Sun Wukong and his junior brother Sha Wujing searched for a long time, but in front of a high mountain, they saw the little demon green face, and Sun Wukong shouted: "Where to go, the old grandson is here!" The bluffed green face rolled down the cliff valley, closed the door tightly after entering the cave, and shouted to the Nine Spirits Yuan Sheng: "Grandpa, there are two more monks outside." When the Nine Spirits Yuan Sage heard this, he asked the blue-faced little lion, "Have you ever been here, and you have been a lion, a snow lion, a fox fox, and an elephant?" ”

The blue-faced lion demon said: "No! Missing! Just two monks, looking out from a high place on the mountain peak. ”

When the Nine Spirits Yuansheng heard this, he bowed his head and was silent, half a sound, and suddenly shed tears, shouting: "Bitter! My yellow lion grandson is dead! The lion grandson and others were all caught by the monks and taken into the city. How can this hatred be repaid? ”

Then, the Nine Spirits Yuan Sage opened the city gate and walked out, and Sun Wukong and Sha Seng were just about to unfold their weapons and prepare to face the battle. After being bitten by his two doppelganger lion heads, he had no power to fight back, so he could only be captured.

However, the Nine Spirits Yuan Sage didn't mean to harm them. But after gently leaning into the hole, he shouted: "Rope come!

When the Nine Spirits Yuan Sage tied up Sun Wukong and Sha Seng. Then he said: "You monkey, you have captured my seven children and grandchildren, and I will take four of your monks and four princes today, which is enough to be worthy of the lives of my children and grandchildren. Let's beat this monkey head! Avenge the grievances with my yellow lion grandson. ”

Sun Wukong is naturally not afraid of fighting, at night, he got out with a spell, returned to the city, found the land and asked the origin of the nine lions, the land said: The old demon descended the bamboo mountain the year before last, and the Jiuqu Panhuan Cave was originally the den of the six lions, and the six lions, since the old demon has come here, they all worship as Zu Weng, Zu Weng is a nine-headed lion, for the nine spirit Yuan Sheng, if you want to subdue this demon. You have to go to the East Pole Miaoyan Palace, and invite his protagonist to come, so that he can be ambushed. Don't want to be caught.

It turns out that these nine lion spirits are the mounts of the Emperor Qinghua of the East Pole, who is the Emperor of the East Pole Qinghua, many people think that it is the master of Nezha in the gods, Taiyi Zhenren, in fact, it is also, the gods of the East are more chaotic, and it has a complex immortal system. There is not only the saying of the four emperors of the Journey to the West, but also the saying of the six emperors of the gods of the flood and famine. Yes and no? We don't know how to be sure!

Back to the topic, I only know that he is one of the four emperors of the Heavenly Court, and he is the same level as the Ziwei Arctic Emperor and the South Antarctic Immortal Emperor, and the status of the rivers and lakes is quite high. ”

With the words of the Emperor Qinghua of the East Pole, it can be seen that the strength of the Nine Spirits Yuan Saint is terrifying.

We all know that the saints in the flood are all well-known big people.

And the nine lions are both monsters and mounts, and his identity and status are extremely low, why can he be called the 'Nine Spirits Yuan Sage'?

Some people may say: "These nine lions are the first demon of Journey to the West, and their magic power is boundless." When it can be called a demon saint. ”

However, it is not only strong that can be the standard of sainthood, but also what Confucianism calls virtue. Many later generations of Confucian scholars believe that the title of 'Nine Spirits Yuan Sage' in Journey to the West is a 'hidden mystery.'

Let's talk about how many Confucian doctrines of the nine-headed sage hide mysteries.

Confucius said: A gentleman has nine thoughts. It means that a great wise person or monster can become a saint if he has done nine thoughts. Of course, this saint is not the Taoist saint of the unity of heaven and man, pure and inaction, nor the supreme enlightenment saint of Buddhism, but the virtue saint of Confucianism.

The original Journey to the West named the nine lion spirits as the Nine Spirits Yuan Sheng.

