From the perspective of interpersonal relationships, the goblins on the West Heaven Road are the most special with the golden-nosed white-haired mouse spirit.
Other goblins, or wild goblins, have no background and have nothing to do with the gods, such as the black bear monster, the bull demon king, the centipede spirit, the spider spirit, etc.; Either it is the pet of the gods, mounts, children, such as goldfish essence, green bull essence, golden horn king and silver horn king, yellow eyebrow monster, etc.
However, the rat spirit is different, she is not only related to the Buddha, but also the goddaughter of Li Jing, the king of Tota.
You must know that Li Jing is a great immortal of the heavenly court, and the Jade Emperor has crusaded against Huaguo Mountain several times and captured Sun Wukong, all of which let Li Jing take command, command 100,000 heavenly soldiers, and bring eighteen heavenly nets, and there are also masters such as the three princes of Nezha, the four heavenly kings, the twenty-eight stars, the nine Yao Xingjun, and the giant spirit god.
It can be said that among the heavenly generals and immortals, Li Jing is respected. To a certain extent, Li Jing is in a high position and can be regarded as the "generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses".
It is obviously amazing that a rat spirit can become Li Jing's goddaughter. So, what is the story in this that can make Li Jing accept the rat essence as his goddaughter?
There are two aspects to answer this question, one is the original Journey to the West, and the other is the origin of the Journey to the West.
Judging by the content of the original book
After Tang Seng was taken away by the rat spirit, Sun Wukong, Bajie and Sha Seng found the bottomless pit of Trap Mountain. Goku enters the bottomless pit, and after some searching, discovers a secret.
It turned out that the rat spirit actually worshipped two immortals, one was Nezha and the other was Li Jing.
There is a large gold plaque on it, which reads "Respect for the Throne of Father Li Tian", and slightly more often "Respect for the Third Prince of Nezha". The traveler was full of joy when he saw it, and he didn't go to search for monsters to find Tang Seng, twisted the iron rod into an embroidery needle, put it in his ear, opened his hand, picked up the brand and the incense burner, returned to the clouds, and went out.
The rat spirit actually worships Li Jing's father and son, and respects Li Jing as his father and Nezha as his brother. Obviously, she and Li Jing are a family.
Because of this, Goku is happy. Because as far as Wukong is concerned, he can be regarded as having found the handle of Li Jing's father and son, and he can directly use this as an excuse to sue Li Jing and his son.
That's what Goku thinks, and that's what he does. However, after arriving in Heaven, Li Jing was very angry, he was defeated by Sun Wukong five hundred years ago, and he was already angry, and now he felt that Wukong had framed him, so he directly tied up Wukong and wanted to kill Sun Wukong.
At this time, Nezha stopped Li Jing and told the origin of the rat spirit.
Zha said: "Father forgot, that daughter was a goblin, three hundred years ago became a monster, in Lingshan stole the fragrant flowers and treasure candles of Rulai, Rulai sent my father and son heavenly soldiers to take him." When you hold it, you should only be killed, and if you come to pay it, you will not catch fish in the water, and feed the deer in the deep mountains to live forever. He spared his life. With this kindness, worship the father and the king as the father, worship the child as the brother, and set up a tablet below to serve the incense. Unexpectedly, he became a fine again and framed Tang Seng, but he was searched by Sun Xingzhi and came to the lair, brought the tablet, and made a name to sue the emperor. This is the benefactor of worship, not the sister of my compatriots. ”
From Nezha's words, it can be known that the rat spirit originally had nothing to do with Li Jing and Nezha. But because of what happened three hundred years ago, Li Jing and Nezha caught the rat spirit and forgave her, so the rat spirit worshipped them as father and brother.
In other words, at the beginning, Li Jing and Nezha wanted to kill the rat spirit, but Rulai was very merciful in his heart and did not want to kill. So, Li Jing and Nezha forgave the rat spirit. And the rat spirit is also very grateful, so he worships Li Jing as his father and Nezha as his brother.
Judging from the source of Journey to the West
If you want to talk about the relationship between Li Jing and the rat spirit, you have to talk about a mythical rat first.
In the Sadhana of Bishaman, such an incident is mentioned.
During the Tianbao period, five countries sent troops to besiege Anxi City. Since the enemy country is besieging, it is natural to call in troops to rescue. However, Anxi is often more than 12,000 miles away, and even if it is to send troops, it will take eight months, so it is too late. So, Master Nhat Hanh said that he could ask the northern Bishamen Heavenly King to help.
Tang Xuanzong Li Longji said: I am a mortal, how can I invite the Heavenly King of Bishamen?
Master Nhat Hanh said that he could ask Hu Seng Daguangzhi to help. So, Li Longji invited Hu monk Da Guangzhi, and Da Guangzhi hurriedly entered the dojo to invite God. After reciting the mantra twice, the gods appeared.
