Who is the mysterious boss who exploits the “working people” in “Chinese Tales”?

Earlier this year, the animated series "Chinese Tales" became popular. The first episode of this animation, "Little Monsters' Summer", adapted from "Journey to the West", attracted a lot of attention.

In the story, Tang Sanzang and his disciples passed by a place called "Langlang Mountain". The Monster King ordered to capture Tang Sanzang and eat his flesh when he passed by, and ordered his monsters to prepare weapons and wash dishes. Many people lamented that the life of the pig monsters in this episode is simply the living condition of modern workers.

However, the big boss, the Monster King, never showed his face. He was only mentioned in the conversations between the protagonist, the Pig Monster, and other monsters such as the Bear Coach and the Crow Monster. The Monster King wanted to stew Tang Seng in soup and told his monsters that "those who perform well can have a bowl of Tang Seng's meat soup", but then changed his mind and wanted to roast Tang Seng. This made the little monsters who were responsible for making weapons, chopping firewood and other hard work in the film miserable.

The Monster King, who never showed his face, was still a high-ranking, domineering leader. He forbad the little monsters to learn the secrets of the monster leaders, otherwise he would be killed. There were also some monsters with good cultivation around him to help him clean his own oversized armor. The Monster King was finally killed by Sun Wukong and left without showing his face.

So much so that the audience doesn't know what kind of animal it is. The only thing that can help the audience judge what kind of animal the king is is probably the oversized armor. From this, we can roughly infer that the king himself is also a large animal.

So what kind of animal is the king? The author made a "brain-opening" inference about this, and also inferred the identities of the monsters who helped the king polish his armor.

Preface

The journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures passed through many places. I am not sure where the "Langlang Mountain" where the monsters in the play are located is, especially considering that the location setting of this cartoon is not very clear.

Personally, I infer that the most likely location of "Langlang Mountain" is somewhere in the middle of a large area from China's Qinling Mountains to the southwest (including southern Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan, etc.) to India, which is also an area with high biodiversity.

The author's personal species analysis of the characters in the film is basically based on the distribution of wildlife resources in these places (including the paleontological fossils distributed in these places) and the corresponding species size and morphology to speculate on the species of the characters.

If you want to know how big the king’s armor is, you probably have to first look at the size of the “high-level monsters” who clean the king’s armor.

The monsters polishing their armor in the picture above are a group of highly skilled wolves, and there are tiger monsters guarding them.

The author thinks that the location of "Langlang Mountain" may be somewhere in the middle of a large area from China's Qinling Mountains to the southwest (including southern Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan, etc.) to India. This area includes the area near the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau where wolves are also distributed.

So what subspecies are the wolves in the film? They should be the Himalayan wolf subspecies distributed in the plateau and its surrounding areas (the scientific name of this wolf subspecies, Canis lupus chanco, is the same as the scientific name of the Mongolian wolf subspecies in northern and northwest China, but it is currently believed that they are not the same subspecies).

The Himalayan wolf is not big among wolves (about 35 kg), so could it be these armor-polishing monsters? Of course, it is not ruled out that these armor-polishing wolves may be the Indian wolf subspecies (Canis lupus pallipes), which is distributed in India and other southwestern Asian countries and has a small average weight of only 17-25 kg.

These two subspecies are usually brownish-grey in color in the wild, rather than off-white. The off-white color is more common in the Mackenzie wolf (Canis lupus occidentalis) in North America, which is one of the largest wolf subspecies in existence.

Indian wolf in the zoo, source Wikipedia

However, no matter what kind of wolf the little wolf that was polishing the armor was, it was a good wolf used by the king.

In reality, Himalayan wolves prey on Tibetan antelopes and even wild yaks. In some national parks, Indian wolves even use Indian blackbucks as their main food source. Mackenzie wolves (Canis lupus occidentalis) in North America often gather in large groups, weighing up to 50 kilograms. They are large and good at group fighting. They dare to fight brown bears and hunt American bison and moose. Their ability to run for a long time and good bite force allow wolf packs to hunt those large prey.

There must be a reason why the Monster King uses these skilled wolves.

