The Monkey King Unit
Part A: Favorites
Handsome King of the Apes
From a high rock in the Great Sea, a stone ape is hatched from an egg. The Lord of the Heavens, frightened by the sudden golden radiance that emanates from the ape's eyes, sends two gods to see what has happened. They report that a stone ape has been born by magic and need not be feared. The stone ape grows up among the other apes and one day they decide that whichever ape can get through a waterfall which sits high up on a mountain without getting hurt will be the king. The stone ape, of course is able to do such, leaping in and out of the waterfall and showing the others what he finds behind the fall. He is appointed king, with other monkeys as his attendants.
The Great Sea
The Monkey King is distressed by the imminence of death and despairs to his subjects. An older ape tells the King that there exist three beings that can escape death: the Buddhas, Blessed Spirits, and gods. The King asks where these beings can be found and the old ape tells him at the tops of the highest mountain and goes out to seek their knowledge. While he is searching, he happens to hear a man singing in the woods...This reminds me very much of the Tales of Buddha in that the despair of death and suffering leads the king on a quest.
Sun Wu Kung Gets His Name
The singing belongs to a woodcutter, who the Monkey King mistakes for a saint. The woodcutter tells the King where he can find the actual saint. The Saint welcomes the Monkey King into his home and makes the King his student, giving him the name Sun Wu Kung. But the Monkey King has trouble leaving off his wild nature and is reproached by the master.
The Master
I found this story pretty funny. The Master inquires of the Monkey King what he wishes to learn. Sun Wu Kung declines to learn about anything that will not earn him eternal life. The Master, apparently, becomes frustrated with the King and strikes him over the head 3 times before withdrawing to his own quarters. We learn, however, that the Master was only pretending to be angry and is giving Sun Wu Kung a coded message. The message is that the Monkey King must meet the Master in secret and then will he be given the Great Truth. Sun Wu Kung picks up on the message immediately showing that the Monkey King does possess wisdom even though he is portrayed rather comically at times.
Learning the Art
The Master is impressed with the Monkey King's perception of his message and decides to reveal to him the incantation that would allow him to concentrate his powers. The Monkey King masters this art after a relatively short time, but the Master reveals that while he is seeking truth and knowledge, the Monkey King will be in danger of three beings. In order to protect himself, the Monkey King must learn the incantation that will allow him to transform himself 72 times - it does not state why there is a limit on the number of times he can transform, maybe that will come into play in a later story. Soon the Monkey King masters this art as well and is able to fly up to the clouds and walk on them. I think this may be a metaphor for the elevated level and truth and knowledge that the Monkey King now possesses that is far above the heads of all, including his very own teacher.
Sun Wu Kung Departs
I feel that this story may be foreshadowing what will become of the Monkey King and his "monkey-mindedness." Sun Wu is talking with the other disciples of his Master teacher and tells them that he can change his shape to whatever he wishes. The disciples demand a demonstration, telling the Monkey King to transform himself into a pine tree. Eager to impress the other disciples, Sun Wu obliges, despite the fact that the secret to his transformation is supposed to remain just that - secret. When the Master happens upon the display, he is angry and reprimands the Monkey King, demanding that he leave and tell no one who his teacher was. If he tells, the Master threatens, he will have his soul locked up in the deepest part of hell. Sadly, the Monkey King swears not to tell a soul and departs from the company of the Master and his disciples. I believe with near certainty, simply based on the character that has been revealed thus far, that Sun Wu Kung will be unable to keep this promise and will suffer consequences.
The Devil-King
This story was a little strange, but probably my favorite so far. When Sun Wu Kung returns home, he is greeted by his apes who tell him that not long ago a Devil-King arrived and tried to take their home by force. They were able to fight him off, but he carried away many of their children and was expected to return. Sun Wu is outraged and flies off to the north where this Devil-King is said to live. He demands to see the Devil-King who scoffs at his seemingly unimpressive appearance. The Devil-King is huge and clad in black armor, but he is clumsy and so Sun Wu Kung is able to fight him. This is where things begin to get a little strange. During the fight, Sun Wu pulls a hair from his body, chews it up and spits it out, and commands it to transform into hundreds of small apes that can fight the Devil-King. He does this with all 84,000 of the hairs on his body, thus demonstrating the power he has learned from the Master. After the Devil-King is defeated, Sun Wu releases the apes that had been prisoners and returns home in a cloud of triumph with the Devil-King's knife as a trophy.
The Nether World
After finally obtaining a weapon worthy to protect his family and his home from the Dragon-King - a long powerful rod that grows and shrinks as commanded - the Monkey King falls into a sleep. He dreams that he is led down to the Nether World. He is furious because he has learned from the Master how Death can be conquered. He demands of the princes of Death to see the book of life where he finds his own date of mortality. He strikes his name and the entire ape family from the book, so that they will now be immortal. When he wakes up, all that he has done in his dream takes effect, and none of the apes ever die.
