KJCKorea
Journal Central

The describtion of “copper head and iron forehead(铜头铁额)” firstly is used to describe the image of Chiyou(蚩尤),who firstly mastered the technology of smelting the copper, and copperinvented the copper weapon and decorated his tribe with the copper motorbiketo win the wars with other tribes in the distant past.The describtion of “copper head and iron forehead(铜头铁额)” firstly is just a record of the historic detail.But till Yang Jingxian(杨景贤) who lived during the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty,the describtion of “copper head and iron forehead(铜头铁额)” is used to describe the image of Sun Wukong. And later, Wu Chengen acceded Yang Jingxian’s describtion of “copper head and iron forehead(铜头铁额)” and paid so much attention on Sun Wukong’s external character- “copper head and iron forehead(铜头铁额)” in his work <Story of a Journey to the West(西游记)>. Eventually the charactor of “copper head and iron forehead(铜头铁额)” is known as a tipical charactor of Sun Wukong by the readers of <Story of a Journey to the West(西游记)>. The fisrt one who discribed the “the fire and golden eyes(火眼金睛)” is <Xuanzang(大唐三藏取经诗话)>. But the discribtion of “the fire and golden eyes(火眼金睛)” is just a kind of stylized discribtion of the animals emerged in the works. But this kind of stylized discribtion is used for reference in Yang Jingxian’s zaju(杂剧) works <Story of a Journey to the West(西游记)>. In his works, the hero Sun Wukong reminded his external character- “the fire and golden eyes(火眼金睛)” for four times, but it’s just a kind of mention. Later till Ming Dynasty, the writter Wu Chengen acceded and developed this kind of discribtion. In his works, he made “the fire and golden eyes(火眼金睛)” become a typical charactor of Sun Wukong by three ways. The fisrt way is by the hreo Sun Wukong’s self-introduction, the second way is by the characters’ introduction or retails in the works, the third way is by the writter’s direct narrattaion.

Sun Wukong, Chiyou, tongtoutie’e, huoyanjinjing, external image