Black Myth: Wukong's Hidden Cultural Gems Explained

[@Ratmothy]

IMPORTANT: My main channel is now @TheRatmothy UPDATE: Part 2 and 3 is out :D NOTE: I simplified a lot of concepts for this video so it didn't drag on too long One thing I do want to mention is that Yang does not necessarily mean good as some have pointed out. You can even hear me in the video hesitating to simplify down things to "good", but I used that word because I couldn't think of any other word to use in this context. I suppose it would be better to phrase it as more respectful in the context of what I was talking about. I hope you all enjoyed and please have a wonderful day! If there is enough interest I'll make a part two and if you're new to my channel... hey hey check out my other videos I think you'll like 'em hehehe Edit: I got the picture right, but when writing the subtitles my brain turned off and I mixed up Shanxi and Shaanxi my mistake

[@agencyax8438]

Actually, Shanxi(山西) and Shaanxi(陕西) are two different places. The place you pointed out on the map is correct, but the name you used is wrong.

[@fishsohorny]

I just wanna say that it's obvious you put a lot of effort into being unbiased and impartial in your coverage.

[@木水-l4h]

I'm so happy that there is finally someone on youtube that made a video about 'Loong is NOT dragon'! I have to say that for these years Chinese netizens have been holding a grudge against western media translating 'loong' to dragon which to Chinese people is very inappropriate! Because we refer to ourselves the descendants of Loong. Loong is our people's totem(图腾). If Loong is Dragon which has its origin from europe, then you can see how unacceptable to a Chinese that is. By helping western people understand the fact that Loong and Dragon have NO similarity, you sir deserve a 大大的赞！ 感谢up主正本溯源！要是在B站一定三连！

[@leshy1878]

A funny thing about the headless singer; I'm from Aberdeen, and my adoptive brother was Chinese, but gained our Scottish accent. He embraces his "family" (us) with our accent and customs, and his lineage(Chinese) by playing the Sanxian and singing Chinese songs. He ended up dying in an accident in his workplace two years ago where a hydraulic on a bulldozer failed while he was inspecting the bit and was decapitated. The Headless Singer sounds exactly like him, and he even lost his head to boot. Words cannot describe how many happy tears I cried when I heard him speak normally, bc it reminded me so much of him. He used to call me Monkey Prince as a joke because I had scraggly hair like a macaque and had the arrogance of a spoiled prince up until I was about 16, then he called me Wukong once I "Stopped being a jackass". This game seriously helped me heal, and I beat this game in his name- even though I averaged like 40 tries for each boss bc I'm still incompetent at Soulslikes. (edited bc autocorrect changes Sanxian to Shamisen for whatever godforsaken reason)

[@the_loyal_sif8393]

Thank you for sharing a bit of your brother's memory to us. I'm glad the game was able to help reminisce about him. :)

[@ezyfnef]

I ache for your loss. I'm sorry 😢

[@horacioaust]

Actually, you can´t define Yang is good, Yin is bad, there is no such concept in chinese culture. Yang is activeness, hot, masculine, and a lot of other things, and Yin is passiveness, cold, femenine and other things, but never good and bad. The whole point of the concept of Yin Yang is duality, that everyting in the world has duality, nothing is just good or bad.

[@dutchmilk]

why do you even bother when the one making the video doesn't even give a shit about what they are talking about.

[@fanalt6971]

Nice info thanks

[@mave2k]

Good = when Yin and Yang is balanced Bad = when there is unbalance

[@PeebeesPet]

The whole point of yin-yang is that duality is merely superficial and fundamentally doesn't exist. Almost everyone makes the same absurd error by saying yin AND yang. There is no AND. It's not two things but one. Hence yin-yang.

[@mave2k]

@@PeebeesPet my guy, that was unnecessarily condescending. 😂 But I'll ask you some questions. If there is no duality, does it mean that yin is yang, and yang is yin? Do those two words mean the same thing? If they do, why do we have two words? The yinyang symbol is black and white. Why two colors if there is only one? Shouldn't it be just one circle with one color? Not trying to be a dick. Just asking questions.

[@phuchoang9756]

The animation for Zhu Bajie is just str8 up beautiful 😭

[@TheP2WGuy]

another fun fact, most of the locations in the game are actually 3D scanned in real life, Which means you can find the exact building or temple or tower etc in China now.

[@theonesithtorulethemall]

So that’s why the boundary’s suck so hard

[@oscarliu4418]

A little confusion in the headless singer part. That music is from 陕北，northern Shaanxi 陕西 （shǎn xī）， which does not mean west of the mountains. West of the mountains is 山西 shān xī, (normally Shanxi in English, just 1 a). That would be the province immediately east of Shaanxi.

[@motofan16]

Also, you just looked at the Shaanxi map. It’s about the size of the Great Britain. The headless monk is having a northern Shaanxi accent corresponding to a Scottish accent in the English dubbed version.

[@yixuanouyang7676]

this is by far one of the best english explanations for these small in-game details. you should make more of these

[@GewalfofWivia]

Wukong out-ranked all these local deities well before his reward of Buddhahood. His job in the Celestial Court was not that of a lowly stable hand as many mistakenly believe. He was in charge of all the court’s stables and all the associated staff. If you draw a line between the bureaucracies of actual Ming China and the fictional Celestial Court, someone who oversees the royal stables would actually be really, really damn powerful. And, very importantly, his self-proclaimed title of Great Sage was never officially revoked, and many deities from low to relatively high, would still occasionally address him as such.

