Lu Wu, Kunlun's Tiger-Bodied Warden

What the Shan Hai Jing says

Kunlun is the most sacred mountain in the Shan Hai Jing, and Lu Wu is its keeper. In the third book of the Western Mountains, the route that began at Mount Chongwu with the Jufu reaches Kunlun Hill, and the text says plainly what it is: the lower capital of the Di, the Heavenly Emperor, his seat on earth. The god Lu Wu is in charge of it.

Lu Wu has a tiger's body with nine tails, a human face and a tiger's claws. His duties are cosmic: he oversees the nine divisions of heaven and the seasons of the Emperor's gardens. He is less a beast than a high official of the gods, a gatekeeper and steward rolled into one. Few gods in the book are given so clear a job.

The rest of Kunlun Hill

The same entry fills Kunlun with marvels. There is the Tulou, a goat-like beast with four horns that eats people, and the Qinyuan, a bird like a bee as big as a mandarin duck whose sting kills animals and withers trees. Another bird, the Chun, manages the Emperor's clothing and implements. There is also the shatang tree, with yellow flowers and red fruit that tastes like a plum without a stone; eating it keeps a person from drowning. Several great rivers rise here, the Yellow River among them. Kunlun is pictured as a well-run divine estate, with Lu Wu at its head.

Lu Wu, Kunlun and the Queen Mother of the West

A little further west in the same book is Mount Yu, home of Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West. Here she is not yet the gracious goddess of later legend but a wild figure who looks like a person with a leopard's tail and tiger teeth, wears a sheng headdress on her unkempt hair, and is in charge of heaven's plagues and punishments. Lu Wu and Xiwangmu are neighbours in the same divine region of the far west.

In the later book Within the Seas: West, Kunlun is described again, with nine gates guarded by the Kaiming beast, which has a body like a great tiger and nine heads, each with a human face. Some readers see the Kaiming beast and Lu Wu as two descriptions of the same guardian; the text itself does not say so. Either way, both figures make Kunlun a place that cannot be entered freely.

Lu Wu in our game

In Beasts of Shanhai Lu Wu is a commander. He stands at the front and draws attacks, and at the start of every battle he raises the attack of the whole team, the way the warden of Kunlun keeps all of heaven's divisions in order. He is a metal beast costing 3 Gold, and his rally grows with each star, so a team built around him gains more from every attacker it adds.

Kunlun Warden in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Kunlun Warden is a Metal beast that costs 3 Gold. Its skill is Team Rally. Guard. At battle start all allies get +15% attack (at least +1). This rises to +20% (at least +2) at two stars and +25% (at least +3) at three stars.

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