272 Beijing Opera Performers - Yellow-Robed Monster
Number 242

Yellow-Robed Monster

Beijing Opera - "Kingdom of Precious Elephants"

Yellow-Robed Monster with a yellow symbolic face plays an important part in the list-opera "Kingdom of Precious Elephants." The monster is one of the 28 personified constellation in "Pilgrimage to the West." He has secretly come down to earth to seek the worldly joys and, meeting Monk Sanzang and his disciples, kidnaps the monk. The monster's wife is a princess of the Kingdom of Precious Elephants, who has been abducted by the monster and forced to marry him. When the monster assents, she writes a letter to her father and secretly gives it to the monk. Learning of the whereabouts of his daughter, the king begs Sanzang's disciples Pigsy and Sandy to rescue her. Monkey has been sent away by Sanzang because of a misunderstanding over the killing of the White-Bone Demon, but now Pigsy persuades him to come back. Together they vanquish the Yellow-Robed Monster and escort the princess back to her kingdom.