler, himself, did not.

Just before the Texas game and the benching that ensued, his mother, Susan, was diagnosed with cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and was declared cancer-free, and when Rattler thinks about that time, he is clear on which battles were real. "That's real-life adversity," he says. "Having to push through that."

He kept pushing through in football because Susan wanted him to, but he did so with a new kind of clarity. His father wanted to yank him out of OU the second he was benched; Rattler chose instead to ride out the year as a second-stringer before seeking a new homebase. The narrative imploded -- Spencer Rattler, QB1 since the time he first held a football -- but the story Rattler told himself did not. He was still a starter. Still a star. He was just someplace else's starter; someone else's star. It was simply a question of finding where, and for whom, he could "kill it."

"I'm built different," he says, explaining how he could lose his job but not his sure-footing. "I truly feel like that."

He thinks of his bottoming out as something of a résumé-padder, instead. He had to learn three offenses (two of which were pro-style) at his two stops, and that counts for something. He was demoted and humbled in excruciatingly public ways. But he survived. Thrived, he'd tell you.

"I wouldn't change a thing," he says. "I wouldn't change a thing because I'm more ready than ever because of the things I've had to go through."

It helps, of course, that he started over -- and started games again -- for two years at South Carolina, where he, by and large, helped to revive the Spencer Rattler brand. He reestablished his credentials -- by 2023, he was ninth among FBS quarterbacks with a 79.4% adjusted completion rate, per PFF. And at times, as he foretold, he flashed an undeniable ability to kill it. See: the November 2022 game against Tennessee, when he threw for six touchdowns and dispatched the Volunteers who, at the time, were ranked fifth in the country and generally looked like world-beaters.

South Carolina had never had a former No. 1 quarterback recruit -- even a bruised and battered one -- to call its own. Rattler had had masses fawning over him before, but he had lost them too, and it was a relief to feel valued again. To feel liked again, at all. At his throwing session, he pulls up to the parking lot next to the field in his G-Wagon that showcases a decal of the South Carolina emblem -- a palmetto tree beneath a crescent moon. He steps out wearing a black T-shirt with the faces of Gamecocks legends -- Jadeveon Clowney, Marcus Lattimore, Stephon Gilmore. Beneath that tee, he sports a Block C tattoo on his left arm, for the university that reclaimed him and that let him reclaim his place in the football world order. A different place, maybe a less exalted one than he once envisioned. But a place all the same.

"I've had a lot of NFL people tell me this. That's one of the reasons they're buying stock in Spencer Rattler," says Jim Nagy, who oversees the Reese's Senior Bowl, college football's de facto all-star game and unofficial kickoff to the draft process.

"He has come out the other side."

RATTLER'S YOUTH COACH loves to tell this one story.

Matt Frazier was unnerved, paralyzed over what play to call with six seconds left in the state championship game and his team, the Firebirds, down by five points. He called a timeout, visited the huddle -- coaches were allowed in the huddle for kids that age; 9- and 10-year-olds -- and looked at his quarterback. "Spence," he said. "I want to run quarterback counter."

They'd never run the play before, but Rattler looked at Frazier -- Frazier swears this part is true -- and promised him: "I got this, Coach."

He did, in fact, have it. Rattler scored; the Firebirds won by a point.

The long span of Rattler's career is littered with intoxicating anecdotes where he's got this . Gauzy memories of telling his coaches, or his teammates, or strangers on the street to watch this . Take eighth grade: He'd regularly throw a pass and before the ball even got to its intended target, he'd throw up his hands. "Touchdown," he'd say. And it would be.

"That was really the time that I got to see firsthand the moxie," Zupke says. "OK, this kid knows he's good. He lets everybody know he's good. But he backs it up every time."

Rattler is filled to bursting with moxie, Zupke will tell you. Or swagger, his friends will say. Or confidence, his father will offer. And because we've been exposed to him for so long, the perception of that moxie (or swagger, or confidence) has soured into something more distasteful. Arrogance. Worse, maybe. Entitlement.

He keeps a tight circle, but those inside it offer their theory of the case, and a culprit: "QB1: Beyond the Lights," Season 3. Rattler spent his senior year of high school at Pinnacle trailed by cameras in service of the Netflix show; he was cast as the villain, and so the villain he became, to legions of people he didn't know but who thought they knew him.

