"Eight Categories of Supernatural Beings", the title of this novel, is taken from the Buddhist scriptures. In many sutras of Mahayana Buddhism mention is made of the "Vyantara" who listen in the background when Buddha is preaching to the assembled Bodhisattva, Bhikshu etc. In the Devadatta chapter of the Dharmayasha Sutra it is written: "The Vyantara, people and non-people, all came to watch from a distance the apotheosis of the serpent-demon Bilva." The "non-people" here are beings who have certain human aspects but are in reality not human. The Vyantara are all "non-people", they consist of eight categories of supernatural beings. Because the most important of them are the celestial beings and the dragons, the Vyantara are in China also called "Celestial Beings, Dragons and Six Other Categories of Supernatural Beings". The eight categories of supernatural beings are: 1. Deva 2. Naga 3. Yaksha 4. Gandharva 5. Asura 6. Garuda 7. Kimnara 8. Mahoraga
"Deva" means "Celestial Being". In Buddhism celestial beings are not gods in the classical sense, they can just enjoy more things than human beings and have a higher life-expectancy. But in Buddhism nothing lasts forever and even celestial beings have to die when their allotted life-span is over. When one of the Deva is about to die, there are five omens indicating this: their clothes are getting dirty, the flowers on their heads are wilting, their bodies start to smell, sweat is secreted in their armpits and they can´t remain seated for any amount of time (the fifth omen is also called "The jade-women are scattering"). Those are the so-called "Five Signs of Decay of a Celestial Being", the deepest form in which Deva express their grief. Lord Indra is the leader of the celestial beings.
"Naga" means "Dragonsnake". The dragons in the Buddhist scriptures look basically the same as traditional Chinese dragons, but they don´t have feet; the big tigerpython is often called "Naga". Actually the way Chinese imagine dragons and dragon kings is primarily taken from Buddhist sutras. In the sutras mention is made of "Five Dragon Kings", "Seven Dragon Kings", "Eight Dragon Kings" etc. The old Indians deeply venerated Naga, they thought that they were the strongest of all water animals. Therefore they used to call a person of eminent virtue an "Image of a Dragon"; "Image of a Dragon Coming from the West" means for example a high monk coming from the Indus region. The Indians thought that rain was the result of dragons taking up water in the oceans and then showering it over the world. This myth has then spread into China, where it was noted in calendars how many dragons were going to take up water to indicate the amount of rain which could be expected in that year. Among the Naga kings there was one by the name of Shakala. His eight year old daughter went to Mount Gridhrakuta when the Shakyamuni was preaching there, assumed the physical shape of a man and was so impressed by Gautama´s words that she became a Buddha on the spot. As mentioned above, this apotheosis was watched by the Vyantara.
[Translator´s note: Women can not become a Buddha. They have to wait until they are born again as men in their next life.]
"Yaksha" are a kind of demon. In the scriptures "Eight Yaksha-Commanders", "Sixteen Yaksha-Generals" etc. are mentioned. The word "Yaksha" is derived from the verb "yaksh", "to be quick" and means originally a supernatural being who can eat demons. In the Vimalakirti Sutra it is written: "`There are three kinds of Yakhsa,´ the Shakyamuni said. `Firstly, the Yaksha on the earth. Secondly, the Yaksha in the air. Thirdly, the Yaksha in heaven.´" When we nowadays speak about Yaksha we always mean evil demons. But in the Buddhist sutras many Yaksha are quite benevolent. For example it is the duty of the Eight Yaksha-Commanders to protect all living beings.
"Gandharva" are a kind of supernatural beings who do neither eat nor drink but rely on perfumed air for their subsistence. They belong to the musicians who are playing for Lord Indra during banquets, their bodies are exuding a strong, fragrant smell. The word "Gandharva" is derived from "gandha", "smell", "the mere smell of anything", "small quantity" and means also "beings who have the faculty of changing their shape at will". In India stage-magicians and gamblers often invoke the Gandharva, a mirage in the desert is called "Gandharva town". Perfumed air and music are both vage, intangible things, hard to get a grip on.
