The Monkey King (Journey to the West)

Hello, this is Jana. 

According to the Chinese Horoscope, people born in the Year of the Monkey are clever, inventive, and quick to solve problems. They can also be vain… impatient… and sometimes, well, a bit naughty.

This is a Chinese Story about a Monkey who takes all of that… and turns it up to maximum.

His name is Sun Wukong, and he is the hero – or anti Hero – of the Chinese epic tale, the Journey to the West. 

Sun Wukong hatched from a stone egg on Flower-Fruit Mountain. He grew up to become the Monkey King of his island.

But even that wasn’t enough for him.

He wanted to live forever.

So he went off to study with a wise master, who — perhaps unwisely — taught him the secrets of immortality, and how to leap through the sky from cloud to cloud in a single somersault.

Which, as you might imagine, did not improve his behaviour one bit.

High above the world, in the palace of Divine Mists,  the Jade Emperor sat upon his throne, surrounded by his officials. 

One day, two important visitors arrived… both looking extremely annoyed.

The first was the Dragon King of the East Sea.  He knelt down and kissed the ground before the Emperor’s feet, before lifting his head to say: 

“Oh Great Emperor, I must complain about the most troublesome Monkey!”

The Emperor raised an eyebrow.

“A Monkey, you say?”

“Yes!” said the Dragon King. “He came to my Undersea Palace — completely uninvited — and behaved most disgracefully. He demanded gifts!”

“What sort of gifts?” asked the Emperor.

“Nothing much,” said the Dragon King. “Just a suit of armour… and my finest magical weapon.”

“The iron staff?”

“The very same! He picked it up, tested it, shrank it to the size of a needle — and tucked it behind his ear as if it were his own property!”

“And then?” said the Emperor.

“And then, he left. Without so much as a thank you,” replied the Dragon King.

The Emperor made a note.

Next came the Lord of the Underworld.

He too kissed the ground before the Emperor’s feet. 

“Great Ruler, this same Monkey has caused chaos in my realm as well,” complained the Lord of the Underworld.

“Oh dear,” said the Emperor. “What has he done now?”

“Well, his number was up!  It was his time to leave the World Of Light and move down to the Underworld. But he didn’t turn up,” explained the Lord.

“I sent my agents to arrest him. But he resisted arrest! Instead, he stormed into my palace, demanded to see the Book of the Dead… and then—”

The Emperor leaned forward.

“Yes?”

“He crossed out his own name.”

“Ah.”

“And then, he went and crossed out all the names of his monkey friends as well,” said the Lord.

The Emperor paused.

“So… they are all immortal now?”

“Yeah, every last one of them! Completely against the rules!” said the Lord of the Underworld.  “I implore you sire, send a heavenly army to defeat this monkey menace!”

Now the Jade Emperor sat back on his throne and thought for a moment while he stroked his pearly beard. 

“Yes,” he said. “This could become a problem.”

At this point, one of his advisers stepped forward and whispered in his Majesty’s ear. 

The Jade Emperor nodded. 

“Yes,” he said eventually, “A very good idea.  There’s no need to send him an army.  We’ll give him a job in Heaven with a fancy title. That will satisfy his ego and keep him quiet.  Meanwhile we can keep a watch on him.”

The Whole court agreed that this was an extremely wise plan. 

So a messenger was sent down from Heaven to Flower-Fruit Mountain.

He found the Monkey King lounging on a rock, surrounded by his followers, boasting as usual.

“I am the greatest Monkey who has ever lived!” Sun Wukong was saying. “I can leap across the sky! I cannot die! I—”

At that moment, the messenger cleared his throat.

“His Most Radiant Majesty, the Jade Emperor of the High Heavens, invites you to attend his court. You are to be given an official job.”

Monkey leapt to his feet.

“A job!” he cried. “At last, they recognise my greatness!”

And without a second thought, he somersaulted up into the sky… straight towards Heaven. Soon he was standing bold upright before the Emperor.  He did not bother to bow, let alone kiss the ground below the Emperor’s feet. The officials exchanged glances.  

“You Monkey,” said the Jade Emperor, “Have not learned any manners.  We will overlook your rudeness just this once.”

Then he turned to his officials. “Do we have a job we can give him?”  An official whispered in his ear.  “Very well,” said the Emperor, “I appoint you Keeper of the Imperial Horses!”

The Monkey whooped and cheered because this sounded like a great honour. 

And at first he threw himself into his new job.  He went round with a book, listing and labelling all the horses: 2000 Wind Chasers, 3000 Star Leapers, and so on and so forth. 

Finally, he sat down for a feast with his colleagues from the stable.  A question occurred to him. “What is my rank in the service of the Jade Emperor?”

And that was when he learned that his job, as keeper of the Imperial Horses, was so low that he did not even have a rank or a title, fancy or not fancy.  