[@rryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

um, to be honest with you, his stable hand job was lowly, it is not the 正四品官 as most people might have thought but instead a 正堂管事，or so to say a local stable keeper (in ming that would have been 正九品官, the smallest of the smallest, a 牧管，rather then the 御马监, most people would have thought to be.) um sorry but i dont know how to translate the chinese words

[@akdk8572]

also something to do with daoism since wukong studied in a monistary under puti

[@Ozempic-666]

the heaven really want monke to think highly of his Stable Boy job

[@Ratmothy]

Oh... gonna keep it real. I came to the conclusion that it was a lowly job (before he got the peach tree job) simply because Sun Wukong threw such a fit once he found out what his job's rank was lol, but very interesting :o

[@sws212]

I mean, that’s not the lore.. He was given a lowly out of the way position that did nothing. The court wanted him out of the way and didn’t respect him while he was dissed from being given a blank title of no consequence. It doesn’t really matter if it was important in the human court, the interpretation by the author was that he was given a nice sounding do nothing position in the heavenly one.

[@karaagequeen]

Another interesting fact to add to incense burning is that Wukong never blows out the stick of incense with his mouth like many people would do with a candle. He shakes it with his hand to fan out the initial fire since it is considered disrespectful to blow since it can transfer spit

[@Soneoak]

The story of Zhu Ba Jie and Chang'e Zhi Zhu, is a tragic story of how Chang'e and family became a tool of the heaven's manipulation because of supposedly how they defied the heavens. There are other videos covering this. Zhu ba jie was actually cursed to be reborn 1000 times and suffer heart breaks each time as punishment, but in trying to escape his ordeal, attempted to run from his door of rebirth, only to fall into another for spirits destined for rebirth into a lower 'animal' realm. (It's a buddhist religion thing about the various realms, how one can be reborn and ascend above into a higher realm but all are part of the cycle of death and rebirth until one becomes enlightened, reaches nirvana and escapes the cycle)' Unfortunately, his 'diety' spirit that was meant to be human didn't fully turn into an animal, and BOOM, he became a half pig half human hybrid. The story then branches off and we get Chang'e as a spider demon that Zhu Ba Jie was supposed to kill but ended up sparing on his journey to the west,. Actually he seems to always fall for lots of demons on the journey when they shape shift to look like pretty women or feeble elderly/children, which is supposedly considered as a merit as many of them turn out to be - not so bad. This modification of the story (addition rather) suggests that Zhu Ba Jie in trying to break from his own karmic cycle of 1000 rebirth cycles of failed romances, manages to find and supposedly stay with his 'lover' Chang'e zhi zhu, in his cave prior to being discovered by GuanYin and asked to go on the journey. (And here we also have to assume that Zhu Ba Jie is supposedly at rock bottom despite finding his love, and had thoughts about improving their overall situation) He remembers his hardship in being a pig demon as he was 'growing up' in this life, and decides to change his fate again leaving behind his old cave, and supposedly Chang'e Zhi Zhu, and hopes somehow that her fate would change with him gone, as he was the reason she became like this. We have to assume that Chang'e in trying to follow Zhu Ba jie when he turned into a pig, herself decided to jump into the animal reincarnation path and ended up a spider (Zhi Zhu), instead of a pig (Zhu, or Yi Zhi Zhu (a single pig). And it also plays into the farmer weaver complimentary roles of the man and woman. In the end, that's what we see with the game and the ending scene, that Zhu Ba Jie tries to push her away and plays a part in her death and accepts it with the destined one as part of his plan to correct his past mistakes of letting her live. She seems to still not have let go with her parting words, but he has to keep on his path for his plan to work out. (Noted that throughout the Journey, Wukong is there to somehow break apart families that are in supposedly broken situations, and in turn taking them out of their doomed karmic cycle)

[@bigsadge747]

I didnt know that chang’e too got casted down, i thought it was her maiden that got casted down

[@ChaseYu]

Here’s some fun facts for you based on the JTTW story, Wukong out-ranked all local deities(celestial), because Wukong’s the «great sage equal to heaven» title actually got approved by the jade emperor. Although Wukong does not have any “authority and armies” in heaven and the celestial court, but he is powerful and he didn’t get any demotion in heaven and banished to the mortal realm, he was only lost to the Buddha during a bet. And so, his status is still the same. Also, him sealed under the mountain for 500 years ( that’s the mortal time, and that’s like 500 days in heaven ). So, he was like..made a big mistake in a big company and they send him home for a a few months kind of situations, he didn’t get demoted or fired. 😂

[@thewatcher62]

Yo he got lucky because he made a bet with Buddha. If he made a bet with Jade Emperor instead that would be instant banishment since he would pee on the Emperor hand. Bajie only accidentally looked at Jade Emperor affair and got instant banishment + curse for the next 1000 love life. Imagine what would Wukong get if he put in similar position

[@ChaseYu]

@@thewatcher62 in the game, the story is very different for Bajie than the JTTW, for the game, while some say that must be the jade emperor, cause only he got the power to banished the Tianpeng Marshal, but then there are others that says that the in-game items showcase that, it’s probably someone else backstabbed Bajie, because according to some players, based upon the information that they’ve read on some characters in the game, there is a certain celestial in heaven that like to go around and “report” others in their the back. Anyway, whatever the case is, Bajie’s punishment of suffering a thousand lifetimes of tragic love is “unfair” I guess, but then again, wukong also got sealed under the mountain for 500 years! 😅

[@thereptile9467]

@@thewatcher62 What the Jade Emperor gonna do against the monkey? They tried to kill him several times and it was only Buddha who managed to seal him.

[@huskytzu7709]

@@thewatcher62the emperor couldn’t do anything to Wukong that’s why he pleaded Buddha to step in. Wukong was too powerful for anyone but Buddha. Even Buddha never really beat him so he resorted to sealing him instead.

[@WinterRabbit1]

This is also why he still retained the title Bimawen (keeper of the heavenly horses). And why he could accidentally command Bai Long Ma in that one chapter.

