The Jinchi Elder is an antagonist of the 16th-century Chinese classic novel Journey to the West by the late Wu Cheng'en and its multiple adaptations. He is the greedy abbot of the Guanyin Monastery (in Chinese: 观音禅院), who intents to kill Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong to take Sanzang's cassock for himself, having been so impressed by it. He is also later revealed to be a long-time friend of the Black Wind Demon, who taught him magic that allowed him to achieve longevity, thus he has lived for 270 years.
In the 1986 series, he was portrayed by the late Cheng Zhi.
Biography[]
The Jinchi Elder is the abbot of the Guayin Monastery. Despite being a Buddhist monk, he lives in a very extravagant manner, with his clothes being adorned with rare accessories. The Black Wind Demon often visited the monastery time to time and taught him magic that allowed him to achieve longevity. As a result, the two became friends and often visited each other.
When Sanzang and Wukong stays at the monastery for one night, the Elder tries to persuade them to show off their treasures. When Wukong mentions Sanzang's cassock, the Elder has his monks show off all rare cassocks he has collected all his life. Wukong laughs and shows off Xuanzang's, which impresses the Elder so much that he manipulates Sanzang and Wukong into let him have it for one night so he can "see it properly".
Once the cassock is in his room, the Elder cries and wants it for himself. Thanks to some of his monks' suggestions, he decides to kill Sanzang and Wukong by burning them to death. However, Wukong deflects the fire back at them and burns the entire monastery. The Black Wind Demon, seeing the fire, decides to come to help the monks, but upon seeing the cassock, he takes it for himself and leaves the monastery to deal with itself. In the morning, Wukong and Sanzang demands the monks to give them back the cassock. Upon not finding it anywhere and seeing his monastery being burned to ashes, the Elder commits suicide by smashing his head against the wall; a man dies by his own greed.
Later on, Wukong disguises himself as the Elder and attempts to take the cassock back, but his cover is blown and the two fight until afternoon, when the demon retreats to his cave. Wukong eventually successfully takes back the cassock and the monks have realized the error of their ways, thus starting to act like true monks, leaving the Jinchi Elder the only monk of the monastery dying in disgrace.