Many Confucian scholars believe that these nine lions symbolize "nine thoughts."

What nine thoughts?

What are the Confucian criteria for sanctification?

1. Seeing and thinking: When we see things, we must see the truth of things, and don't be blinded by the illusion of things.

2. Ear Sicong: If we can control our ears and distinguish between true and false, then we will not be hurt by external objects.

3. Color Siwen: Color, on behalf of emotion, warm, on behalf of joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. To achieve great things, emotional control must be achieved without joy, anger and sorrow.

Fourth, appearance Sigong: appearance, on behalf of behavior, respect, on behalf of respect. Whatever you do, you should treat it with respect.

5. Yan Sizhong: Yan Sizhong represents speech, and this sentence means not to tell lies.

Sixth, things are respectful: respect, on behalf of the best efforts. Whatever you do should be done wholeheartedly

7. Questioning: 'A gentleman is not ashamed to ask. That's it.

8. Anger and difficulty: Anger represents indignation, and when you are angry, you must think of the consequences and disasters, and you can't be rash. When we encounter someone who is angry with us, we should also empathize with his difficulties, and we may not be angry.

9. See the righteousness: the gentleman sees righteousness, the villain sees the benefit, no matter how much others give us, we must repay the grace of the dripping water.

If you do these nine thoughts, you can achieve the most holy of Confucianism. Sun Wukong represents the heart of the world, so how can he beat the Nine Spirits Yuan Sage, who has become a Confucian saint.

Confucianism achieves the sanctification of nine thoughts, so he is called the nine-headed Yuan Sheng.

Moreover, the cave of the nine lions is in the Jiuqu Panhuan Cave of Zhujie Mountain, and the name of the mountain here also has a deep meaning in the westward journey. The gentleman loves bamboo, bamboo is a symbol of the gentleman, and the bamboo shows the integrity, although it is not stout, but it is upright. Perseverance, not afraid of the cold and heat, evergreen.

The Nine Spirits Yuan Sage will not do evil or hurt people in the lower realm. Living in peace with human beings shows that he has the cultivation of a gentleman, and he knows that he can live forever by eating Tang monk meat, but he is not moved, which shows that he has the integrity of a gentleman.

When Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie and others bombarded in front of him with various magic weapons and weapons, the Nine Spirits Yuansheng did not fight-for-tat, but opened his mouth with his bare hands and surrendered them, which shows that he has the bearing of a gentleman, because the gentleman does not use his hands at the entrance of the cave, and the behavior of the nine lions can be said to be a model among gentlemen. The realm and cultivation of the Nine Spirits Yuan Sage have already reached the specimen of the Nine Thoughts of Confucianism just now. Therefore, it is possible for him to go up to the Three Saints and go down to the Nine Springs. He is known as the Nine Spirits Yuan Sheng.

Some people may say, the nine-headed lion has such a high consciousness, why do they still sneak away from the lower realm? Let's take a look at how the original text is written:

When Tianzun heard this, he ordered the immortal to go to the lion room to call out the lion slave to ask, the lion slave was asleep, and he was pushed by the generals to wake up, and he was dragged to the middle hall to see...

The lion slave said: "Grandpa, I had a bottle of wine in the Daqian Manna Hall the day before yesterday, and I didn't know how to steal it and eat it, but I fell asleep and fell asleep unconsciously, and I lost the chain, so I left." Tianzun said: "That wine was sent by Taishang Laojun, called reincarnation elixir, you should be drunk for three days after eating it." ”

From this conversation, we can see that the Lion Spirit Nether Realm was actually arranged by Taishang Laojun and the Emperor Qinghua of the East Pole. Deliberately getting a bottle of wine to get the lion slave drunk, the purpose is not only to arrange a catastrophe for the scripture-learning team, but also to implicate them. (Of course, I think that the lion spirit is the cause and effect of repaying the Xuanmen in the god of the calamity.) Of course, there are hundreds of explanations, and there are different opinions, which is actually not only the words of a crazy dream, don't take it seriously. )