"Asura" are a rather special kind of supernatural beings; the male ones are extremely ugly whereas the female Asura are exceedingly beautiful. The king of the Asura is always leading his troops into battle with Lord Indra because the Asura have beautiful women but nothing good to eat whereas Lord Indra has delicious food but no pretty women. Both sides are jealously trying to rob each other and in each of their fierce wars sky and earth are overturned. This is the reason why in Chinese a battlefield with heavy bombardment and corpses lying all over the place is often called "Asura field". The result of these celestial battles is always the same: each time the Asura are losing. Once, after a heavy defeat, the king of the Asura fled to heaven, then down to earth, but there was no place where he could hide. So in the end he shrunk his body and slipped into one of the fine holes in a lotos root. The king of the Asura has a choleric character, he is obstinate and jealous. When the Shakyamuni was talking in a sermon about the Four Truths, the king of the Asura also had to preach and was then speaking about Five Truths; when the Shakyamuni was preaching about the "Thirty-Seven Steps towards Enlightenment and Nirvana", the king of the Asura absolutely had to add one step and talk about the "Thirty-Eight Steps towards Enlightenment and Nirvana". Most of the monster tales in the Buddhist scriptures have a cautionary nature. The king of the Asura has great power and great capabilities but he continually misjudges situations, says things like "I am not susceptible to heterodox teachings" but in reality is continually plunging the world into chaos, according to the motto "The less order the better". Asura are generally suffering from a pathological suspiciousness. In chapter 35 of the Mahaprajnaparamita Abhidharma it is written: "Asura are often and without any reason suspecting that Buddha is helping the Deva. When Buddha is speaking about the `Five Constituent Elements of Being´ they say that in reality there are six constituent elements of being and he has omitted one element; when Buddha is speaking about the `Four Fundamental Truths´ they say that there are five fundamental truths and he is omitting one truth." The "Five Constituent Elements of Being" are the Panchaskandha, the "Four Fundamental Truths" are the Chatuhsatya; the Panchaskandha and the Chatuhsatya are elementary concepts of Buddhism. But when the Asura are hearing Buddha preach they suspect that he is aiding Lord Indra and is deliberately hiding facts from them.
"Garuda" are big birds, with magnificently coloured wings. On their head they have a big wart, the "wishing pearl". This bird has a very sad call and is living on dragonsnakes. An old legend says that the famous Song general Yue Fei was the reincarnation of a "great roc with golden wings"; the Garuda are just such great rocs with golden wings. A Garuda has to eat one dragon king and five hundred lesser snakes every day. When the death of a Garuda is approaching all the dragonsnakes are spitting poison, he has no way to continue eating, he is erratically flying up and down seven times, then he is going to the top of Mount Vajrakuta to die. BecaÜ¥eo die when their allotted life-span is over. When one of the Deva is about to die, there are five omens indicating this: their clothes are getting dirty, the flowers on their heads are wilting, their bodies start to smell, sweat is secreted in their armpits and they can´t remain seated for any amount of time (the fifth omen is also called "The jade-women are scattering"). Those are the so-called "Five Signs of Decay of a Celestial Being", the deepest form in which Deva express their grief. Lord Indra is the leader of the celestial beings.
"Kimnara" means literally "what sort of man?" They are mythical beings with a human figure and the head of a horse or with a horse´s body and the head of a man, often they also have a horn on their head. Kimnara are very good singers and dancers and belong - together with the Gandharva - to the musicians who are entertaining Lord Indra.
"Mahoraga" are serpent demons, with a human body and a snake´s head.
This novel is describing events in the kingdom of Dali (now the province of Yunnan) during the Northern Song-Dynasty. Dali was a deeply religious country, all the kings were devout followers of Buddhism; according to the "Nanzhao Yeshi" ("Inofficial History of the Southern Kingdoms") 10 of the 22 kings of the Duan-Dynasty (937-1253) renounced their throne and became monks. This is an extremely extraordinary phenomenon in Chinese history. The "emperor Duan" of the "Legend of the Condor Heroes" is none other than Duan Zhixing who was king of Dali from 1172 to 1200. The events of "Eight Categories of Supernatural Beings" are happening before those described in "Legend of the Condor Heroes". The story starts in autumn 1094, at the end of the Yuanyou period of the Northern Song emperor Zhao Xu, who was also known as Zhezong, and then continues into the Shaosheng period (1094-1098).
Each of the eight categories of supernatural beings has its own character and special magical skills, but although they are living outside of the space of human beings they do fully experience the joy and grief of this our dusty world. In this novel no supernatural beings make a personal appearance, I have just borrowed those terms from the Buddhist scriptures to symbolize the peculiarities of some of the characters, just like there are a Yaksha-Granddaughter Number Two and a Cloudscraping Goldwing-Garuda in the 14th century novel "Outlaws of the Marsh" by Shi Nai´an and Luo Guanzhong (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1988).