[@nobodyxviii]

This was a great video. Honestly I wish you would have made it waaaayyyy longer and covered everything you could for the entire game. Love the way you break things down.

[@Ratmothy]

Thank you! And for sure a longer video I could have provided way more details and not have to condense and simplify things.

[@dyelahn1392]

@@Ratmothyif you ever have the time i think a lot of us would LOVE an even longer form video delving into each. either way i loved the video

[@nobodyxviii]

@@Ratmothy I agree. I got the feeling that's what you were doing. I personally would have looked you to keep yapping but that's just me.

[@tiabillyzju]

fun fact: the anime “dragon ball”, may should be translated as "loong ball", since the it was more likely to be "loong" they summoned.

[@huskytzu7709]

Loong ball 💀

[@SadMoribund]

Wrong, it is exclusively and only called a Dragon (Doragon Bōru, Doragon specifically being the word for Dragon in Japanese). It is never referred to as anything else in the series, definitely not 'Loong' at least. Divine dragon, eternal dragon though- Yes.

[@ToasterPizzaFun]

​@@SadMoribundThat said, the actual dragon in Dragon Ball, Shenron, is just the Japanese way of saying Shen Loong or Chen Loong, so you could still make the loong connection.

[@SadMoribund]

@@ToasterPizzaFun Shenron and Japanese Dragons in general are heavily inspired by Chinese Loongs, however the Japanese seem completely indifferent as to which you call their Dragons & very often still recognize both in their pop culture. China on the other hand has some that are very passionate about making the distinction between the two (scanning through the comments, a lot of chinese people seem to still debate this). Regardless Shenron is definitely considered a dragon by the franchise.

[@CantoniaCustoms]

Tbf compared to European dragons, Chinese ones are kinda Loong boys haaha

[@木水-l4h]

I'm so happy that there is finally someone on youtube that made a video about 'Loong is NOT dragon'! I have to say that for these years Chinese netizens have been holding a grudge against western media translating 'loong' to dragon which to Chinese people is very inappropriate! Because we refer to ourselves the descendants of Loong. Loong is our people's totem(图腾). If Loong is Dragon which has its origin from europe, then you can see how unacceptable to a Chinese that is. By helping western people understand the fact that Loong and Dragon have NO similarity, you sir deserve a 大大的赞！ 感谢up主正本溯源！要是在B站一定三连！

[@Ratmothy]

THANK YOU!!!! There's so many comments here by obviously not Chinese people that are telling me that a loong is a dragon

[@Mr.Starlight_gaming]

What would be a good translation for them you think?

[@gavinliu3945]

For most of us we are not Sun Wukong nor the destined one. We are like Bajie, we are doomed to be normal persons or the sidekick of Sun Wukong if we are lucky. So pls treasure those ones who love you and follow you no matter who you are and what you become. That's the best we can do in the mortal world that would be the way that makes our story beyond Bajie's or even beyond Wukong's.

[@chopcheesekim]

that chapter 4 scene almost had me in tears the way i interpreted it they really know how to tell a story

[@Ratmothy]

All the animations were just so good

[@danhope9124]

wow，Chinese here，I must say this is a marvelous job，can't be more accurate myself，well done.

[@Ratmothy]

Thank ya!

[@francesccampos1343]

Great video! When i finished chapter 4 i knew i was missing a lot about Bajie's story, specially about why he got cursed or transformed into a pig. Thank you!

[@SwampBeats666]

One important Buddhist concept of reincarnation is that we had known our lovers, parents, siblings and some friends from a past life. If there's any "debt" or "unfinished business" from a previous life, there will be a chance to repay in the next.

[@Shauk]

This video is great. Thanks for making this. It's not every day that cultural referances are summarized in such a palatable way. Really shows this game was a love letter from it's people to it's people.

[@Ratmothy]

I appreciate it :D

[@NyaKarma]

So Yellowbrow is known to manipulate people into doing evil deeds, which means the dream that the scholar had in the chapter 2 animation could probably be caused by yellowbrow. After killing the fox, he then manipulated the scholar further into becoming his disciple and eventually become Non-Void

[@EvolvedFinch]

Please make a part 2. This was so informative and intriguing. I will even admit I too thought Loong was the type of dragon not just what it was specifically which made it not a dragon 😅. Also surprisingly some places in the US do hold World Fairs where like you described people come dressed in their culturally native garb and it’s basically one big cultural cookout of food from around the world.

[@Ratmothy]

Part 2 is in the works! And I really want to go to the World Fairs you're talking about it sounds so fun

[@EvolvedFinch]

@@Ratmothy Yes! Made sure to subscribe so I’ll be looking forward to it! Already on chapter 5 though with every Yaoguai King defeated thus far so much more lore is to be discovered and discussed. 🧐

[@soutengames]

I think a lot of your points were spot on! I would love to hear more of what you know about this.

[@athomenotavailable]

Bajie‘s story in the game animation was modified significantly from the original novel. This modification is actually inspired by how Bajie's story was modified in the relatively recent webnovel 悟空传 by 今何在, who was himself inspired by Stephen Chow's two famous 1990s movies that also drastically modified Journey to the West.

[@longle202]

Love story of Wukong also based on another movies, seem like dev used those story to make characters closer to us

[@specialtofu]

@@longle202 which movies have Wukong love story so i may watch?

[@longle202]

@@specialtofu i don't remember the name, it been long time since i watched it

[@rei_hsym]

It's different from the tv that i watch, not remember which series tho What i remember is Bajie was a human, got sent to hell and born to suffer many times(not remember quite well but i think its a punishment for peeking at girls, plz correct me), then before he was born as Bajie he accidentally fall into Animal's hole and born as a pigman, got saved by Guan Yin and be a part of gang to the west

[@Temstar04]

Bajie was demoted from his rank of admiral of celestial fleet and punished because at a previous peach feast he got drunk and was harrassing Chang'e the moon goddess. It's actually more grievous than that and it was a big embarassment to the Jade Emperor, so he made it a HR issue publically and punished Bajie harshly.

