Reading Notes A: The Monkey King

This week, I will be taking notes on my favorite stories from the unit.

The first is the origin story of the Handsome King of the Apes

• There is a monkey born of a stone egg from a magic rock
• One day, his eyes shoot two beams to the heavens, and God is scared, but realizes there is no threat
• The stone monkey continues to grow, and finds that there is a waterfall that no monkey dares get through, for they shall perish.
• The stone monkey gets through with ease, and discovers a tablet with an inscription, and many clay pots and things
• The monkeys name the stone monkey king, and he chooses his counselors and servants
• They live this way for 300 years

The second is the Devil-King

• This was Sun Wu Kung's first real battle
• There was a devil monkey who entered the cave and took some children and apes
• Sun Wu Kung told the devil-king's servants to tell him he was coming
• The Devil-King was not worried, however, because of how small Sun Wu Kung was.
• Sun Wu Kung was much faster than the Devil-King, and was able to transform each of his hairs into little monkeys to attack him and finally killed him.
• He then saved the hostages

Monkey King fights the Devil

Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).