The Diting (;

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

: ''Đế Thính'') is a divine mythical creature and the steed of bodhisattva

Kṣitigarbha Kṣitigarbha ( sa, क्षितिगर्भ, , bo, ས་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ་ Wylie: ''sa yi snying po'') is a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. His name may be tr ...

Chinese Buddhism Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism which has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including art, politics, literature, philosophy, ...

. One interpretation of its single horn was that it could receive information across the universe. It could also be used to attack and defend. Its hound ears were like a universal radio, transmitting the ability to distinguish good from bad to all believers.

Body

The Diting combines the feature of many beasts in one body: head of a tiger, body of a dragon, tail of a lion, horn like a

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

, ears like a dog and foot like a kirin.

Legend

Joinville-le-Pont Linh Son Dia Tang blue dog

Legend has it that Diting is actually a white dog. In some tales, before Kṣitigarbha left Heaven to assume his new life as a monk, he found that his mother from his past life would be reborn as a dog. Then Ksitigarbha was reincarnated into the human world as

Kim Gyo-gak Gim Gyo-gak (김교각, 金喬覺, 696-794), or Jin Qiaojue in Mandarin, also known as his buddhist name Jijang(地藏), was a Korean Buddhist monk believed to be the manifestation of Ksitigarbha at Mount Jiuhua, one of the four sacred mountains ...

, a prince of

Silla Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...

. When he grew up, he traced the dog and adopted, which then became his companion. Kim Gyo-gak had studied in Tang China in his early life. After going back, he decided to give up his life in the royal family to be a monk and then left to

Mount Jiuhua Mount Jiuhua () located in Chizhou, Anhui Province in China is an important Buddhist site and natural scenic spot. It is one of the four famous Buddhist mountains in China, one of the first batch of 5A level scenic spots in China, one of the fir ...

with his dog. He became a monk under the Chinese name Dizang "Kṣitigarbha". The dog followed the

dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

as well and often acted as Ksitigarbha's guard. When Kṣitigarbha became enlightened, the dog became Diting who guards hell. In ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popu ...

'', when

Sun Wukong The Monkey King, also known as Sun Wukong ( zh, t=孫悟空, s=孙悟空, first=t) in Mandarin Chinese, is a legendary mythical figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'' ( zh, ...

was arguing with the

fake Sun Wukong The following is a list of characters in the Chinese classical 16th century novel ''Journey to the West'', including those mentioned by name only. Main characters Sun Wukong ("Monkey King", 孙悟空) Tang Sanzang ("Tripitaka", 唐三藏) Zh ...

, they went to

Diyu Diyu () is the realm of the dead or " hell" in Chinese mythology. It is loosely based on a combination of the Buddhist concept of Naraka, traditional Chinese beliefs about the afterlife, and a variety of popular expansions and reinterpretations ...

to seek help. Ksitigarbha referred the monkeys to his steed Diting, given the latter's ability to differentiate all creatures in the world. Diting was able to distinguish the true monkey, but he knew the fake monkey will wreak havoc in his abode once exposed, so he asked Ksitigarbha to send the duo to Buddha instead.

References

{{reflist Chinese legendary creatures Buddhist legendary creatures Kṣitigarbha