The term "Tianlong Babu" comes from Buddhist scriptures.Many Mahayana Buddhist scriptures narrate that when the Buddha preached to Bodhisattvas and monks, there are often eight dragons and dragons participating in listening to the Dharma.For example, "Lotus Sutra Devadatta Pin": "The eight divisions of heaven and dragon, human and non-human, all see the dragon girl becoming a Buddha from afar." "Non-humans" are sentient beings that look like human beings but are not actually human beings. The "Dragon Babu" are all "non-human", including eight kinds of Shinto monsters, because they are headed by "Heaven" and "Dragon", so they are called "Dragon Babu".Eight divisions, one day, two dragons, three yakshas, ​​four gandharvas, five asuras, six garudas, seven kinnaras, and eight mahurakas.

"Heaven" refers to the gods.In Buddhism, the status of gods is not supreme, but they can enjoy greater and longer-lasting blessings than humans.Buddhism believes that all things are impermanent, and gods will die after their lifespan ends.Before the god of death, there are five symptoms: greasy clothes, withered flowers on the head, filthy body, sweating under the armpits, and unhappy seat (the fifth symptom is "separation of jade girls"), which is the so-called "Five declines of heaven and man" is the greatest sorrow of the gods.Indra is the leader of the gods.

"Dragon" refers to the dragon god.The dragons in Buddhist scriptures are roughly the same as the dragons in Chinese legends, but they have no feet. Sometimes boa constrictors are also called dragons.In fact, Chinese people's concepts of dragons and dragon kings mainly come from Buddhist scriptures.There are five dragon kings, seven dragon kings, eight dragon kings and so on in Buddhist scriptures.The ancient Indians respected dragons very much, and believed that dragons were the most powerful creatures in the water. Therefore, they respected people with high morals as "dragon elephants".The ancient Indians believed that rain was caused by dragons taking water from the sea and pouring it down on the world.The Chinese also accepted this statement, and the calendars indicated how many dragons fetched water, indicating the amount of rainfall this year.Among the dragon kings, there was one named Shajuluo Dragon King. When he was eight years old, his young daughter went to the Vulture Mountain, which Sakyamuni said, and turned into a male body, and now she became a Buddha.When she became a Buddha, she was seen by the Eight Dragons.

"Yaksha" is a kind of ghost and god in Buddhist scriptures, and there are nouns such as "Eight Generals of Yasha" and "Sixteen Generals of Yasha". The original meaning of "Yasha" is a god who can eat ghosts, and it also means agility, bravery, lightness, and secrets. "Vimalakirti Sutra" note: "It says: 'There are three kinds of yakshas: first, on the ground, second, in the void, and third, celestial yakshas.'" Now when we talk about "yakshas", they all refer to evil spirits.But in the Buddhist scriptures, there are many yakshas that are good, and the task of the eight generals of yakshas is to "protect the world of all living beings".

"Gandharva" is a god who does not eat wine and meat, but only seeks aroma as nourishment. He is one of the gods of music who serve Di Shi, and his body emits a strong aroma. "Gandharva" means "unpredictable" in Sanskrit, the magician is also called "Gandharva", and the mirage is called "Gandharva City".Both aroma and music are ethereal, elusive. The "Asura" kind of god is very special, the male is extremely ugly, while the female is extremely beautiful.King Ashura often leads his troops to fight with Emperor Shi, because Asura has beautiful women but no delicious food, and Emperor Shi has delicious food but no beautiful women. They are jealous and rob each other. Every time there is a fierce battle, the world is always turned upside down.We often call the large battlefield that has been bombed and corpses strewn all over the place the "Sura Field", which is where it comes from.As a result of the battle, King Asura was often defeated. Once he was defeated, he went to the world and had nowhere to escape, so he transformed into the silk hole of the lotus root.King Ashura is irritable, stubborn and jealous.Sakyamuni preached the "four foundations of mindfulness", and King Ashura also preached "five foundations of mindfulness"; Sakyamuni said "thirty-seven levels of Taoism", and King Ashura added one more level, saying "three Eighteen items".Most of the myths and stories in Buddhist scriptures are metaphors.King Ashura has great power and great ability, but he likes to do things like "I don't believe in evil" and "the world is in chaos, the more chaos the better".Asura is also very suspicious. "Great Wisdom Theory Volume Thirty-Five": "Asura's heart is not correct, he often doubts about the Buddha, saying that the Buddha helps the sky. The Buddha said 'five groups', saying that there are six groups, It is not to say one thing; if you say 'four truths', you mean there are five truths, and you don't talk about one thing." "Five beings" are "five aggregates", and five aggregates and four truths are the basic concepts in Buddhism.Asura listened to the Buddha's teaching, suspected that the Buddha was partial to Di Shi, and deliberately said less.

"Garuda" is a big bird with various majestic and precious colors on its wings, and a large tumor on its head, which is a wish-fulfilling pearl.This bird sings in sorrow and feeds on dragons.It is said in the old story that Yue Fei is the reincarnation of "Garuda Dapeng", and Garuda is the Garuda Dapeng.It eats one dragon king and five hundred little dragons every day.At the end of its life, the dragons vomited poison and couldn't eat any more, so they flew up and down seven times and flew to the top of the Vajra Wheel to die.Because it feeds on dragons (big poisonous snakes) all its life, it accumulates a lot of poisonous gas in its body, and when it is dying, it sends out poisonous gas and burns itself.After the body is burnt away, only one heart remains, which is the color of pure blue glaze.

"Kinnaruo" means "human beings are not human beings" in Sanskrit.He has the same shape as a human, but with a horn on his head, so he is called "human is not human". He is good at singing and dancing, and is the god of music for Di Shi. "Mahuraka" is a python god with a human body and a snake head. This novel is named after it, and it tells the story of the Dali Kingdom in Yunnan in the Northern Song Dynasty. Dali is a Buddhist country, and the emperors believed in Buddhism, and they often gave up the throne and became monks. This is a very peculiar phenomenon in the history of our country.According to historical records, among the emperors of Dali, Emperor Shengde, Emperor Xiaode, Emperor Baoding, Emperor Xuanren, Emperor Zhenglian, and Emperor Shenzong all absconded as monks.The Southern Emperor Duan Huangye written in the book is the emperor of Dali Kingdom.The era before.The story of this book takes place in the years of Zhezong Yuanyou and Shaosheng in the Northern Song Dynasty, around 1094 AD.

The eight gods and monsters of Tianlong Babu have their own unique personalities and supernatural powers. Although they are sentient beings outside the human world, they also have the joys and sorrows of the world.There are no gods and ghosts in this novel, but this term is borrowed from Buddhist scriptures to symbolize some real-world characters, just like the mother Yasha Sun Erniang and Moyun Golden Wing Ou Peng in "Water Margin".