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| Sun Wu Kung in his armor and holding his staff over his shoulder. |
The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung
I am quite familiar with the story about “The Monkey King” and “Journey to the West” because in my childhood I have seen movies about the monkey king and his journey to the west with his companions. Each movie had a little different take to how the monkey king became who he was and what his magical abilities were. However, there were a few qualities about the monkey king that appeared in all of the movies I have seen. What all the movies had in common were that he had his magical changing staff, could turn his hair into hundreds of monkeys, ride on a cloud, and was born from a rock. Now that I have a chance to actually read this more truthful version about the monkey king, I will be able to relive a nostalgic feeling while discovering more parts of the story that was cut out of the movies.
I am quite familiar with the story about “The Monkey King” and “Journey to the West” because in my childhood I have seen movies about the monkey king and his journey to the west with his companions. Each movie had a little different take to how the monkey king became who he was and what his magical abilities were. However, there were a few qualities about the monkey king that appeared in all of the movies I have seen. What all the movies had in common were that he had his magical changing staff, could turn his hair into hundreds of monkeys, ride on a cloud, and was born from a rock. Now that I have a chance to actually read this more truthful version about the monkey king, I will be able to relive a nostalgic feeling while discovering more parts of the story that was cut out of the movies.
Handsome King of the Apes: In this unit over “The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung” the editor R. Wilhelm
and translator Fredrick H. Martens has the king as an ape instead of a monkey
like the original story. Other than that the story is still pretty similar. It
is unbelievable how a stone that has withstand all elements including the
heavens, the sun, and the moon, gave birth to a monkey. Even the birth of this
monkey had the heavens send people down to inspect the powerful shock that
reached them. The birth of Sun Wu Kung is very consistent in the movies as well
as the stories that were about him.
Dragon-Queen: This
part of the story was where Sun acquired his magical staff from the Dragon-King
from the East Sea. It was amazing how Sun had the strength to lift up this
heavy staff that weighed 17,550 lbs. and was able to control it by telling it
to grow bigger or shrink down to the size of a needle. Another interesting
thing about this staff was that it was used by Yu the Great, who was a ruler of
Ancient China, to determine the depths of seas and rivers. In reality Yu was
known for the introduction of flood control. After obtaining his staff, Sun
also ordered the Dragon-King to give him a suit of armor that would protect him
from harm. This was a greedy quality of Sun since he just obtained such a
powerful weapon. At the end of this part of the story, it foreshadows that Sun
will have trouble with the Lord of the Heavens later.
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