Bull Demon King


Bull Demon King, also translated as the Ox King, also-known by his self-proclaimed title the Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven, and as and as, is a fictional character from the 16th century novel Journey to the West.
He is the estranged-husband of the Princess Iron Fan and father of Red Boy. He is a demon king originally-based in the "Palm leaf Cave/Grotto", up on "Jade Cloud Mountain", with his wife, before betraying his wife for a younger demoness, Princess Jade-Countenance, a female Huli jing, of the "Sky-Scraping Cave" on "Accumulated-Thunder Mountain".
Bull King is a major antagonist of the novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en, and its multiple adaptations. He can be considered the main antagonist in the remake of Journey to the West, despite his limited appearances. He also appears as the main antagonist in the 2014 film The Monkey King and Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West. He is one of the most popular Journey to the West villains, alongside his wife Princess Iron Fan, his son the Red Boy, the Six-Eared Macaque, and the Baigujing.
He was possibly influenced by Ox-Head, one of the guardians of hell in Chinese mythology.

In ''Journey to the West''

In the early chapters of the novel, he becomes sworn brothers with Sun Wukong and five other demon kings, the Saurian Demon King, the Roc Demon King, the Lion Spirit King, the Macaque Spirit King and the Snub-nosed monkey Spirit King. He is ranked the most senior of the seven, and styles himself "Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven".
He later meets and marries Princess Iron Fan and they have a son, Red Boy. He appears again in a later chapter when the protagonists arrive at the Flaming Mountains along their journey. Sun Wukong disguises himself as Bull Demon King to deceive Princess Iron Fan and takes away her Banana Leaf Fan. The real Bull Demon King visits Princess Iron Fan, who then realises she has been tricked. Bull Demon King disguises himself as Zhu Bajie to trick Sun Wukong and retrieve the fan.
In the ensuing fight against Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie, Bull Demon King reveals his true form, a giant white bull, and attempts to charge towards his opponents. Heavenly forces, including Devaraja Li, his third son, Prince Nezha and the Four Heavenly Kings all show up, with orders from the Buddha and the Jade Emperor to capture the Bull Demon King. When Prince Nezha fails to vanquish Bull Demon King after repeatedly beheading him, he attaches one of his flaming wheels to the Bull Demon King's horns--horrifically burning him and causing him great pain--whilst Devaraja Li uses an "imp-reflecting mirror" to prevent the Bull Demon King from shapeshifting and escaping. After the Bull Demon King is captured, they bring him to Heaven to let the Jade Emperor decide his fate. He is killed after.

Jade-Faced Princess

The Jade-Faced Princess --or Princess Jade-Countenance--is a female, white-faced Huli jing, described as 'lissome', of the "Sky-Scraping Cave" on "Accumulated-Thunder Mountain"/"Hoard-Thunder Mountain". Her late father, a 'fox king of ten thousand years', was the previous master of "Sky-Scraping Cave/Grotto" and "Accumulated-Thunder Mountain" ; when he passed-away with no son, he left everything--his cave/grotto, mountain and a vast fortune--to his only child, Princess Jade-Countenance. Desirous for a powerful protector, Princess Jade-Countenance would then--2-years prior to her appearance in Journey to the West--after having learned of King Powerful's reputation for enormous magic powers, used her equally-enormous inheritance as a dowry to lure him away from his first wife, Princess Iron Fan/Rākṣasī, becoming his second wife/concubine and he her consort over her late father's domain.
She proves to be a female who is highly-jealous of her husband's ex-wife and the fact that he continued to acknowledge and pay a maintenance to his ex-wife. She also proves cowardly, as she is easily scared by Sun Wukong's appearance, and by the fact that her sole reason for luring King Powerful/Bull Demon King away from Princess Iron Fan in the first-place was out of desire for a powerful protector. When Sun Wukong's and Zhu Bajie's fight with her husband reaches her mountain--a day and a night after first meeting Wukong--Princess Jade-Countenance, scared again, sent out the mountain's entire army to aid the Bull Demon King. Later, when Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie break into the Sky-Scraping Cave/Grotto and overwhelmed the household, her husband, the Bull Demon King abandons her and their entire household to their fates by transforming into a swan and taking to the air. Her fate is later revealed by Zhu Bajie who killed her--after Sun Wukong first gave chase after the fleeing Bull Demon King--with one swing of his rake, before burning-out the Sky-Scraping Cave/Grotto.

Statue

The statues of the Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan have been established at the Flaming Mountains Scenic Area in Xinjiang and have become a popular tourist destination. A statue of the Bull Demon King has been erected at Baima Mountain in Chongqing.

Adaptations

  • Bowser, the main antagonist of the Mario video game franchise, was inspired by the Ox-King. Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that he first envisioned Bowser as an ox, basing him on the Ox-King from the 1960 anime film Alakazam the Great.
  • In the adaptation in the 1996 Journey to the West series, the Bull King and the Princess Iron Fan have already known Monkey since childhood and were willing to give him the fan. But their obnoxious son, Red Boy, refuses to let his mother give the fan, thus forcing Monkey to enter her belly to force her to give him the fan.
  • In the 1988 film Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West as the main antagonist. In the film, he becomes ruler of Japan after Doraemon and Nobita accidentally release monsters from a 22nd-century game based on Journey to the West. As a result, the protagonist's loved ones are also converted into demons. In order to save Japan, they travel in time to prevent this from happening.
  • In the 2014 film The Monkey King, the Bull Demon King is waging war on Heaven. Much of Heaven is destroyed during the battle, and the Bull Demon King faces off against the Jade Emperor, the ruler of Heaven. The Bull Demon King is defeated but before the Jade Emperor can kill the Bull Demon King.
  • In the LEGO theme Monkie Kid, which is based on Journey to the West, the Demon Bull King is the main antagonist, seeking to take over a modernized world alongside his wife and son. In the animated series based on the theme, he is voiced by Steven Blum.
  • In the Dragon Ball franchise, the Bull Demon King is referred to as the Ox King, is a human with incredible physical attributes, and is the father of the Iron Fan Princess instead of her husband, who is known as Chi-Chi.
  • In the 2017 film Journey to the West: Bull Demon King, Bull Demon King was portrayed as the main protagonist.
  • Portrayed by Louis Fan in the 2023 film Nui Mo Wang, as the main protagonist.
  • Portrayed by Leonard Wu in the 2023 American television series American Born Chinese.
  • The Bull Demon King appears in Black Myth: Wukong.
  • The Bull Demon King appears as a playable character in the app version of Kemono Friends 3.