There are people in the fog. He is a foot long. About three or five hundred men were dressed in golden armor. After the unitary, the drum horn sounded. The sonic boom is 300 miles. The earth shook and the landslide stopped for three days. The Five Kingdoms retreated in fear. The battalions were drawn and fell. And it is the golden rat that bites the bow and crossbow string. and the equipment is damaged and unusable. There are those who are old and weak. The soldiers under the control of the ministers want to destroy them. You don't need to kill the clouds in the air. Looking for the sound and looking back, there is a great light on the north gate tower of the city. King Bishamen saw him upstairs.
To put it simply, Hu Seng Daguangzhi invited the King of Bishamen, who brought three or five hundred gold-armored soldiers and sounded the drums and horns, scaring off the alliance of the five nations. When the five countries retreated, they found that the bows and crossbows in the military camp had been bitten off by the golden rats, and the weapons had also been destroyed by the golden rats. Among the enemy troops, the old and weak did not escape in time, and the king of Bishamen spared them.
All in all, King Bishamen and the Golden Rat exerted their strength to scare off the Five Nations Alliance and save Tang Xuanzang. This actually reflects the Tang Dynasty's worship of King Bishamen.
From this time on, the Golden Rat and the King of Bishamen were linked.
Li Jing was originally the founding general of the Tang Dynasty, and he was respected during his lifetime, and he was slowly deified after his death. For example, in Li Fuyan's "Continuation of the Strange Record" in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, there is a story of "Li Wei Gongjing Walking in the Rain". The story probably says:
Li Jing went out hunting, because he got lost and came to a large family, and only Mrs. Tai and her servants were there. In the middle of the night, Li Jing didn't dare to sleep, and heard Mrs. Tai say that the rain charm had arrived, but his son was not at home, and it was too late to send someone to invite him, so he didn't know what to do for a while.
The servant next to him reminded Mrs. Tai that Li Jing didn't look like an ordinary person, and he could ask Li Jing for help. Mrs. Tai told the truth, it turned out that their family was all dragons, and the matter was in a hurry, and Li Jing was asked to do the rain on behalf of the dragon.
Mrs. Tai told Li Jing to get a drop of water from the bottle and drip it on the horse's mane. Li Jing felt that one drop was not enough, so he took twenty drops in a row. Don't you know, this drop represents one foot of rain, and Li Jing fell twenty drops, which is two zhang high rain, directly flooding the world.
Mrs. Tai was beaten, her back was covered with blood, and her son was also punished. But she still thanked Li Jing and wanted to send Li Jing two slaves, one with a pleasant face and the other with an angry face. Li Jing was humble, he didn't dare to ask for it, and in order to prove his courage, he asked for an angry slave.
Later, although Li Jing was in charge of the military and covered the world, he never became the prime minister. Some people think that it is because Li Jing did not want two slaves.
From this story, it can be seen that by the middle of the Tang Dynasty, people had already deified Li Jing at that time, thinking that he could act as a substitute for the dragon. It has been passed down that "Li Jing has replaced the dragon" has become "Li Jing controls the dragon", "Li Jing controls the dragon", and "Li Jing commands the dragon".
In Buddhism, the dragon king is led by Virubocha (Western wide-eyed Tianmu); At the same time, there was also the king of Bishamen, who commanded many yakshasas, and at that time, the Tang Dynasty also worshipped the king of Bishamen (the king of the northern Duowen) (refer to the "Bishamen Ritual"), so slowly, people confused the names of the two heavenly kings with the word "bishamen", so that they thought that the king of Bishamen was Li Jing.
To put it simply, it is like this: Viliubocha commands the dragon king, and Li Jing also commands the dragon king, so people mistakenly think that Li Jing is Viliubocha; The Tang Dynasty worshipped Bishamen, and Bishamen was similar to Viliubocha, so people mistakenly thought that Bishamen was Li Jing.
In the Dunhuang manuscript "The Origin of Bishamen", it is said that "the emperor released the hand to Qing Relic Pagoda with it", which shows that at the latest in the Tang Dynasty, there was an image of Bishamen holding the pagoda. Since Li Jing is one with the Heavenly King of Bishamen, then he will also have to be a tota. That's why he is known as the King of Tota.
Since Bishamen appeared to help save Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, and there was also a golden rat to help; And Li Jing and King Bishamen became one, so Li Jing and the Golden Rat were also connected.
Historically, Li Jing had only one son. However, the Song Dynasty's "Renji Temple and Sealed Monument" recorded that Li Jing had three sons, all of whom were made marquis. It shows that Li Jing's son also slowly evolved to Bishamen. After all, Bishamen had five sons, three of whom were Nezha, so Nezha became Li Jing's son and was called the third prince.
In Journey to the West, the golden-nosed white-haired rat spirit is derived from the golden rat, but it may be that the golden rat is not easy to describe, so the author wrote it as a female goblin, and only left the word "gold" on the nose; And because it is not related to the king of Bishamen, the rat spirit can be Li Jing's goddaughter.
To put it bluntly, this is the use of the stories of the predecessors, and it is okay to understand it as an allusion.