Tsukioka Yoshitoshi [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Every Chinese child knows about Sun Wu Kong (孫悟空 Sūn Wùkōng), the Monkey King. Hatched from a magical rock, he grew up on Flower Fruit mountain. At the base of the mountain flowed a stream, where one day the young monkey convinced his friends to follow the stream to its source, and there they discovered a beautiful waterfall. The young monkey, on a dare, jumped into the waterfall to see what would happen. To his surprise, he found himself inside a giant cave. He quickly jumped back through the water curtain and goaded his friends in. Monkey and his friends had found their new home in the magical Water Curtain Cave. To reward him for his resourcefulness, the other monkeys and his many animal friends decided that the monkey born from stone would be their king.
For a while, the Monkey king was happy in his new role, and romped and frolicked and ate and drank and played. After many years of this kind of living, however, the Monkey King became despondent. He had concluded that he was mortal and was going to turn old and die. He went looking for a master who could teach him how to live forever. After spending years on the road looking for immortals, sages, and Buddhas, he finally happened upon an enlightened master who was impressed by the stone monkey’s cleverness and agreed to take him on as a student. He then gave him a new name, Sun Wu Kong, which means “Sun, who knows emptiness.”
Sun Wu Kong happily took to the life of a disciple and years passed by. When the master delivered his teachings though, Sun Wu Kong found it very difficult to sit and listen. He explained to his master that he found the teachings so exciting he could not contain himself and needed to jump about. Sun Wu Kong was clever and very quickly learned spells and transformations which amazed his teachers. He also acquired his only weapon. It looked like a walking stick with gold bands on either end and he could vary the size to his wishes. It was perfect. He could somersault 60,000 miles in one full loop, and by taking one hair out of his body and blowing on it, he could create an army of monkeys just like him. All in all, Sun Wu Kong acquired the ability to make 72 transformations. So, he decided to return to his kingdom at Flower Fruit Mountain.
As his powers increased, however, so did his ego. With every victory, Sun became more aggressive and proud and he was beginning to upset the immortals who wondered how he had ever achieved such great powers. To appease him, the immortals finally awarded him the title, “Great Sage, Equal to Heaven.” Sun Wu Kong loved his new name and he aspired to sit on the throne of Heaven. Finally, the Buddha challenged the Monkey to jump off the palm of his hand. If he succeeded, he would indeed, be awarded the title he so desired. Monkey laughed as he accepted the challenge and leapt off the hand somersaulting many times before landing at the base of five pink pillars. Thinking this was the end of the world, Sun Wu Kong peed on a pillar after writing “Great Sage, Equal to None” on one of the pillars as proof that he had made it there. The Buddha then showed Sun Wu Kong his hand, and held Sun’s nose close to the base of one finger where Sun not only smelled his own urine, but saw the words he had written there. With that, Sun Wu Kong was sealed under the Mountain of the Five Elements where he would serve out a long penance.
And that is only the beginning of the story. After centuries of penance, trapped under the weight of the mountain and his ego, Sun Wu Kong was released and became an heroic disciple of the Buddha. Along with a pig, a horse, and the monk,Tang Zhen (Tripitaka), Sun Wu Kong undertook the perilous journey of transporting the teachings of Buddha from India to China.
In 1981, transportation options were limited in Fujian. There were trains, but they were like something out of the 19thcentury. Riding on narrow gauge tracks, their coal fire engjnes belched out black billowing smoke. We were warned not to wear anything light colored because the windows were wide open the whole way from Quanzhou to Wu Yi Shan (武夷山 Wǔyí Shān).
Wu Yi Shan are mountains where immortal beings lived during the Sung Dynasty. There are steep crags and demon shaped rocks said to have been placed there by the Gods. In the past there were hundreds of temples and “boat coffins” on the faces of the cliffs which was home to a large Daoist community. We hiked along a trail to a water fall they had named the Water Curtain Cave (水帘洞 Shuǐ lián Dòng) and were told that some people believe it to be the Water Curtain Cave. But the cave we saw behind the water did not have quite the splendor or the drama I would have expected.
The name of the book about the monkey king is actually “Journey to the West” (西游记 Xī Yóu Jì). It was most probably written by Wu Cheng’en(吳承恩 WúChéng’ēn), a Chinese writer and poet who lived in 17th century late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. The translation I’m most familiar with is one simply called “Monkey” by Arthur Waley. Although not the complete work, it does offer a fantastic first look at the Monkey King. (Wu, Cheng’en, and Arthur Waley. Monkey. , 1958. Print.)
Chinese Odyssey 30
We traveled up north
to a place called Quanzhou.
Climbed a statue of Laozi
in a green bamboo grove.
Took a smoky black steam train
through hills of Wuyi.
Saw the king’s water curtain
Sun Wu Kong, the monkey.
The Panda in the Room PD 