“So that’s what they think of me!” he declared bitterly. 

And in that instant, he jumped back across the clouds all the way to Flower-Fruit Mountain. 

The following day, an official reported that the Monkey was missing.  

 So the Jade Emperor again sent a messenger to the Monkey, to ask that he return to Heaven where he could be in charge of the Orchard of Immortal Peaches. The Monkey, who loved fruit, thought this was a wonderful idea and agreed right away. 

Now the Immortal Peaches looked so juicy and tasty that he could not help eating them.   Some of them had taken thousands of years to ripen, but he gobbled them up in a trice. 

He was just lying down for a nice sleep, when a messenger came to ask what had happened to the peaches.  You see the Queen Mother was holding a party, and she wanted to serve up her most magical and delicious fruit.  

“And am I invited to this party?” asked the Monkey. “No you are not!” snapped the messenger. 

Well you can imagine how furious that made the monkey feel.  He rushed over to the Queen Mother’s palace where the guests had already arrived and the party was in full swing.  First he drank all the wine, and then he began to dance on the tables and throw food at the guests.  The guards tried to catch him, but he was always one swing ahead of them.  In the total chaos, all the tables and chairs were turned over, and the guests were covered in mess.  

Finally the Monkey jumped onto a Cloud and flew off back to Fruit-Flower Mountain. News of the Monkey’s disgraceful behaviour soon reached the ears of the Jade Emperor. This time he was in no mood for forgiveness.  Nor was he about to offer the Monkey another job.  Instead he sent an imperial army to take the Monkey Prisoner. 

But the Jade Emperor had underestimated the Monkey King of Flower-Fruit Mountain. All the 84,000 hairs on his back turned into little Monkey warriors. He pulled his magical weapon from behind his ear. This was the wonderful Iron staff that he had stolen from the Dragon King. It turned into a giant iron pillar which he used to clobber the enemy soldiers. They hastily beat a retreat back to Heaven. The Jade Emperor was at a loss. “Who on Heaven or Earth can defeat this atrocious creature?” he asked.   

And then he answered his own question. “It seems no one on Heaven or Earth can defeat him. But there is one being who exists in the Spiritual World. Only he can deal with this problem.”

And that  Spiritual Being was the Buddha.  

And so the Jade Emperor called upon the Lord Buddha and asked him very nicely if he would mind calling on the Monkey and defeating him. The Buddha transformed himself into an orange-robed monk and appeared on Flower-Fruit Mountain. 

The Monkey looked him up and down.

“And who are you?” he demanded.

“I am one who has heard of your great powers,” said the monk.

The Monkey puffed up at once. “Oh, you have, have you? Then you know there is no one who can defeat me! Not even the Immortal Army of the Jade Emperor can lay a finger on me!”

The monkey grinned from ear to ear.

“Is that so? Then perhaps you would care for a little test.”

“A test?” said the Monkey. “Name it!”

The monk stretched out his hand and said.

“If you can leap out of the palm of my hand, then Heaven itself shall belong to you.”

The Monkey burst out laughing.

“Out of your hand? I can leap to the ends of the world in a single somersault!”

“Then it should be easy,” replied  the monk.

So the Monkey gathered himself… and with a tremendous bound, he shot across the sky.

He flew past clouds, past stars, past mountains and seas. At last, he came to what looked like the very edge of the universe.

There, he saw five great pillars rising into the sky.

“Well,” said the Monkey, “this must be the end of everything!”

To prove how far he had come, he scratched his name on one of the pillars… and, just to be cheeky, he left a little puddle at the base.

Then, feeling very pleased with himself, he somersaulted all the way back.

“I have done it!” he cried. “I have reached the end of the world!”

The monk raised an eyebrow.

“Have you?” he said gently. “Then perhaps you would like to look more closely.”

The Monkey blinked.

For there, on the monk’s finger, were the words:

“Sun Wukong woz here.”

And there—yes—there was the unmistakable little puddle.

The Monkey stared.

The five pillars… had been the monk’s fingers all along.

And in that very moment,  the truth dawned on him.  This was no mortal, or even Heavenly power he was dealing with.  This was the Spirit of the Universe, the Lord Buddha himself. 

Before the Monkey could leap, or boast, or think of another trick, the Buddha turned his hand and pressed him down beneath a great mountain.

And there the Monkey lay, pinned fast — his mischief at last brought to a halt… for now.

He would remain there for five hundred years.

Until, one day, a travelling monk came passing by.

A monk with a long journey ahead of him… and a very unusual companion yet to meet.

And that story is known in Chinese Literature as the Journey to the West. 

But for now, remember to be good!  Even if you are born in the Year of the Monkey! 

Until next time, from me Jana, bye bye!