Part B: Favorites
The Lord of the Heavens
The Lord of the Heavens, Jade Emperor, receives complaints about the Monkey king from both the Dragon King and the princes of Death. Everyone in Heaven seems to want to punish Sun Wu but the Evening Star alone speaks on his behalf, saying that he has attained truth and knowledge and should be forgiven his sins. Then, the Evening Star is sent down to retrieve the Monkey King and bring him up to Heaven so that he might be given a charge. He is placed in charge of the heavenly stables, albeit with some misgivings from those in Heaven whom he immediately offends, but nonetheless, he excels at his charge.
The Great Saint
Once again it is demonstrated that Hubris is not a strictly Greek vice, because this is where the Monkey King begins to get himself into serious trouble. He discovers, at the feast in his honor that his title of stablemaster is not one of great honor. He is furious and decides to go back down to earth to reign as a true king, forcing his way out of Heaven using his magic rod. When he arrives back at his mountain, his apes tell him that he has been gone for ten years (he thought he had only been gone a few days). Monkey King decides that he is better suited to live on earth and decides that he should henceforth be known as The Great Saint Who is Heaven's Equal.
Notscha, Son of Li Dsing
The Lord of the Heavens is concerned by the Monkey King's abrupt exist and sends a party to capture Sun Wu and imprison him. Among this party is Notscha, the third son of the Lord of the Heavens. He is a great warrior, but even he is no match for the clever trickery of the arrogant Monkey King. Once again, the Evening Star intercedes on behalf of Sun Wu and proposes that Sun Wu be given an empty title in order to appease the Monkey King's ego but not give him any real power. He is officially given the title the Great Saint Who is Heaven's Equal, which is, apparently, a very high title. The fact that the Monkey King blindly accepts the title without questioning its charge or real meaning show that, for all his cleverness, his arrogance leads him repeatedly to foolish acts and decisions.
The Queen Mother of the West
Per his chargeless title, the Great Saint spends a great deal of time loafing around and doing as he pleases. The Lord of the Heavens begins to worry that with such idleness mischief was sure to ensue (as they say, the idle mind is the devil's playground). He decides to give the Great Saint a seemingly small charge - guarding the sacred life-giving peaches of the Queen-Mother. The Great Saint accepts this charge with great enthusiasm and it seems that all will go well, that is, until he discovers the power of the sacred fruit he is to protect. One group has the power to give great health, another prevents the consumer from aging, and still another group gives everlasting life. The Great Saint eats to his hearts content. Meanwhile, the Queen-Mother is preparing for the banquet and sends her fairies to collect the fruit in baskets. They discover that much of the fruit is missing.
Laotzse
This story provides really the straw (or series of straws) that broke the camel's back, if you will, in terms of the patience of the Lord of the Heavens for the Monkey King. His true selfish nature is revealed once and for all. From the fairies, the Great Saint learns of the banquet (to which he was not invited) and freezes them where they are so they are unable to tell anyone anything. Through a series of deceptive acts and trickery, the Great Saint manages to divert a god from the banquet, get himself drunk on the sacred nectar of the Heaven, and consume a great deal of life giving pills from the sage Laotzse. Feeling that he has gone maybe just a little too far this time, the Monkey King decides to returen to earth once and for all. For a moment, I feel that he may feel remorse for what he has done, however, he then steals more nectar from its storehouse to take to his ape children proving that he is not sorry for what he has done, but worried that he will be caught.
Yang Oerlang
So the Lord of the Heaven's is reasonably furious about the entire situation and considers how this rogue ape might be stopped. His daughter suggests that he send his grandson, Yang Oerlang, to defeat the Monkey King. They are pretty evenly matched, both can shift shapes, both are strong, and both possess special weapons. So they fall into a battle - one of strength, wit, and wills. Neither can seem to outdo the other.
The Destiny of Sun Wu Kung
After enlisting the help of Buddha to help subdue the out of control Monkey King, those in the Heavens manage to temporarily trap the Monkey King. Once he escapes the Buddha calmly approaches the Monkey King and tells him of his desire to tame the ape. Sun Wu is that anyone try to tame someone as powerful as he. Buddha says that if he is so powerful, Sun Wu should be able to leave Buddha's hand - if he does so, Buddha will beg for pardon of the Lord of the Heavens and if not, we will have to yield to Buddha. The Monkey King somersaults and somersaults until he believes he has reached the edge of the earth. He writes his name so that he can prove that he has been there and then returns to Buddha, feeling triumphant. However, Buddha reveals that what Sun Wu thought was the edge of the earth was really Buddha's middle finger. So Sun Wu has lost and is captured under a mountain for hundreds of years. Once he is reformed, he becomes an assistant to a Monk and is then know as the Wanderer. On his head, he wears a golden circlet that the Monk has the power to tighten if Sun Wu disobeys, but it is, apparently, rarely needed. Maybe the Monkey King has learned after all.
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