[@blessedsoldier2199]

Cool history, didn't expect to learn about Chinese folklore from you. But it's a surprise for sure.

[@Ratmothy]

Thank you! I know this was a reallyyyy different video from my usual stuff but I figured it wouldn't hurt to post about a subject I'm interested in haha

[@shenmai]

We offer incense to respect the gods. And we only use left hand because we commit most of our crimes with right hand so left hand is seeing as more pure when we offer our respect.

[@justtrainingv1z]

Bro the way you explained Baijes story made me tear tf up 😭

[@Ratmothy]

It's truly so sad ;(

[@TrungTH1190]

Thank god they didn't use the original Bajie' story from the book, cuz that'd ruin Bajie for you.

[@limhaoming]

Very informative. More please. Thank you.

[@Ratmothy]

I appreciate it! And yes I really do want to cover more Black Myth in the future if there is enough interest

[@okano1082]

thanks, being chinese myself, i found your video is great for informatic purposes; btw, i cried so bad during zhubajie's scene in the game it was just so sad

[@Ratmothy]

Yay I'm glad you enjoyed! That was indeed a really sad scene

[@lapoudrerouge7671]

I think that the "another girl" is the woman who got married to bajie because they got tricked by his transformation. After that, Wukong's arty went there and help the family to get rid of him. But bajie was also instructed to join the party, and that's why they continued together.

[@alexhuang3965]

A bit more explanation on why Chang'e becomes the spider: She heard that her lover was turned into 'a pig' - a pig in Mandarin Chinese is 一只猪（pronounces 'yi zhi zhu'), which can be quite confusing and mistaken into 一蜘蛛（same pronunciation 'yi zhi zhu' but totally different meaning as 'a spider'. HOW SAD :((((((

[@Jammineyeonline]

Bro, that chapter 4 ending movie really made me tear off. Baji really became my favorite character in the game. And its sad that end of journey to the west, he was the only one who wasnt forgiven and given his wish to be human again!

[@tonykaze]

just started ch4, I really appreciate the spoiler warnings and generally awesome video. really awesome editing man!

[@MouseCIick]

I thought long means dragon. But obviously not like European dragons. They are more like serpent. I remember the story of magic carps (lol) swimming up stream to reach the long gate where they will become long. They even added this in the original Pokémon snap.

[@thienlo]

Yeah, it is dragons live under the oceans in the novels. I thought European dragons can spit out fire because they have fuel in their stomach.

[@webherring]

Ya, loong is just dragon. Chinese dragons are different from European ones but can still be called dragon. Like if Chinese dogs are different from European dogs, you still translate as dogs, don't have to resort to pinyin.

[@Kiharu62]

龍 is not serpent, serpent is 蛇, they're distinctly two different animals. Unlike in Western culture where a dragon is oftentimes called a serpent. Even in zodiac, you have 辰 and 巳. Once again two different animals.

[@lanubo-b6t]

No, Loong is not the dragon. The Loong was created more before than BC 4000, it may be from constellation worship which is called 「青龙」or 「苍龙」, it is an abstract of spring, birth, and germination or growth. In BC 700, there were many different Loong in the books, like 「夔龙」which may be an abstract of `lighting` or `storm`, the 「烛龙」is an abstract of `aurora polaris`. Then Buddhism introduced another type of Loong into Chinese culture, the Naga, which is called 「龙王」, yes the origin of the Naga is spent, but it is just one type of Loong.

[@Alasterius41]

@@Kiharu62 There is a tradition/practice in China of referring to snakes as “小龙”。Historians have traced the evolution and origin of the motif 龙 directly to Ancient Chinese worship of snakes (remember 女娲 also had a snake body). It is even written in ”Records of the Great Historian” 史记 that 龙 evolved from snakes 蛇: [Quote] 古代神话中的重要元素“龙”，实际上很大程度上取材于蛇这种动物。我们首先从外表上分析，龙体态悠长，可弯转盘旋，浑身覆盖着华美的鳞片，这些统统是蛇的特征。《史记》中则对龙蛇有这样一句描述：“蛇化为龙，不变其文。”这里的文其实就是纹理的意思，这句话的意思就是：“龙由蛇转变而来，身上的花纹也继承自蛇的鳞片。”

[@sycamorewest]

This is real quality upload for english brothers. Cheers from a fellow Chinese.

[@Clayjar444]

Great video. Just a note, the western idea of a dragon you're talking about is mostly modern. The farther you go in the past, the more similarly to serpents they are depicted. That is the reason in English a dragon is sometimes called a wyrm.

[@fenchen531]

“exclude certain periods of history” hits hard btw, the left is Yang in Daoism, that's correct.

[@Ratmothy]

AHAHA I'M GLAD YOU CAUGHT THAT 💀

[@EsKaioS]

Great insight on a lot of the stuff! Though 龙 literally means dragon. I get your point about how dragons from a western perspective are different, but afaik the loong in the game is just dragon, in mandarin from a Chinese perspective.

[@Kinos141]

I'm very happy to see a game about a culture made by it's residents. I would love to see more games made by different cultures with their perspective in mind. We already have books, music and movies in this style, it's time for games to catch up.

[@Soneoak]

Wukong outranked a lot of the deities in the Celestial court after throwing a huge tantrum for being given the title of Bi Ma Wen - horse care taker, and then later finding out it wasn't a signifcantly powerful rank, and then being 'promoted' to Great sage of the heavens (Qi Tian Da Sheng), that rank was official, but it supposedly held no power/armies, just that he could command respect and didn't have to show it to others and could talk to the emperor as an equal peer. He never lost this rank, and on the actual journey, he would frequently fly to various heavenly/ocean/hell/bhuddha courts to ask for assistance, or just demand it from the local deities. And then yes, he also then ascended to Bhuddha at the end of the Journey which would put his rank on par with the gods. He can do whatever he wants, the shrine and joss stick is just him leaving a hair so people don't pluck it out and toss it away, and he gets to just respawn there when shit happens. He used his left hand because he holds his staff with his right, and he doesn't care about yin or yang, cos he's monke.

