Adventures of Monkey

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 1501 CE–1700 CE

Country or Culture: China

Genre: Myth

Overview

The adventures of Monkey, a cycle of mythical Chinese stories about a tricky monkey king with supernatural powers, is contained in its full, authoritative version in the Chinese novel Xiyou ji (Hsi-yu chi), known in English as The Journey to the West. The oldest existing version of this novel was printed in China in 1592. The character of the mischievous monkey king appears to be drawn from traditional Chinese folklore. Many scholars believe that the character of this Chinese monkey king was influenced also by the Indian monkey god, Hanumān. Hanumān is a prominent character in the Indian Sanskrit epic Rāmāyana, created perhaps as early as the fourth or third century BCE.

In The Journey to the West, Monkey’s adventures are told in two distinct plots. The novel opens with the first plot as Monkey is born from a stone egg. Intelligent and playful, yet also ambitious, courageous, and rebellious, he becomes Handsome Monkey King of a monkey kingdom. As a disciple of the Daoist (Taoist) immortal Subodhi, Monkey is given the new, semireligious name of Sun Wukong. Gaining great supernatural powers, Sun Wukong is invited to heaven. As punishment for his wild mischief there, Buddha himself imprisons Monkey beneath a rock for five hundred years. In the second plot, Sun Wukong is freed by the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang), also known as Tripitaka. Xuanzang wishes to travel to India to bring Buddhist scriptures from there to China. On this perilous journey, Sun Wukong becomes guardian, protector, and the most powerful, effective, and loyal fighter for Xuanzang. Their ordeals typically involve supernatural and shape-shifting enemies, which test all of Monkey’s powers and abilities.

With The Journey to the West, there is one definitive text of the novel but no final scholarly consensus about its author. The authoritative 1592 text was printed with a preface stating that the author is unknown. This was a strategy of literary authors in China at the time. They did not want their reputation as serious writers to be sullied by association with a piece of popular fiction officially held in low esteem. It is also clear that the novel incorporates many older myths and folktales, particularly concerning Monkey’s support for the pilgrim Tripitaka, which can be found in texts dating to the thirteenth century. Since the early twentieth century, the Ming dynasty writer and minor official Wu Cheng’en (Wu Ch’eng-en) has been considered the anonymous author of The Journey to the West. However, the historical and literary evidence supporting this attribution have failed to persuade some scholars, and the matter remains under dispute.

An archetypal analysis looks at Monkey as a remarkably versatile and creative trickster hero. Both his rebellion against the gods and his loyal and resourceful support for Tripitaka are analyzed in light of his quality as archetypal character. This analysis shows that Monkey is richly imagined and well integrated into the many popular mythical stories contained in The Journey to the West. An approach from new historicism and cultural criticism shows how the relative peace, prosperity, and stability of the Ming dynasty gave rise to lengthy popular novels. Among them, The Journey to the West profits in reader popularity due to its masterful incorporation and presentation of the adventures of Monkey, which have become the true distinction of this novel. A feminist analysis reveals that occasionally Monkey must rely on the help of the female bodhisattva Guanyin (Kuan-yin or Kwannon), balancing out male power in the story.

Summary

In Anthony Yu’s translation of The Journey to the West, the adventures of Monkey begin right after the novel opens with a retelling of the traditional Chinese myth of the origin of the world. Atop Flower-Fruit Mountain, a big stone is impregnated “with a divine embryo” (1: 67). The stone gives birth to an egg, which the wind transforms into a stone monkey. Stone Monkey leaps up with fully formed limbs and an adult monkey body. It mingles with other monkeys on the mountain. Soon, Stone Monkey jumps through a waterfall to discover Water-Curtain Cave. This is an ideal dwelling place for all monkeys. Because his discovery makes him their accepted leader, Stone Monkey appoints himself Handsome Monkey King.

“He [Sun Wukong] strode right up to the tiger, crying, ‘Cursed beast! Where do you think you are going?’ Crouching low, the tiger lay down on the dust and dared not move. Pilgrim Sun aimed the rod at its head, and one stroke caused its brain to burst out like ten thousand red petals of peach blossoms, and the teeth to fly out like so many pieces of white jade.”

After some three to four hundred years of carefree life, Monkey King realizes that his death will come eventually. After a farewell feast put on by the other monkeys, he leaves his cave and mountain to embark on a voyage to find immortality. Traveling across the ocean to a different continent, Monkey King meets the first humans on the shore. He strips one man of his clothes and begins to mingle with people: “With a swagger he walk[s] through counties and prefectures, imitating human speech and human manners in the marketplaces” (Yu 1: 75).

On the next continent, Monkey King finally finds the Daoist immortal Subodhi. Initially reluctant to take him on as disciple because he is a monkey, Subodhi eventually relents. Subodhi gives him a new name, Sun Wukong. The Chinese character for Monkey’s surname Sun alludes to him being a monkey. Wukong has been translated as “awakening to vacuity” or “awakening to emptiness,” a Buddhist religious concept somewhat ironic for a monkey to represent.

Trained by Subodhi, Sun Wukong’s “mind [becomes] spiritualized,” and he gradually acquires supernatural powers (Yu 1: 88). These include mastery of the art of the seventy-two transformations into different animate and inanimate forms, as well as using any of his eighty-four thousand hairs to change into either a copy of himself or another object. Sun Wukong learns the art of cloud-hopping, traversing 108,000 li (33,554 miles) in a single leap. However, when Monkey shows off his prowess to other disciples, Subodhi dismisses him and Monkey returns home.

