Reading Notes: The Monkey King Readings A & B

The Monkey King

• A stone monkey is born from and egg born from a magic rock. He is fearless and brave and becomes the king of the apes by jumping through a large waterfall. 
• The apes sob for fear of death
• There are three types of beings that can escape death:
• Buddhas
• gods
• blessed spirits
• The ape king violently stole the clothes off of a fisherman in order to look like a man

• The ape king finds a holy man and lives with him for 7 years. This holy man names the ape king Sun Wu Kung

• This poem is used by the holy man: “A hard, hard grind, Truth’s lesson to expound. One talks oneself deaf, dumb and blind, Unless the right man’s found.”
• A lot of things happen in threes
• 3 ways of immortal life
• 3 smacks on the head
• 3 great dangers
• Sun can transform his hairs into other beings at will
• People are named with a descriptive word and then their title
• I.e dragon-queen
• Sun made himself immortal by altering the Book of Life
• Sun goes into heaven and does not offer the appropriate greetings/respect to the lord of heavens 
• Sun is made stable master in heaven, but when he realizes the lowness of his position he grows angry
• Sun then gives himself the title, "The Great Saint who is Heaven's Equal" 
• Sun cannot change his mischievous nature
• He steals the elixir of life
• The ape can even shape shift into buildings
• Sun shaves an entire city in order to save his master
• I think I'm going to expand on this story

The Monkey King. Web Source: the UNtextbook