[@huskytzu7709]

Also he’s rebellious. If he’s supposed to do something then he’ll purposely do it wrong or the other way around lol

[@MJY8290]

I love this, i can still tell chinese isnt his first language but his knowledge of chinese history is fantastic

[@martins-2960]

bro you’re fr godlike to just give a spoiler warning 🗣️🔥🔥🔥

[@Ratmothy]

Hell yea man

[@kaythia-s9h]

Make a part two, this was really interesting.

[@Youkai_graphics]

for the left hand....I dont think its that deep, whenever i do that in a temple or visiting my ancestors, i just put one or a few down with one hand. As for wukong, its probably because he's holding his staff on his right hand.

[@Chefteguh]

i think its also to show how wukong is rebellious. remember he calls himself "Great Sage, Equal to Heaven"

[@migarsormr5561]

Actually that Convention idea sounds amazing

[@volcanicdawn8046]

If i remember i read somewhere that during the song there is a part where a male singer says dont look back while a female one says do look back, probably indicating that Bajie want her to forget him and move on while she wants him to look back and continue this cicle

[@zxfish1991]

Pog, wish you gain lots of views

[@nothingbutnet5]

Very informative video thank you!

[@Ratmothy]

Thank you and glad you and enjoyed it!

[@Victor-pb5qx]

love the content keep up the good work

[@Ratmothy]

Thank you!!

[@llih0074]

Very well explained! More video please!

[@Ratmothy]

In the works!

[@KerryBuchanan]

This game and its depiction of the culture is just pure art.

[@YugiStudio23]

Chapter 4 is straight up a soap opera and gives me the feels every time I see it. 😭

[@SanarySeggnete]

The human girl that first meet Bajie was the direct reference to the trouble that led to him joining the Journey to the West. Bajie came down to the earth, he fell in love with the village chief daughter (typical Bajie thing...), he was hard-working, strong, but eat a little bit too much, but the trouble started when he and the human girl want to take the next step (marriage), his cover got blow, and his true form showed, which led to him failed to marry her. Bajie, being Bajie (as well as an ex-Heaven general) kidnapped his fiancé and demand his father-in-law to accept their marriage. That was when Wukong and his master travelled to the village, and Wukong gave Bajie a good bonking. The reason Bajie didn't get the Buddhahood was also related to this, Bajie promised the village chief and his daughter that he would return after the journey and ask her hands for marriage. Bajie didn't join the journey to seek the Buddhahood in the first place.

[@SanarySeggnete]

About Western Dragon and Eastern Dragon (Loong), both of them reference difference things, Western Dragon normally reference the things that human fear most: poisonous swarm, earthquake, volcano, etc. So Western Dragon have many kinds and forms, the most popular were the one living in mountain and breathe fire (Volcano). Eastern Dragon Loong is closer to deity than monster, they are a reference to the river deity, so they are loooooong, and look like a snake, because it's how a river look. Because Loong is river deity, they are also water deity, and since water and river are 2 most important things to the life to Ancient China, blessing human by both the fertile soils and raining, Loong became the symbol or Imperial. Funny enough, Chinese mythology have both snake monster, river monster, and Loong, they are mostly looking same but 3 difference races. You can spot a Loong from normal loooooong monster by their 4 legs, their tail and their head.

[@Axiom0912]

Great video, I would point out a few things though. The song of the headless monk is the Shanxi 陕西 style instead of Shanxi 山西. They sound almost the same😅. Chang-Er is not the spider spirit. Actually she is portraited* with all green dress and she looked down* on Pigsy. The seven spider spirits from the* original story are incarnations of the seven goddesses (七仙女)...Pigsy in his orignally form met one of the goddesses (in pink dress). Hoped this helps! Love the video❤

[@Ratmothy]

You're absolutely right that is my bad

[@ryth-2401]

Sometimes it got me thinking, why Chinese and European both have their own version of a powerful mythical creatures with scales, can fly and has the power of a certain element. Maybe they've seen something similar irl during the ancient time. Probably not a creature but some natural phenomenon they can't explain

[@hanchiman]

Man, this is a good well research video about China history that is brief but detailed. Some detail I didn't even know, even though I am Chinese myself. Like the Left Hand and how Shaanxi people are associate as "Brave but brash". Also the Cantonese one beside eat everything, we (I am from Canton area), we are pretty much "Practical" and might appear rude with our being too "Blunt" during conversation and criticism

[@logancade342]

I can't express how happy it being called *a loong* makes me. 😆

[@dude-fk2rn]

The spider demon was not chang e. It was her maid.

[@xAgonisx]

Bro, I was so confused when he said Chang E turned into a spider.

[@shem44]

When we go temple, we insert the incense using left hand as told by the taoist priest. Never both hands.

[@ravenseah2368]

The left hand thing is because it’s the Azure Dragon which is more respectful compared to the right (White Tiger)

[@AvarageYakuzaEnjoyer]

Why is pig Baije so cute in the animation? He is quite farm from cute based on his personality lmao.

[@TomL13]

pig knows he's cursed so he acts like an Dbag to hide his own suffering.