At Water-Curtain Cave, Monkey finds that Monstrous King of Havoc is harassing his monkeys. With his new powers, including the creation of a little monkey army from his hairs, Monkey King fights the monstrous king. Snatching his enemy’s scimitar, Monkey brings it down “squarely on the monster’s skull, cleaving it in two” (Yu 1: 97). Reestablished in Water-Curtain Cave, Monkey King arms his monkeys and goes on a quest to receive a mighty weapon for himself from the Dragon King of the Eastern Ocean. He successfully takes along a heavy iron staff, the “Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod” (1: 108). It is very heavy, over 17,800 pounds. It can shift its shape to become as little as a needle, which Monkey carries in his ear when he is not using his staff as a weapon. In a dream, Monkey journeys to the underworld. There, he wipes off his and his monkey friends’ names from the ledger of souls to be summoned to die.

Eventually, the Jade Emperor of Heaven decides to offer Monkey a position in heaven to prevent him from running wild on earth. There, Monkey is made keeper of horse stables, called Bimawen (Pi-ma-wen). When he learns that this is a most menial position, he rebels and shouts, “I won’t do this anymore! I’m leaving right now!” (Yu 1: 122). Returning to his mountain, Monkey names himself “Great Sage, Equal to Heaven” (1: 124) in open defiance. The heavenly imperial authorities persuade Monkey to return to heaven. There, he is put in charge of the Garden of Immortal Peaches. However, Monkey eats most of the peaches, gets drunk on the nectar, breaks into the palace of Laozi (Lao Tzu), and eats the elixir of immortality before returning to Flower-Fruit Mountain.

At first, Monkey defeats a celestial army of one hundred thousand warriors by himself. However, led by their divine general Erlang Shen (Ehr-lang), the gods finally capture Sun Wukong in concert. The Jade Emperor sentences Monkey to be burned to death in a crucible. However, Monkey emerges from this ordeal stronger than ever.

Finally, it is the Buddha himself who captures Monkey literally in his palm. Monkey is imprisoned underneath five mountains created from the five fingers of one hand of the Buddha. This ends the first part of the adventures of Monkey as told in The Journey to the West.

After punishing Monkey, the Buddha seeks one faithful Chinese pilgrim to travel to India, the cradle of Buddhism, and bring back Buddhist scriptures from there. The goddess of mercy, Guanyin, decides to find such a person. To aid this human pilgrim, Guanyin approaches four different beings that, like Monkey, are all punished for some transgression. In exchange for forgiveness and spiritual salvation, all four agree on Guanyin’s terms. Monkey promises Guanyin “to practice religion” and to stop his rebellion in exchange for his release (Yu 1: 195).

The Journey to the West provides the story of the pious ascetic Xuanzang up to the point where he agrees to Guanyin’s request to travel to India for Buddhist scriptures. He receives the name Tripitaka, meaning “collection of scriptures,” by which he is often referred to in the novel. At the western border of China, Tripitaka encounters the first of his guardians, Monkey. Monkey is imprisoned in a stone box. He tells Tripitaka, “Get me out, and I’ll protect you on your way to the Western Heaven!” (Yu 1: 298). Tripitaka complies. Monkey, now called Pilgrim Sun or Xingzhe (“ascetic”), proves true to his word. He kills six robbers attacking Tripitaka. Because he took their lives, the strict Buddhist Tripitaka dismisses Monkey. To discipline Monkey in the future, Guanyin gives Tripitaka a headband made from a hair of the Buddha. Once Monkey returns and is tricked into putting on the headband, he cannot take it off. When Tripitaka says a certain spell, the band tightens, causing unbearable headaches for Monkey.

Soon, Tripitaka and Pilgrim Sun are joined by other protectors of Tripitaka. A dragon prince becomes Tripitaka’s White Dragon Horse. Then there is Zhu Wuneng (Chu Wu-neng), an immortal who was reborn in the body of a pig because he drunkenly accosted the moon goddess. Next to join is Sha Wujing (Sha Wu-ching), a celestial being turned into a sand monster for accidentally smashing a crystal goblet in heaven. With Monkey as the most valiant and resourceful, but also the most headstrong of Tripitaka’s protectors, the group of pilgrims manages to survive one ordeal after another, encountering mostly superhuman enemies. These battles with shape-changing monsters and other hideous creatures make up the bulk of The Journey to the West. Monkey is in the lead when protecting Tripitaka. At times, when even his strength and ingenuity is insufficient, he is aided by Guanyin.

Finally, Tripitaka, Monkey, and the others receive the desired Buddhist scriptures upon their arrival in India. The scripture keepers play a final trick on them, handing them blank volumes at first. It is Monkey who realizes the problem. He explains to Tripitaka that this is “because we had no gifts for these fellows,” meaning the greedy keepers of the scrolls (Yu 4: 393). The pilgrims return, complain, and finally receive real scrolls. After one final ordeal on the way home, the pilgrims arrive back in China, where they are welcomed by the emperor. The Buddha himself rewards all pilgrims. Monkey is honored for “scourging of evil and the exaltation of good . . . smelting the demons and defeating the fiends” (4: 425). He is made into the Buddha Victorious in Strife. This ends the adventures of Monkey in the novel.

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