He had big dreams and was loud about them -- "two Heismans," he crowed in one episode. In another, he pointed fingers at his No. 2 quarterback, but never himself, according to that quarterback. Was he being deliberately over the top? Was it just two quarterbacks and friends bickering? It was simpler, more satisfying, to not ask those questions.

"Eyes were always on him," Zupke says. And they weren't just watching, he goes on. They were searching for proof of his divahood or his dearth of team spirit or some sin not yet dreamt up.

"I was like everybody else," says Marcus Satterfield, Rattler's offensive coordinator for his first year in Columbia. "All I could envision was the Netflix documentary, and when I met him, he was totally the opposite. Not an a--hole. He was grateful. Considerate."

Austin Stogner started his college career at Oklahoma, transferred to South Carolina alongside Rattler, then repeatedly found himself on the receiving end of this conversation with their new teammates: He's ... awesome? I ... didn't think he would be like that?

Rattler has a mop of tightly coiled blond hair and a pair of diamond studs in both ears on any given day. A lot about him flashes, but his personality is best described quietly. He's kind, according to most everyone around him. Thoughtful, even, which is why he does things like beeline for a South Carolina freshman running back who picked up a blitz, just to pay his respects. "It's a little thing, but it's a big thing too," says Shane Beamer, his head coach at South Carolina. "We were 4-6 at that point. It's Game 11 and a hotshot NFL quarterback is going out of his way to lift that freshman up."

It is hard to hold two things at once sometimes. Rattler can be decent, and he can have outsized confidence. He can show love for an unheralded freshman running back and be a showman.

Back in his "QB1" days, the cameras settled on Rattler in the middle of a game. As he often did back then, he was hearing it extra from his opponents.

"I don't even know your name, bro," he told one such opponent. "You know mine."

That was a person who knew who he was. Knew you did too. And if you hated him for it, all the better because that hate gave him the chance to do what he loved.

"He likes to hush the crowd," his father says.

When he replays the tape of that moment, hears his own words all these years later, he doesn't grimace. That was a young version of himself, he says. He probably wouldn't say it again, but he's not ashamed of it, either.

Because he still knows who he is. And if the rest of us have forgotten or disagree or don't even register him at all, well, that's fine too. It's just another crowd he can hush; one more chance to make everyone tune in.

In the days before his pro day in Columbia, Rattler was at home in Phoenix and bumped into his old high school coach. "I got pro day coming up," Rattler told Zupke. "Man, I'm so fired up for it. I'm going to kill it."

SPENCER RATTLER HAS spent the months leading up to Thursday's draft proving why he has been impossible to quit.

At South Carolina's pro day, he zipped 65-yard moon shots again, this time for contingents from the Falcons and Broncos, the Panthers and Raiders. At the combine, he atoned for his 4.95 40-yard dash with a throwing exhibition where he showed his command of velocity and touch. And at the Senior Bowl, he spent the week racking up plaudits as the best quarterback of the week (Williams, Daniels, Maye and McCarthy were not in attendance; Nix, Penix, Sam Hartman and Michael Pratt were) and, eventually, the MVP.

"If he continues on this trajectory, I think you're going to really like what you get," says one NFL scout.

The question, of course, is who will get him, and when.

Nagy thinks there's a case to be made that some eight or nine quarterbacks from this class project to be starters in the NFL. Rattler sits squarely in those ranks, but he'll almost assuredly hear four of those quarterbacks' names called before his own. Maybe five. Perhaps six, or -- gasp -- seven. His highs are so high: Flashes of excellent pocket movement, a knack for making throws from any conceivable angle, that lightning-quick release and effortless delivery. But his lows can be so low: A tendency to take bad sacks, a propensity for interceptions, the uncanny ability, as Mel Kiper Jr. has said, to look like a first-rounder one game and a late-rounder the next. He can make teams at once squeamish and starry-eyed, all which makes his draft projection as clear as mud.

That's far from those dreamy days filled with top-draft-pick prognostications, but he is no draft afterthought, even after a fall from grace. That's not nothing.

For one: "It seems like every couple years, there's a guy that comes outside of the first round and ends up being a really good starter," Nagy says. "And I think Spencer's got a chance to be that guy."

For two: Rattler, as ever, is sure of what lies ahead for himself, even if -- especially if, if he's being honest -- not everyone else is too. Where would he draft himself?

