72 Earthly Transformations
The 72 Earthly Transformations—Chinese 七十二变 (qīshí’èr biàn)—are the supernatural arts mastered by Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, in Journey to the West. They are often misunderstood as exactly 72 animal forms. In the original novel, they are better understood as a broad repertoire of magical techniques, including shapeshifting, invisibility, spirit control, elemental abilities, and escape arts.
The novel itself does not provide a definitive numbered list. The following commonly circulated list comes from later Daoist-style catalogs and translations, so names may vary.
The commonly cited 72 techniques
- Communion with the unseen
- Commanding spirits
- Carrying mountains
- Controlling water
- Borrowing wind
- Spreading mist
- Praying for clear skies
- Praying for rain
- Sitting in fire
- Entering water
- Covering the sun
- Riding the wind
- Boiling stones
- Spitting flames
- Swallowing blades
- The Gourd-Heaven art
- Divine travel
- Walking on water
- Staff release
- Splitting the body
- Invisibility
- Reattaching the head
- Immobilization
- Slaying demons
- Summoning immortals
- Pursuing souls
- Seizing spirits
- Calling clouds
- Fetching the moon
- Transporting objects
- Dream transference
- Dismemberment
- Staff substitution
- Cutting off a current
- Averting disaster
- Resolving misfortune
- Alchemy of gold and silver
- Sword arts
- Divination of hidden objects
- Earth travel
- Star calculation
- Forming arrays
- False forms
- Transformation by spraying
- Transformation by pointing
- Corpse liberation
- Shifting scenery
- Summoning
- Sending away
- Gathering beasts
- Taming birds
- Breath restraint
- Great strength
- Passing through stone
- Emitting light
- Barrier arts
- Dao-yin exercises
- Ingesting essences
- Opening walls
- Leaping across crags
- Reading omens
- Ascending in secret
- Drinking water
- Lying in snow
- Enduring the blazing sun
- Juggling pellets
- Talisman water
- Medicine
- Knowing the time
- Knowing the land
- Grain avoidance
- Nightmare curses
In practice, Wukong’s most famous applications are transforming into animals, people, insects, and objects, creating disguises, and using transformations in combat or deception. The number 72 also symbolizes a large or virtually unlimited range of earthly abilities rather than a strict limit.