Photographed at the Shanghai Zoo, the black one is male and the yellow one is female

Gray wolf (specimen) hunting reindeer, photographed at the National Zoological Museum, the subspecies should be Mackenzie wolf (Mackenzie wolf is a subspecies of wolf, distributed in some parts of North America)

Looking at the far left of the picture, there is a tiger with no patterns on its back and abdomen (if you look closely, there is a K-shaped pattern on its head). It is inferred that it should be a subspecies of Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris).

Currently in China, it is only found in southern Tibet, and is mainly distributed in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and other places.

Bengal tigers generally weigh between 120 and 230 kilograms, with males being larger, though those in the Sundarbans mangrove swamps (part of which is in India and part of which is in Bangladesh) are smaller, weighing between 70 and 150 kilograms.

Bengal tiger in a national park in India, source: Wikipedia

Although there is no super-divine existence in the story of Journey to the West that is as capable of fighting as Sun Wukong - even the highly-trained Tiger Power Immortal cannot do that.

But in reality, Bengal tigers are considered " heroes among tigers " . Bengal tigers have many records of hunting large prey such as Indian bison (Bos gaurus). A female Bengal tiger named Machili once fought a large swamp crocodile to protect her children. It is amazing.

In India, where Tang Monk went to obtain Buddhist scriptures, Bengal tigers are also worshipped - they are the national animal of India, and also the spiritual totem of Indians' resistance and indomitable spirit against the British colonists during the British colonial era.

Today, India is the country with the largest number of wild tigers, and the lives of Bengal tigers in protected areas are also the creative material for many documentaries.

A captive tiger (I personally think it might be a Bengal tiger) photographed at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park

Bengal tiger on Indian rupee currency, source: Wikipedia

As for the bear, we assume that it is a lighter-colored Asian black bear of the Tibetan subspecies (Ursus thibetanus laniger) or the Himalayan subspecies (Ursus arctos isabellinus), both of which are roughly distributed in the area of ​​northern India-China Himalayas-Nepal.

The former weighs about the same as the Swamp Bengal tiger mentioned above (between 80 and 160 kg), while the latter is larger than the former. They also have unique genetic characteristics - they are the earliest members of the Asian black bear and brown bear families to separate from other bear subspecies.

Tibetan Asian black bear subspecies, source Wikipedia

The bear in the picture is covered with white fur. When I looked at it, I was reminded of the yeti (a snowman) that was often mentioned in the Himalayas in the past. This yeti is actually not a new large primate, but a Himalayan brown bear or an Asian black bear.

There have also been reports of yetis in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a little further north - but according to the results of DNA testing of yeti samples collected, these yetis are actually another subspecies of brown bears - the Tibetan brown bear (Ursus arctos pruinosus), and are not new animals either.

White brown bears are rare, but tan, ordinary brown, and even almost black are not uncommon. The grizzly subspecies of brown bear in North America (Ursus arctos horribilis) has grayish fur.

The black brown bear is probably a subspecies of the Ussuri brown bear, photographed at the Shanghai Zoo

Having said so much, let’s first infer the size of the Monster King based on the sizes of these animals.

The torso of this armor is no less than the size of the four tigers on the left. If the tiger on the left is a swamp Bengal tiger weighing more than 100 kilograms, then this king is likely to be a big guy of 500 kilograms or more. If it is a larger Bengal tiger weighing more than 200 kilograms, then this king is likely to weigh more than 900 kilograms.

So what is the king’s identity?

Based on the route of the journey to the West, it is inferred that there are large terrestrial animals weighing more than 500 kilograms in the fauna in the distribution area where Langlang Mountain is located. Personally, I infer that the king may be a large herbivorous mammal - after all, there are several large herbivorous animals in "Journey to the West" that also capture Tang Monk and Sun Wukong and fight against them.

They are - Samantabhadra's Asian elephant, the Indian elephant subspecies (Elephas maximus indicus, the Asian elephants in Xishuangbanna area are also this subspecies), Laozi's domestic buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), and three rhinos in Xuanying Cave , which have two horns and should be Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis).

Asian elephant Indian elephant subspecies specimen, this is an old war elephant specimen from Vietnam, photographed in Beijing Natural History Museum

Domestic buffalo photographed in Yunlong County, Yunnan. Their ancestors are wild buffalo Bubalus arnee. The average weight of wild buffalo is larger than that of domestic buffalo, but there are also larger individuals of domestic buffalo that are not inferior to wild buffalo.