[@15wuhao]

i think his personality is cute too

[@Arus_战巡]

1、 Left for Yang and right for Yin, that's from the point of view of traditional Chinese medicine. But that's not always the case, it could be the other way around from other point of views. When you put a stick of incense to a shrine, it actually doesn't matter how you do it, one hand, both hands, nobody realy cares. A simple explaintion to that he always uses left hand is: the right hand is unavailable, it's holding the weapon. 2、 Taiyin（太阴星君）and Chang‘e（嫦娥） Taiyin is the moon itself, Chang'e is a goddess living on the moon, they are not the same. For reference, you may look into the 95'th chapter of the original book, where Taiyin and Chang'e show up together. In the animation, Zhu Bajie was chasing Chang'e, but accidentally run into a maid. In the original book, Zhu Bajie was once a marshal in the Celestial River（天蓬元帅）, he was drunk after a feast, wondered to the moon palace, and harassed Chang'e, who lives there. Chang'e reported this to the jade emporer, and he got the purnishment of being kicked out of the Celestial system and be a mortal. But in the process of sellecting a fetus to hold his soul，he accidentally chosen a pig's fetus, that's why even with some of his original abilities preserved, he still looks like a pig, and even uses Zhu (猪, means "pig" in Chinese) as family name.

[@thisisbadstuff]

I mean, with the dragon thing, both of these creatures have been called the same word by either culture. It's been that way since the two cultures made contact with each other, so that's just the way these words are going to translate like it or not. It's not like the Chinese would have a different word for European dragons, either. They differentiate the creatures the same way people in the West do it.

[@just_a_guy9688]

Yep. I thought there would be some subtle insight he'd brought up. Turns out dude was just being pedantic lol.

[@thisisbadstuff]

@just_a_guy9688 Same here. Thought maybe he'd talk about a dragon-like creature in Asian culture I didn't know about like the whole wyvern vs dragon thing.

[@longdang1119]

I'm Vietnamese and I always put the incense by one hand, cuzz it's more convenient. My name is Long and in Vietnamese it means Dragon. Another older word which came to Vietnam first now Rồng, which can be used as a native word for Dragons. We use the word to call all kinds of Dragons, western or eastern, even Indian Dragons. Don't know why Chinese nowadays want to seperate the concepts. Western people knew about Eastern Dragons too. All what is a Dragon?

[@Cri_Jackal]

In the view of professionals and professors that study this sort of mythology, they _have_ insisted on separating these concepts. Historical evidence points to these "serpent beasts" as all being created independently across various cultures, having nothing to do with each other in any way. Conflating them all as one concept was a misinterpretation from when these cultures first started studying each other, combining these unrelated myths together has resulted in a LOT of confusion in the nitty gritty of understanding them. If we are to use a unifying term for them, it should be a unique word separate from the local terms for a giant mythical reptile, calling the serpents of the Easr "dragons" doesn't really paint the correct picture for the English speaker presumably using that term like that.

[@longdang1119]

@@Cri_Jackal but how about Vietnamese, Japanese and Koren Dragons when translated to English? You think we'll use YOUR word loong to translate the dragons??? Nah, nah, bro. Just nah. You Chinese should stop thinking you own the whole Asian continent. No one wants to use your pronunciations. It's just wrong. Mandarins is very far from being the true Chinese. Your pronunciations are off in many ways and we won't use that. And what'll happen when Korean games start using Ryong, Japanese Ryu, and Vietnamese Long (or Rồng) for Dragons? Nothing but more confusing. What about Indian Dragons, the Naga, the origin of all Asian Dragons? How about all kinds of mythologic Dragons in the world? We are using English, and you just want to make things complicated. Of course there are all kinds of names for Dragons, but we use one word to call them in English. Just accept that.

[@hisousihou]

Loong and Dragon actually share similar origins and early imagery. For a long time, East Asians accepted 'Dragon' as the translation. However, with the rise of cultural awareness in recent years, many have realized that Western dragons have evolved to be quite different from Eastern dragons, especially in terms of their symbolic meanings in culture. As a result, people have decided to use 'Loong' as a transliteration instead.

[@AdamFJH]

No, the CCP wants people to use the word Loong cause tension between westerners and us Chinese.

[@vampyricon7026]

A transliteration coined entirely by nonnative speakers and completely disregards the sound structure of English words.

[@hisousihou]

@@vampyricon7026 If you take a closer look at modern English structure and vocabulary, it becomes clear that native English speakers don't really care about these things either. After all, as English spread across the world through colonization, people from all backgrounds started speaking it. The language has lost any singular 'core culture' or dominant ethnic group that could claim ownership.

[@vampyricon7026]

@@hisousihou What is valid in a language is determined by its native speakers, and "loong" is not accepted by native speakers. To the vast majority of them (with minor exceptions from the north of England), /lʊŋ/ is not a valid syllable in English (and even in the north of England, you'd have to exclude those who retain the consonant cluster /ng/ instead of the /ŋ/). Furthermore, Wiktionary only records two "words" as having the rhyme /ʊŋ/, one of which is "loong", and the other of which ("moong") redirects to "mung", which says the valid pronunciations are /mʌŋ/ and /muːŋ/. Saying that "people" have accepted "loong" only shows that you have not been exposed to the wider world. Every native speaker still calls that a dragon. But putting all that aside, if you really accept the two concepts as so separate that they demand completely different words, will you refer to the Western dragon as a /ˈdɹæɡən/ even while speaking a Chinese language? 《迷宮飯》第一集一開始就有一隻dragon了。那隻dragon更把主角吃掉了！

[@vampyricon7026]

@@hisousihou >Native English speakers don't care about these things. Their inability to actually say it as prescribed should tell you all you need to know about its suitability as a real word.

[@ffserenity6889]

This video is so good. Please make more!