"Shoot," he says, then smiles just a little. "First round."

He is settled in a lounge chair in the courtyard of his apartment building in Scottsdale. It's a sprawling complex that looks like it deserves its own zip code, but in his small patch of shade, he gets a brief respite. There has been so much noise these past few months. NFL teams asking questions and scouts projecting and talking heads talking. But for now, there is also quiet. Rattler takes a moment to consider all that distance, from where he started to where he thinks he'll go next..

"Sleep on me," he says. "For now."

He doesn't say it in this moment, but the idea is there, looming, ever present. Watch this.

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Inside Xavier Legette's Path to Becoming a Panther

The journey from being just a guy at South Carolina to becoming a first round pick.

Author: Schuyler Callihan

In this story:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Xavier Legette and the Carolina Panthers have been tied together since the early part of the draft process.

Their interest in the former Gamecock was the worst kept secret in the NFL... no, really. Legette even revealed in a pre-draft interview that the Panthers told him they would select him if he made it to their pick at the top of the second round. Head coach Dave Canales did his best to play it off, acting as if he was unsure of how to pronounce his last name and stated that he told about 50 other guys the same thing in regards to their interest. Well played, Dave. Well played.

Alright, alright… in Canales’ defense, we were all wrong on the pronunciation. Friday afternoon, Xavier cleared things up stating that it is ‘LEE-gette.’

Once Canales was able to speak freely about his admiration for the freakishly athletic wide receiver, he didn’t hold back.

“We loved him. I'm not going to sit here and lie about that for sure. But yeah, I meant what I said. There's a lot of guys that we were excited about at that area, at 33, even late in the first round. I think it was just really cool for me with my first experience really being in the draft room for the whole time to see the process, really to see his patience and just like working through, seeing the guys starting to come off the board and just saying, 'Not yet. Not yet.' And then in Dan Morgan fashion, there was daylight and he went, 'Bang.' And he hit the hole just like everyone has seen him do in his career. It was just amazing to see the patience of it and for it all come to us like this to get the guy that we love. For us, this whole process has been about, 'Let's get guys, not just great football players, but guys that really are us, are Panthers.' And so this is just a memorable one for sure for us that we won't ever forget.”

The focus for Carolina this offseason was to find reliable weapons for second-year quarterback Bryce Young. They needed speed, so they went out and traded for Diontae Johnson. They needed a big-body that could be a three level threat and moved up to snag Legette. He brings a unique skillset to the table that did not previously exist on the roster and Canales is already running through all the many different ways of how he can get him the ball.

“First of all, just the athletic traits. Just like height, weight, speed. 6'1,221, 4.39, really balanced hands. That's a pretty good start. Then you look at the versatile ways that the Gamecocks were able to use him out of the backfield, jet sweeps, short crossers, and perimeter screens, down the field post. There really isn't much else we do with receivers. He's done it all, in the past, coaches that I've been with have said how quickly can you make a cut-up of a player that does all the things you need. That's how you can really gravitate towards guys. Whether it's a quarterback making all the throws that you need to see. Whether it's a receiver running the different routes. Does he need polish? Absolutely. But to be able to see that on film gives you a lot of confidence and, it really helps me envision him fitting into our offense, so that stuff really just jumped off the tape.

“Our offense, the versatility of how we use our players just going back to last year in Tampa Bay, even before in Seattle. The versatility is huge for us. When you get a guy who can really run, a guy who can high point the ball, a guy that can carry it and you can give him the ball different ways, short, he just brings a lot of versatility. Now with that being said, he's got a long way to go. He's got to learn our stuff. He's got to figure out the system and find out how he fits into the whole thing, not just the pass game, but the run game as well. Just speaking to that, I think I'm just really excited to bring his talents to our offense. And at the same time, I'm sure he knows too, he's got a lot of work in front of him.

Although it wasn’t at 33, they still landed on the guy they’ve had their eyes on for several months, dating back to the Senior Bowl. Legette said he felt the interest was genuine from Carolina during that week in Birmingham where he met with the Panthers’ brass on several occasions.

“I could feel the love and the vibe coming from them. I knew if it wasn't them, I wasn't going to be sure, but I had a good feeling about them,” Legette said. “I was just waiting to hear my name called. Once they called me and told me that they were trading up for me there was a lot of joy and excitement.”

