About a Monkey

I saw the movie 'Forbidden Kingdom' over the weekend. It is silly but very entertaining. It is a story about a monkey.

Out of the four most celebrated classics in the history of Chinese literature, one is the story about the Monkey King. He was a monkey who was born out of a rock. He was magical. He followed many great masters and learned many tricks. He could shift into 72 different shapes. He could jump 100 miles at once. Everyone hair on his body could turn into another him. He was a great fighter, and he won every battle. One day he heard about a 'magic needle' at the bottom of the sea, which kept the sea calm. he paid a visit to the Dragon King of the East Sea. He won and took the 'needle' which became his famous weapon. The name of the stick was 'As You Wish'. It could change as he wished. It could be the size of a monkey hair, or it could turn into something that could support the falling sky. When it was his time to die, he broken into the world of the dead and forced the gods there to re-write his destiny. He became the Monkey King of his Flower and Fruit mountain with all the monkeys as his soldiers/entourage.

One day he heard that the gods of Heaven hold the famous Party of Peach. Monkey was vain, and he was upset that he wasn't invited. Of course we all know monkey's passion for peaches. So he crashed the party. The gods knew it would be too difficult to fight him, and they also knew he was vain. So they decide to give him a shitty job with a grand title. He took it because it sounded important, but with time he realized he was fooled. He was so angry. He crashed the entire heaven. This time he pissed off the only one he couldn't fight, the Buddha. No matter how he jumped, he couldn't even get out of Buddha's palm. To punish the Monkey King, Buddha put him underneath the Five Element mountain, and told him someone would come and set him free in 500 years.

That someone was monk Tang San Zang, 唐三藏(Monk Tang, 唐僧). He was on a mission sent by the Chinese Emperor to go to the West (India, the birth place of Buddhism) to study the Buddhist scriptures and wisdom. Monkey's job was to protect him. There were two others who were both gods once but fallen. Monk Tang gave the monkey a Buddhist name Sun Wu Kong (孙悟空). Monkey was still wild and rebellious at the first, so Buddha taught Monk Tang a spell that came with a golden crown. Monkey liked the crown ,but once he put it on he could never take it off. Whenever his wild side showed, Monk Tang said the spell, and the crown shrank and gave monkey a splitting headache. The trip was far and dangerous. The rumor that eating Monk Tang could make anyone immortal didn't help. After all the battles with all sorts monsters and with time monkey learned compassion and to respect his master. The story had a happy ending. When the mission was over, monkey was given a Buddha status and went back to Flower and Fruit mountain to be the Monkey King. He was also given a title by the gods of heaven as 'Heavenly Saint and Handsome Monkey King'.

There are many different adaptations and spin-offs of the story, shows, movies, comics and video games including the Japanese and Korean version (the leading character in Japanese cartoon Dragon Ball is Goku who is portaited after 悟空). The monkey is probably the only 'super hero' in Chinese culture, which is quite interesting. Chinese culture praises subtlety, modesty, the middle way. Somehow our only super hero is a monkey, who is vain, goofy (he always forgot to hide his tail when shifting shapes), who is so rebellious, who demands a lot of respect, who has great trouble with authorities.

Chinese children are crazy about the Monkey King. We abusolutly adore this monkey, and he has always been very dear to our hearts. I don't know where the Flower and Fruit mountain is. Wherever it is I am sure 悟空 is there and still heavenly and handsome.