| “ | What luck, what luck. At home they’ve been talking for years about a Tang Monk from the East who’s going to fetch the ‘Great Vehicle’; he’s a reincarnation of Golden Cicada, and has an Original Body that has been purified through ten lives. Anyone who eats a piece of his flesh will live for ever. And today, at last, he’s here. | „ |
| ~ Baigujing about to make disguises to encounter Tang Sanzang's group. |
White Bone Demoness (in Chinese: 白骨精), also known as Baigujing or Lady Baigujing, is a major antagonist in the 16th-century Chinese classic novel Journey to the West by the late Wu Cheng'en, and its multiple adaptations. She is a skeleton demoness who desired to eat the flesh of Tang Sanzang.
She was portrayed by Yang Chunxia in the 1986 series, and Ady An in the 2011 remake, who also played Dugu Banruo from The Legend of Dugu.
Personality[]
Baigujing is considered to be one of the most cunning demons in the series. She, like many others, desires to eat Sanzang's flesh, but is extremely careful upon seeing his disciples. She is also a trickster, who enjoys tricking the companion as she disguised three times to test their intelligence. Baigujing is also somewhat sadistic, as she taunts Sun Wukong to kill her.
Biography[]
Role[]
Not much is known about Baigujing's past, but it is presumed that she was once a human who transformed into a demon after death.
Upon learned that Tang Sanzang had arrived to her location, Baigujing disguised herself as a village girl and offered him and his disciples poisonous fruits. However, Sun Wukong used his powers and detected her true identity, and hit her with his staff, seemingly killing her. Having survived the attack, Baigujing left a fake 'corpse' and dug underground to recover. Meanwhile Sanzang, thinking Sun went out of line and committed a murder, cited a subduing spell (works as restraint and torture to keep the unruly monkey in check) to punish the unfortunate monkey.
Baigujing returned a second time disguised as an elderly woman and lied to the group that the village girl from earlier was her daughter. Sun Wukong sees through her disguise once again and seemingly kills her - Baigujing once again leaves a fake corpse and retreats. The group is angered at Sun Wukong and Sanzang, furious at Sun, mistakenly believing that Sun once again wantonly committed a murder, cited subduing spell once more (this time citing the spell over 50 times) before forgiving the monkey. Xuanzang warned that Sun would be excommunicated from Xuanzang's party should he commit murder third time.
She returns a third time as an elderly man who lies about having a daughter and wife that the group believed are her avatars that Wukong previously hit, and taunts Wukong into attacking her by using his powers, and only he could hear her. Having a short-temper, he finally beats her with his staff and kills the demon, revealing that she was just a skeleton spirit.
Sun Wukong shows this to Sanzang, who initially believes him, but Zhu Bajie convinces Sanzang that Sun Wukong transformed the corpse into a skeleton to evade the Band-tightening spell. Thus, Sanzang is angry at Sun Wukong at his reckless slaying and scolds him, and sends him away. Hurt by his master's words, Sun Wukong leaves and returns to Water Curtain Cave. In his absence, Sanzang gets caught by another demon—Yellow Robe Demon that Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing cannot defeat, and Bajie is forced to apologize to Sun Wukong and invite him back to save Sanzang.
1985 cartoon[]
In the 1985 cartoon, The Monkey King Conquers the Demon (a sequel to Havoc in Heaven), Baigujing's usual appearance is that of a handsome human woman. She first appears as the leader to a large group of demons who intend to capture and eat Xuanzang, but develop a severe case of cold feet once she mentions Sun Wukong protects him. Instead, she shows them how to work more subtly. Like in the novel, she takes on three disguises (although the second one is the child of the first one instead of her mother). Unlike the novel, here she survives the third battle with Sun Wukong, and once he is banished, her underlings capture the rest of the adventurers (thus making her composite with the Yellow Robe Demon). By then, Zhu Bajie realizes the truth and goes to warn Sun Wukong, but gets refused. However, the Monkey King follows him in secret. He kills and replaces Baigujing's mother, who's been invited to the feast (the Nine Tailed Vixen from the adventure of the Golden and Silver Horned Kings), thus sneaking into the demon's home. There, once Baigujing confesses to her deception, he reveals himself. While her minions attempt to distract Sun Wukong, Baigujing attempts to flee with the monk, but when she tries to use him as a hostage, Sun Wukong tricks her into throwing him down (by pretending he doesn't care), after which he saves him and battles her one last time. When she takes on her true appearance, that of a skull with ghostly-looking robes, Sun Wukong snatches away the skull and takes it to Xuanzang. The monk tells Sun Wukong to do with it as he pleases, to which the Monkey King incinerates it with his breath, finally destroying the demon.
1986 series[]
The classic 1986 adaptation series followed a similar format like in the novel, however there is an addition: Her wolf servant, who is also the same person who reported to her about the arrival of Sanzang would later served the Yellow Robe Demon, and upon seeing Sanzang being captured, revealed to Sanzang that Baigujing disguised as all three people that Wukong killed and taunted Sanzang for his decision to send Wukong away, causing Sanzang to regret about it. Also, in this version, her three disguises are not merely disguises, but were indeed real people and a family, who she kidnapped, drained out their blood, and possessed their corpses. Therefore, it is unknown wether this version is able to leave fake corpses, since all three corpses she left are real corpses of her victims.
Later on, Baigujing was mentioned multiple times whenever the group suspect someone to be a demon in disguise, having learned the lesson after such experience before.
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- Despite appearing in only one occasion in the original novel, Baigujing is one of the most popular Journey to the West villains and is considered to be one of Sun Wukong's archenemies, bar the Bull Demon King, Princess Iron Fan, the Red Boy, and the Six Eared Macaque.
- It is heavily implied that Baigujing is possibly a human who transformed into a demon after death, which if is true, would make her unique among the Journey to the West demons, whose original self is either a magical animal or an ordinal animal (or occasionally a deity or at least a servant of deities), she used to be just a normal human.
- Baigujing's actress in the 1986 series, Yang Chunxia admits that she was "tricked" by the late director Yang Jie into playing the character, thus she hates whenever it is brought up despite it being one of if not her most iconic role. Specifically, according to Yang Chunxia, Yang Jie originally promised her the role of the Ruler of Women's Kingdom since she would refuse to join the cast otherwise, but this turned out to be a lie as the role would later went to Zhu Lin instead.