Going in the first round was never a sure thing for Legette, and really, never felt promising until the final week leading up to the draft. He spent the first four years of his career at South Carolina fighting just to get on the field and in his last go around, he made it count. In twelve games he recorded 71 receptions for 1,255 yards and seven touchdowns, catching the attention of teams across the league.

“A year ago, man, I wasn’t on anybody’s board. I never let that get to me. I just knew I had an extra year and it was a do-or-die season for me. I had to do it or go home,” Legette stated. “Through the process everybody been telling me and my agent had been telling me what my range was and I was just waiting on when my name was goin to be called.”

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Journey to the South (2022)
Journey to the South. (2022) "Journey to the South" or "Southern Journey: Three-Eyed God General" tells the story of Hua Guang who has been dependent on his mother since he was a child. Unexpectedly, one day a monster captures his mother, and Hua Guang is rescued by King Long Rui whom he follows to practice the fairy law.
Glenn Russell's review of Journey to the South
Journey to the South. by. Michal Ajvaz, Andrew Oakland (Translator) Glenn Russell 's review. Aug 11, 2023. bookshelves: favorite-books. The Greek island of Loutro, off the southern coast of Crete, serves as the location where a Czech named Martin sits at a restaurant by the sea and relates his tale to a fellow countryman who is also a lover of ...
Out of the never-ending flow of stories: Journey to the South by Michal
Journey to the South is, then, classic Ajvaz territory. Structurally he favours the mise-en-abîme, the story with a story framework (fittingly, "placed into the abyss"), and delights in cliché genre tropes like car chases, monsters, cartoon villains and more. Woven into this are philosophical, scientific and theoretical references, often ...
JourneySouthOfficial
The OFFICIAL Youtube channel for X Factor stars Journey South.
Journey South
Journey South are an English singing duo, consisting of brothers Andy and Carl Pemberton. They are from Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire. Initially the brothers lead a five piece rock band 'The Answer' featuring musicians from the North East of England. After various line-up changes the band moved from Teesside to Essex in July 2000 changing ...
Journey To The South
Watch Journey To The South Journey To The South online with subtitles in English. Introduction: The young Hua Guang and his mother Ziduo depend on each other on earth. One rainy night, Zituo was taken by a mysterious monster, the young Huaguang was saved by the celestial palace fairy, and told that the monster who caught his mother was the legendary demon king and ghost fire. In order to save ...
Journey to the South 2022 (China)
Plot Synopsis by DramaWiki Staff ©. "Journey to the South" or "Southern Journey: Three-Eyed God General" tells the story of Hua Guang who has been dependent on his mother since he was a child. Unexpectedly, one day a monster captures his mother, and Hua Guang is rescued by King Long Rui whom he follows to practice the fairy law.
Journey to the South
The second is Journey to the South (Nanyouji, 南遊記, c. 1570s-1580s). This is NOT a direct sequel to JTTW. It instead follows the adventures of a martial god from Chinese folk religion. However, Sun Wukong makes a guest appearance in chapters one and seventeen. Archive #40 - Journey to the South (Nanyouji) English Translation PDF
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about journey to the south Since our inception in 2014, we've been curating experiences that weave together the awe-inspiring landscapes, ancient customs, and genuine bliss of Bhutan. Journey to the South is dedicated to crafting unparalleled journeys, where every moment resonates with magic.
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott CVO (6 June 1868 - c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901-04 and the Terra Nova expedition of 1910-13.. On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole is ...
Four Journeys
Right: cover of novel Journey to the East. The Four Journeys ( Chinese: 四遊記; pinyin: Sì Yóujì) is a collection of four shenmo novels that were published during the Ming dynasty Wanli era, and they consist of Journey to the North, Journey to the South, Journey to the East, and Journey to the West . Journey to the North ( 北遊記) was ...
Journey South
Journey south singing let it be in the X-Factor 2005 live finalsTo find out more on what the boys are up to visit the official site at : www.journeysouth.co.uk
Journey to the South Pacific IMAX® Trailer
Watch the trailer for Journey to the South Pacific, an IMAX and MacGillivray Freeman documentary, narrated by Cate Blanchett. For more information visit http...
Journey to the South (Czech Literature)
Journey to the South (Czech Literature) Paperback - May 2, 2023 by Michal Ajvaz (Author), Andrew Oakland (Translator) 4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 1 rating