Taishang Laojun and his blue ox. Judging from the horns, it is obviously a domestic buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Image source eBay.com.au

Which one is it? I personally think it might be the Indian bison (Bos gaurus), which has little presence in Journey to the West. After all, the King of Langlang Mountain is a monster without a background in Journey to the West, which is naturally different from the Asian elephant and Asian buffalo, which are valued.

The Indian bison is a huge creature that can weigh more than half a ton or even up to one and a half tons. It is the largest animal in the Bovini family and even the largest in the Bovidae family. Although it is on the tiger's menu, it is a dangerous prey that the tiger dare not mess with.

It is a national first-class protected animal in China and is only distributed in southern Yunnan and southeastern Tibet. It is distributed abroad in India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand and other places.

This giant bull has little presence in Journey to the West, but some people worship it. The Lahu people in China regard the Indian bison as a spiritual animal that cannot be killed. India's 54th Infantry Division also regards the Indian bison as a mascot.

Indian bison, source Wikipedia

It is possible that this king is another big guy that lives in South Asia and has no presence in Journey to the West - the Indian rhinoceros .

The weight of the Indian rhinoceros can reach 1.6 tons, or even 2 tons or nearly three tons. Among rhinos, its size is not inferior to the African white rhinoceros. Among terrestrial animals, its size is second only to three types of elephants.

The gray skin, short and thick horns, and sharp lower incisors in the mouth for defense make the Indian rhino a heavy cavalry among rhinos. Bengal tigers rarely hunt Indian rhinos, and jackals and leopards dare not do so. The above two prestigious king "candidates" are expected to deter their beast subordinates.

The lower incisor of an Indian rhinoceros, source: Wikipedia

At this point, some people may ask, if the king wants to eat Tang Monk’s flesh, why is he not a carnivore?

In fact, in the original text of "Journey to the West", the rhinoceros monster and Taishang Laojun's green bull, two herbivorous animals, also wanted to eat Tang Monk's flesh.

But back to the point, it is not that there were no land carnivores weighing more than 500 or even 900 kilograms in India and southwestern China. It's just that they cannot be found in India and southwestern China today. We have to go back to prehistoric times.

In this regard, cats are unlikely to be able to become the king - their upper limit of weight is only about four or five hundred kilograms.

The Indian Ursus and the Subaruga Ursus species say they can be the "king".

They are relatives of the giant panda, and like today's giant pandas, they belong to the subfamily Ailuropodinae of the family Ursidae, but they do not love to eat bamboo like today's pandas. Instead, they love meat and can hunt larger prey (although they are still omnivorous in nature). The Indus genus lived on Earth from about 10 million years ago to about 5 million years ago. The Subaurochs genus lived in a similar period as it, but lived longer (it became extinct more than 2 million years ago).

Reconstruction of the African ursus, source: https://prehistoric-fauna.com/

At that time, today's brown bears and tigers did not exist, and jackals and gray wolves had not yet begun to chase prey. The animals active on the predator stage in Eurasia, Africa and North America were very similar to those today, but different. There were many saber-toothed tigers of the subfamily Smilodon that were as big as today's tigers and leopards, as well as the Barbourofelis, a cat-like but not cat-like cat belonging to the predator family of the subfamily Feliniformes, and Epicyon haydeni, a North American canine subfamily Epicyoninae that weighed over 100 kilograms.

The picture shows the size comparison of Barbour's Smilodon (left) and Smilodon destructor (right). The former is not a cat at all, let alone a saber-toothed tiger, and it lived in North America. The latter lived in South America and was a pure feline Smilodon subfamily (survived until the end of the Pleistocene before becoming extinct). Image source: https://prehistoric-fauna.com/

In order to compete with the Smilodon subfamily, the members of these two bear families were naturally not too small, especially the Shi's Indian bear (Indarctos zdanskyi) found in northern China, which has a skull length of 47 cm and an estimated weight of 600 kg, which is comparable to some large brown bears and polar bears today. There is also the Oregon Indian bear (Indarctos oregonensis) in North America, which weighs nearly one ton.

The African bear of the genus Ursus also weighs more than 700 kilograms. Although the Indian bear and other groups of bears may not be that big, they have also produced "tribes" that are as big as lions, tigers and leopards.