[@sixteen6774]

well shaanxi 陕西 means west of “Shan county” while shanxi 山西 means west of the mountain。it‘s two different provinces with two very similar names（only differ in tone）

[@iepvienredstoneHuy007]

minor correction at 13:26 , technically none of the characters here are "humans", they are gods, or at worse, holy spirits (it's the closet term that i can think of to describe them) and Baije is quite a big shot god on the heavenly court, that is until he got sent down to reborn as a pig

[@YureiOni]

That music in chapter 2 with the headless dude playing the sanxian is so cool

[@kunchen3278]

are you chinese bro? you known so much. great stuff

[@Ratmothy]

Yup! I'm ethnically Han Chinese and thanks man :D

[@helxsz]

great explanation

[@Ratmothy]

Thank you!

[@nokiaphone113]

Can you explain the rest of animated cutscenes in the game as well? I really like how you explain bajie’s history. Clearly you’re knowledgeable when it comes to chinese cultures

[@BOBO42012]

you remind me of the dude that carries the team in school presentation

[@Ratmothy]

Ahaha thank you

[@seekx2y556]

Good work!

[@Zundzer]

I would love to see more of this especially a spoiler video!

[@Richea-k6h]

2:51 “no spoilers” just spoiled the big plot twist 10 sec ago

[@Ratmothy]

ngl I never even thought of it as a plot twist... I just thought it was obvious lol

[@AshyBoneVR4]

I loved this explanation. I wanna ask if you could explain the movie at the end of chapter 5, but part 2 is out so I'm guessing/hoping you did there.

[@SwampBeats666]

Good vid. Needs more views! 😊

[@TAL142]

Ancient wisdom is pretty interesting since Yin Yang have been used a long time ago. It has more to do with balance than which side is good or bad. But the energy of the left hand is more yin, and the energy of the right hand is more yang. The left hand is controlled by the right brain which is responsible for more flowing and intuitive thought - a yin characteristic. May be that is the reason for using only the left hand for the incense. While China has general practice that boys on the left and girls on the right. And left side of the stair is up direction and right side of the stair is down direction. This I don't think has anything to do with the incense hand.

[@vincenthychow1119]

What's interesting is that the story is supposed to be taking place in the Tang dynasty. However, the definition of beauty is very different from the modern day perception. None of the spiders in the game would be considered beautiful women during that time. In fact, during the Tang dynasty, extra size women were considered beautiful.

[@captives6479]

Wukong is placing the incense stick with his left hand because his right hand is holding a much bigger stick.

[@peiyucheng2841]

The description of Zhu Bajie's love is completely wrong. The person who fell in love with him was not Chang 'e but a palace girl in the sky.

[@damonchong]

Bro what? I am Chinese myself. Loong literally means dragon, the only difference is their background setting. Asian dragon being long, slim, 4 legs and without wings, while western dragon being big bulky with wings. Still they are both dragon. For the yin and yang, i dunknw if wukong using his left hand is an intention from the dev or not, but as far as i can tell, for ppl who don’t bother to pray like myself, they will just light the incense stick and place it into the ashes, without actually praying, so it doesn’t matter which hand he/she is using. But if really want to give it a meaning, it would be 男左女右. It means male left, female right. You can tell this by looking at which hand and ears Chinese wear watch and earring. Male typically wear their watch and earring on left side and female at the right side. If a male do wear earring on the right side, that usually mean he is telling others he is homosexual. And fun facts, in video he explains 左阳右阴. You can understand it as, 阳(yang) left = warmth/sun/medicine, 阴(ying) right = cold/moon/poison. And in Chinese culture, this would also represent left = male(more hot blooded energy/attitude), right = female(more demure, calm, collective, calculative attitude)

[@tonypeng1815]

I had to disagree. You will see more Loong in the future as culture confidence rise in China. Chinese will no longer try to find a similar western equivalent for translation of Chinese origin stuff. Dumpling will just call jiaozi

[@damonchong]

@@tonypeng1815in the video he said a loong is a loong not a dragon. This is very confusing and wrong, yes i get the idea the wanna separate it from the gold digging greedy western dragon. But at the end, loong is 龙, is a freakin dragon. The loong is not even the proper pinyin for it, is a made up word just to try their best to separate it from western dragon. The proper pinyin for 龙 is long. If want to be specific, is Lóng, which literally is 龙/龍

[@tonypeng1815]

@@damonchong It's not confusing at all. I hope the Chinese translation of dragon ditch the 龙 character using something entirely different like 爪根。

[@damonchong]

@@tonypeng1815 what are you smoking bro? 龙/龍 character has been around for thousands of years and is the most royal symbol reference towards the king. And u want to remove the root of it?

[@tonypeng1815]

@@damonchong 龙/龍 character is reserved for loong not dragon as two creature are completely different from both the look and culture.

[@Quintessence4444]

So Loongs aren't giant reptiles that fly and breathe elemental uh.. magic i guess? Fire dragons are the most known but other elements aren't rare either. In Wukong they're all lightning for some reason but China has fire ones too.

[@justtrainingv1z]

@@Quintessence4444 he’s saying Loong being classified as a dragon is inaccurate as Loong are meant to be a separate, it’s similar to calling a qilin/kirin a chinese unicorn or unicorn. It was only classified as a dragon under colonization

[@justtrainingv1z]

Learning that lōng aren’t dragons gave me a existential crisis 😂. But it makes sense as it’s a western term coined over what a lōng is, similar to kirin/qilin being called an a chinese unicorn

[@Ratmothy]

I'm glad you get it! I lot of people don't seem to understand that just because loong was translated to dragon in English doesn't mean it is a Dragon lol

[@justtrainingv1z]

@@Ratmothy even Japans word of Dragon is Doragon, Ryū means Loong

[@dephpeter5264]

This is because the initial translators want to find an existing word in another language to do the translation of a thing that cannot be translated.

[@justtrainingv1z]

@@dephpeter5264 some creatures deserve to stay in its native tongue. We shouldn’t call a wendego abominable snowman but people do.