Journey to the South by Michal Ajvaz
Michal Ajvaz, Andrew Oakland (Translator) 4.05. 133 ratings19 reviews. In a small village on the southern coast of Crete, the narrator meets a young man who tells him a history of his journey which took him from Prague as far as to the Libyan sea. It is a voyage to uncover mysterious deaths of two brothers: one was murdered during the ballet ...
Ajvaz: Journey to the South
Michal Ajvaz:Cesta na jih (Journey to the South) Any novel that more or less starts with a ballet version of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and where one of the dancers, playing the role of Das Ding an sich (Thing-in-itself), murders an audience member and where this is perhaps one of the least strange parts of the book, is ...
The Journey to the South Pole
The Journey to the South Pole. By Google Arts & Culture. The story of the first expedition to reach the southernmost spot on our planet. A frozen expanse of white as far as the eye can see, where white sky meets the white horizon. It's bitterly cold, with temperatures reaching -89.2˚ C (-128.6˚ F), and freezing winds reaching up to 320 km/h ...
Journey to the South: A Calabrian Homecoming
Journey to the South: A Calabrian Homecoming. Paperback - January 1, 2005. by Annie Hawes (Author) 4.3 161 ratings. See all formats and editions. Ever since Annie got together with Ciccio, his Calabrian family have spoken of their homeland as an earthly paradise, of wild nights dancing the tarantella, of almond milk sold fresh from roadside ...
The Journey to the South Pole, Robert Falcon Scott
The Journey to the Pole. Over a period of twelve days in the Antarctic spring of 1911 from the 24th of October to the 4th of November, a team of sixteen men, twenty three dogs, ten ponies, thirteen sledges and two motor sledges set off with Scott to enable a party of four to be the first to reach the South Pole. Most of the team were there to help transport more food and provisions to enable ...
Milaysia Fulwiley's top plays from South Carolina's journey to the
Perennial highlight-maker Milaysia Fulwiley was instrumental to South Carolina's run to the Final Four in her freshman season.
Journey South- What I Love About Home (Help For Heroes) HD Official
Official video for Journey South's new single 'What I Love About Home (Help For Heroes)'. All profits from this track will go to Help For Heroes.The song get...
Amundsen's South Pole expedition
March to the pole. Upon reaching 10,600 feet (3,200 m) at the summit of the glacier, at 85° 36′ S, Amundsen prepared for the final stage of the journey. Of the 45 dogs who had made the ascent (7 had perished during the Barrier stage), only 18 would go forward; the remainder were to be killed for food.
All South Africans must be part of journey to freedom, says Cyril Ramaphosa
All South Africans must be part of journey to freedom, says Cyril Ramaphosa The president was writing after SA marked the 30th anniversary of the first democratic elections this past weekend.
South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams reflects on his journey ...
South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams was immortalised at the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year when he heroically saved four penalties against Cape Verde as Bafana Bafana won an epic ...
Reflections on Three Decades: South Africa's Post-Apartheid Journey
South Africa (SA) fell into euphoria after the first free elections in 1994. People waited for hours to vote. The spirit of optimism accompanied Nelson Mandela, who was elected president after 27 ...
Inside Spencer Rattler's tumultuous journey to the NFL draft
South Carolina had never had a former No. 1 quarterback recruit -- even a bruised and battered one -- to call its own. Rattler had had masses fawning over him before, but he had lost them too, and ...
Living and striving for human rights for all: 30 years of SA Democracy
South Africa's 30-year democratic journey is a powerful story; a tale woven with the threads sacrifice, dignity and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In this celebratory year of the country's own long walk to freedom, the UN Human Rights Regional Office for Southern Africa, spotlighted the profound connection between democracy and the UDHR with the #30for30 online campaign.
Inside Xavier Legette's Path to Becoming a Panther
The journey from being just a guy at South Carolina to becoming a first round pick. Author: Schuyler Callihan. Apr 26, 2024. In this story: Carolina Panthers. 2024 NFL Draft. Xavier Legette.
Voyage of the James Caird
Launching the James Caird from the shore of Elephant Island, 24 April 1916 The voyage of the James Caird was a journey of 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands through the Southern Ocean to South Georgia, undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions to obtain rescue for the main body of the stranded Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 ...