Who Is Ao Guang, Dragon King of the East Sea?
The sea king who lost the As-You-Will Staff
Ao Guang, Dragon King of the East Sea, is the dragon king who rules the Crystal Palace beneath the Eastern Sea. The dragon kings of the Southern, Northern, and Western Seas are his younger brothers.
When Wukong barges in demanding a weapon, the Dragon King offers him a great sword, a heavy trident, and a halberd, but Wukong rejects them all as too light. At the suggestion of his queen and daughter, he shows Wukong a pillar of divine iron that the ancient ruler Yu once used to measure the depth of the Heavenly River. Wukong shrinks it and takes it home: this is the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Staff (Ruyi Jingu Bang). Wukong also makes the Dragon King's brothers hand over a crown, armor, and boots, and the Dragon King later complains to the Jade Emperor.
The staff is said to weigh 13,500 jin (about 8 tons). Later in the novel, Wukong often calls on the dragon kings to bring rain.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 3
There's Just One Way to Never DieThe Ruyi Jingu Bang and the Book of Life and Death
Wukong wants a weapon that can protect his friends, so he storms the Dragon Palace beneath the Eastern Sea. There, an iron pillar on the seabed becomes the Ruyi Staff, which grows and shrinks at his command. That same night, after drinking with his new sworn brothers, his soul is dragged to the Underworld, and he wipes his own name and his friends' names from the Ledger of Death.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 4
Hired by Heaven, Stuck in the StablesGreat Sage Equal to Heaven
Invited to Heaven, Wukong is made "Bimawen," keeper of the Heavenly Horses. He works day and night without sleep, then learns the job is so low it doesn't even have a rank. Furious, he goes home to Flower-Fruit Mountain and names himself the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. He drives off Heaven's army, and Nezha is the first to call him by that name. But what Heaven finally gives him is a rank with a big name and nothing else.
19 pages