According to the circulating records in The Journey to the West, Bai Yuan was the third prince named Ao Lie under the Aoruntang of the West Sea Dragon King. The third prince of the West Sea Dragon King set fire to the pearls given by the jade emperor in the temple, which violated the dogma and committed a capital crime. Thanks to the mercy of Guanyin Bodhisattva in Nanhai, they survived and were exiled to Snake Mountain to wait for Tang Priest to learn Buddhist scriptures in the West.
But he didn't know Tang Priest and the Monkey King, and he ate Tang Priest's white horse by mistake. Later, the little white dragon was attuned by Guanyin Bodhisattva, and the angle was cut off and reduced in proportion to become a white horse dragon. He converted to Buddhism and offered the mount of Tang Priest on the way to learn from Buddhism. He worked hard and went through hardships, and finally achieved positive results. After returning from the scriptures, he was promoted by the Tathagata Buddha to the Eight Tianlong Guangli Bodhisattva.
After that, he recovered his body in the Hualong Pool and coiled it around the huge observation post of Radeyin Temple. In the catalogue or books of Journey to the West, Bai is often called a horse, and the five elements belong to water.
Bai is actually the second person to attend the Tang Priest after the Monkey King. But on the whole, he just silently served as the mount of Tang Priest, carrying Tang Priest to learn from the West, and did not participate in the battle; Only at the most critical moment, I will still act occasionally.
For example, in the thirtieth time, the Monkey King was driven away by Tang Priest because of the slander of Pig Bajie; The Tang Priest himself was turned into a tiger by a demon, and was locked in a cage by an iron chain, and his life and death were uncertain; At this time, Pig and Friar Sand were not around, and the Tang Priest was in a desperate situation because there was no one to save him.
At this point, Bai thought he would go to born to die if he didn't make moves, so he shook off the reins and saddle, jumped into the prototype of Huilong, sneaked into the palace, and became a maid-in-waiting to deal with demons, but was unfortunately injured and defeated. Finally, he blamed and instructed Bajie to go to Huaguoshan immediately to apologize to Wukong in order to beg Wukong to come back and save the master from danger.
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Role interpretation
In the process of studying and interpreting The Journey to the West, people have always had a special liking for the hero images in his works, because these images carry extremely profound meanings, as Zhang Shushen pointed out in the Qing Dynasty: "The so-called spirit, the eight quit sand monk, is at a loss."
(Journey to the West) In works, white is usually an insignificant image in people's eyes. He is a neglected image. The most typical example is the four Tang monks who are often mentioned to go to the west to learn from the scriptures.
Although Bai is not as vivid as the Monkey King and Pig Bajie, he is an indispensable member of this group. Among Buddhist scriptures, Bai's Journey to the West is the longest, and he is the most faithful actor and witness of Buddhist scriptures.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-White