[@dotjaz]

Shanxi 山西 means west of the mountain, Shaanxi 陕西 isn’t the same. Shaan is an ancient place related to old Shang and Zhou Dynasties 4:52

[@YureiOni]

This game was incredible.

[@POSEIDONsea]

Nice explainations. Just a small correction, Chang E (the rabbit ear woman due to association with Jade Rabbit) is with Hou Yi the Archer. Bajie was sent to mortal world for harassing Chang E while drunk. Fell into a pig sty by accident and turned into a pig. That lady Bajie bumps into, I assumed is a Spider gong niu in the heavens, (Gods do have guardians pets (insects or animals) that eventually follows Bajie to earth.

[@holeeshi9959]

1. Left is Yin as in hand, showing left hand is actually disrespectful in certain circumstances. and no, Yin is not "evil" but Yin does have a death connotation, since people in China wear their robes with right side over left for living and left side over right is reserved for the dead. and the main character using "left hand" could be "he is technically dead" 2. also appropriate since Shanxi is known for its desert climate and also the Shanxi folk storytelling is often done by disabled people historically. 3. Chinese people also call European dragons "Long" so Long=Dragon is more or less agreed upon. some Chinese dragons do breath fire(and DND has water/poison etc dragon) and I guess flying big lizards are king od similar. 4. The Bajie and Chang'e is actually original to the game and not the original novel 5. Tang dynasty outfits are unique in Hanfu since they incorporated a lot of nomadic designs from the North, the coolest part is one of the girls is technically wearing what is supposedly male fashion.

[@Leoninhk]

as a chinese of an ethnic minority currently based in Hong kong, this video is super interesting. I didnt even know about the difference between hanfu and othyer ancient styles like the Qipao. I feel like the video can use less full in-game cutscenes or other video in general. Your way and pace of explaining the info is captivating enough, i personally just skipped the sanxian and the animation part. lookin forward to part 2

[@T-h-a-t_G-u-y]

“As a Chinese of an ethnic minority” do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?

[@drhuydc]

I think he just uses his left hand to place the incense because he's holding his staff with his right lol

[@blueloop4205]

I might actually start to read journey to the west it seems so great

[@WymondTheWerewolf]

Can we talk about how Wukong has better hair than I do? #Jealous

[@jessetoews2446]

Liked, subscribed

[@ArkDiabLord]

Chinese native here, that spider is defined not Chang’e, that’s 紫儿(Zi-Er) young purple girl, who is the 7th daughter of Queen mother of the west, who the admiral bumped into in the animation, the girl that wears purple dress.

[@onvasean2485]

There is also a weird teaching about which side a newly wed couple should be sleeping on, with the man sleeping on the left side and the woman sleeping on the right side of the bed 男左女右 and because man is considered to be yang and woman for yin, I am sure it is also in someway related to the saying of 左阳右阴

[@biocapsule7311]

Actually no, you don't place incense with both hands. Only 1 will do, practically a must. You pray using incense with both but placing it into the incense urn is a 1 hand job. Because usually you have a whole bunch of incense in 1 hand. And each altar that requires incense only require a specific number. So you take out the right number with one hands and place with while the other hand whole the rest. Placing it with 2 hands usually happens with very very specific rituals where there's someone else there passing you the specific number of incense. A rare occurrence, not for casual or daily worship. Maybe some places or people always do both hands but not where I am from.

[@xmaple1x]

In the books , wukong is mostly respectfully towards the earth deities that govern the parts of the land they travelled. [Until he lost his patient when he couldn't win the fight against the demon of the earth deities govern area or earth deities give him a bad suggestion/faulty intel]

[@EadricRicmund]

The point on 90% of Chinese is Han and the concept of most minorities in China is Chinese is contentious when you look at Chinese archaeology and history. In historical texts, only people that came from zhong yuan (area between the two rivers) are considered Han and everyone outside of it was considered as barbarians. Hence the concept of Bei Man and Nan Man. Where Bei Man is primarily referring to Mongolians and Manchurian while Nan Man is Cantonese and Tibetan, though modern historical shows depicts them as Nepalian and Indian. Even then archaeologists finds that in Zhong Yuan there were originally three different ethnicities (one of them is Han). However because the first Dynasty in recorded history was Han and Chinese folklore claims the mythical dynasties that came before it was ruled by an ethnicity called Huaxia which is the mythical ancestors of Han, to receive the Mandate of Heaven, one must proclaim themselves as Han. This resulted in China’s 90% Han population despite many, culturally, and probably ancestral genetically wasn’t actually Han. This could also be seen in the fact that even for dynasties that were known to be ruled by minorities in China, the rulers still make great emphasis in studying and mimicking Han culture. If it isn’t because every dynasty and government that ever ruled China want to “unify” the lands and if it isn’t because calling yourself Han Chinese puts you into the “privileged” class (yes there are poor Han Chinese people in history but they were still treated better than minorities that are considered as barbarians), China would end up being more like Europe.

[@vladimirpootis3200]

In Vietnam Loong and dragon have the same meanning to us instead of being two different creature.

[@MegaWedge]

Loong is a type of dragon Like a wyrm is pretty much snake but still a type of dragon Loong is pretty much the old term for the chinese dragon but they are the exact same thing

[@木水-l4h]

Actually I'm relieved that there is finally someone on youtube that made a video about 'Loong is NOT dragon'! I have to say that for years Chinese netizens have been holding a grudge against translating 'loong' to dragon which to Chinese people is very inappropriate! Because we refer to ourselves the descendants of Loong. Loong is our people's totem(图腾). If Loong is Dragon which has its origin from europe, then you can see how unacceptable to a Chinese that is! Loong and Dragon have NO similarity! Period!

[@MegaWedge]

@@木水-l4h if I named a loong a "sock" it'd still be the same thing just named differently