The Attican bear (Indarctos atticus) of South Asia, the Burmese bear (Agriotherium myanmarensis, found in western Myanmar), and the giant bear (Agriotherium magnum) of northern China have all been powerful in their own areas, building a "panda empire" spanning four continents - even though they are not very closely related to pandas.

Myanmar Agriotherium fossil, source: New species of Agriotherium (Mammalia, Carnivora) from the late Miocene to early Pliocene of central Myanmar

The jaw fossil of the giant bear, photographed at the China Paleozoological Museum

Reconstruction of Indian bear, source: https://prehistoric-fauna.com/

After talking about so much, some people may ask, why did I write so much? After saying so much, I still haven't explained what the king is specifically.

In fact, I think it doesn’t matter what the prototype of the king is. The key is to learn to identify species based on relevant morphological characteristics and distribution areas, understand the ecological niches and habits of these animals in nature, and learn to infer all of this based on what you have learned.

Art, after all, is derived from real life. Ancient and modern creatures can always inspire others to create. The Japanese anime "Digimon" allows people to see many traces of ancient creatures. The "strange" features in art works that seem scientifically "strange" are enough to give us room for imagination.

Note: If readers in front of the screen have other opinions about the identity of the Monster King, please comment~

References:

1. Wikipedia

2.http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/

3. Princeton Atlas of Ancient Animals

4. Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives

5. Journal of Mammalogy, edited by Hu Jie

6. Wen Rongsheng. Distribution changes of rare wild animals in China[M]. Shandong Science and Technology Press, 2009.

7. Bai, B., Meng, J., Zhang, C., Gong, Y.-X., and Wang, Y.-Q. (2020). The origin of Rhinocerotoidea and phylogeny of Ceratomorpha (Mammalia, Perissodac-tyla). Commun. Biol. 3, 509.

https://prehistoric-fauna.com/Agriotherium

8.New species of Agriotherium (Mammalia, Carnivora) from the late Miocene to early Pliocene of central Myanmar

Author links open overlay panelShintaro Ogino

Antoine, P.-O. (2012). "Pleistocene and Holocene rhinocerotids (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the Indochinese Peninsula". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 11 (2–3): 159–168. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2011.03.002.

9. Ancient and modern genomes unravel the evolutionary history of the rhinoceros family, Cell, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.032

10.Jhala, Yadvendradev V. "Predation on Blackbuck by Wolves in Velavadar National Park, Gujarat, India". Wolves: Wolf History, Conservation, Ecology and Behavior. Retrieved 1 January 2020.

11.Late Miocene large mammals from Yulafli, Thrace region, Turkey, and their biogeographic implications, D. Geraads, T. Kaya, and S. Mayda - 2005.

12.Duckworth, JW; Sankar, K.; Williams, AC; Samba Kumar, N. & Timmins, RJ (2016). "Bos gaurus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T2891A46363646. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T2891A46363646.en. Retrieved 15 January 2022.

13. Samuel T. Turvey, Haowen Tong, Anthony J. Stuart and Adrian M. Lister (2013). "Holocene survival of Late Pleistocene megafauna in China: a critical review of the evidence". Quaternary Science Reviews. 76: 156–166. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.030.

14.Kitchener, AC; Breitenmoser-Würsten, C.; Eizirik, E.; Gentry, A.; Werdelin, L.; Wilting, A.; Yamaguchi, N.; Abramov, AV; J.; Seymour, K.; Bruford, M.; Groves, C.; Hoffmann, M.; Nowell, K.; Timmons, Z. & Tobe, S. (2017). "A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group"

15. Bears Of The World. "Himalayan Black Bear". Bears Of The World. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.

16. Aryal, Achyut; Raubenheimer, David; Sathyakumar, Sambandam; Poudel, Buddi Sagar; Ji, Weihong; Kunwar, Kamal Jung; Kok, Jose; Kohshima, Shiro; Brunton, Dianne (2012). "Conservation Strategy for Brown Bear and Its Habitat in Nepal"

17.Tehsin, A. (2014). "Missing snowman". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-11-28.

Author: Lv Zelong, ShanghaiTech University, Biological Sciences

Audit expert: Yuyu

Winner of the Silver Award for Outstanding Science Popularization Works of China Science Writers Association

Editor: Guru