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Home > TRAVEL GUIDE > Chinese culture > Chinese Literature
Wukong Monkey King and his Journey to the West
    Journey to the West is the first romantic novel in ancient China, which is a household name in China, and it was written by Mr. Wu Cheng'en of the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century. And the recently hot online game of Black Myth: Wukong was just based on this traditional Chinese mythological story.

Brief introduction of story of Wukong and his Journey to the West:
      The novel mainly told the story of the Wukong, also called the Monkey King, who was born in a sacred stone and learned powerful immortal and magic skills with the Master of Subodhi. After making the trouble in Heaven, he met his master Sanzang, also called Monk Tang, and his junior fellow apprentice of Bajie , also called Wuneng or Pigsy, and Wujing, also called Monk Sha or Monk Sandy, and White-Loong Horse. They four people went to the West heaven of Buddha for Buddhist scriptures. Along the way, Wukong and his follows went through various 81 hardships and dangers, depressed and killed many demons, finally arrived in the west heaven to worship Tathagate, also named Sakyamuni, current head Buddha , and they also finally became a new Buddha. Journey to the West was based on the real historical event that "Monk Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty went to India for Buddhist scriptures". Through the author's artistic processing, it deeply depicted the social life conditions of the Ming Dynasty.
 
Detailed Story of Wukong and his Journey to the West:
      In the continent of Dongsheng Shenzhou there was a Huaguo Shan mountain facing the sea, and on the top of Huaguo Shan mountain a sacred big rock was left by the goddess Nvwa. The stone went through thousands years’ nurture by the essence of the sun and the moon, so one day it finally gave birth to a stone monkey, Wukong. Wukong was very brave, and found the Shuilian dong, the cave with water curtain for the monkeys, so he was regarded as the "Monkey King". Wukong led his monkeys live freely in Huaguo Shan mountains for hundreds of years, and then he accidentally heard that only the immortal, the Buddha and the sacred could escape the death, so Wukong traveled alone in the sea and finally reached at in the Sanxing cave in Nanzhanbu continent, and he worshiped Bodhi patriarch as his master. The Bodhi patriarch named him Sun Wukong formally. Wukong learned seventy-two skills of transforming body and flying by somersault cloud. And then Wukong backed Huaguo shan mountain and eliminated many demons there. So in the Mt. Huaguo shan, many monsters of wolves, insects, tigers, leopards and other head demons of seventy-two hole all came to worship Wukong as the king.
 
     Wukong wanted a suitable weapon, so he descended to the Dragon palace under the East Sea and forced the Dragon King, Ao Guang to sent him the stick of Ruyi Jin Gu Bang, which was the supporting post of East sea. And Ao Guang’s 3 brothers, the other Dragon Kings of other seas also were obliged to donate Wukong a suite of golden armors and boots. And then Wukong was brought to hell by its heralds because of his lifespan reached. Wukong did not agreed with it and almost overturned the hell. Eventually he canceled his name and all his monkeys from the book of life and death, and backed his Huaguo shan mountain.
 
      Wukong was sued to the Jade emperor, also called Whiteclad Noble in the heaven by the Dragon Kings and the King of hell. In order to avoid war with Wukong, the immortal of Taibai Venus suggested that Wukong could be recruited to heaven to do some things. The Jade Emperor approved it. Therefore, Wukong was recruited to heaven as a menial official position of "Bi Ma Wen", which actually was to herd sky horses. Later, when Wukong knew the real situation, he was furious and hit back Huaguo shan Mountain, and then named himself as Qi Tian Da sheng, meaning the Great Sage Equaling Sky.
 
      Li Jing, the Pagoda Bearing King and his son Nezha were ordered to capture Wukong by the Whiteclad Noble, unfortunately they were defeated by Wukong easily very soon. So the Taibai Venus offered advice to Whiteclad Noble again that recruiting Wukong again and granting him the fame of Qi Tian Da sheng but not giving him actual business nor treatment. The Whiteclad Noble agreed again. And then Wukong came back the heaven again at the invitation of Taibai Venus. The Whiteclad Noble recognized Wukong as Qi Tian Da sheng and gave him a palace.  Wukong has nothing to do in heaven, so he just made friends every day and everywhere, regardless of the differences of social classes. The Whiteclad Noble was afraid that Wukong would make trouble due to too much idleness, so he gave him a mission to care the Pantao Peach Garden.
   
     Xi Wangmu, the West Queen Mother, was to holding Pantao Peach Ceremony, but she did not invite Wukong in neglect. Wukong heard about the peach event, blamed the queen mother for not inviting him, so he ate up all of the good peaches. And then he sneaked into the site of Peach ceremony and ate all fairy fruits and wine. Finally, he stumbled into the palace of Taishang Laojun ( Lao Tzu Deified) in drunkard, and Wukong ate all the immortal pills refined by Taishang Laojun. Knowing that he had made a whopping trouble, Wukong fled back to Huaguo shan again. The Jade Emperor was furious and sent his army of 100,000 sky soldiers to Huaguo shan to capture Wukong, but they were still no rival of Wukong and been defeated again. So Guanyin Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva recommended the Jade Emperor’s nephew, the god of Erlang Sheng stationing in Guan jiangkou to help the war. Wukong and Erlang shen each shew their magic abilities and powers but hard to won on either side; finally with the help of Taishang Laojun, Wukong was caught back to the heaven. The Jade Emperor ordered to execute Wukong to death, but Wukong was just in no harm despite of all swords and thunder lightning. So Taishang Laojun put Wukong into the Bagua stove for 49 days’ burning with all kinds of fires. But Wukong was  still alive, instead, he was further refined into a never broken body of a copper head and iron arm, and his two eyes was refined to the ability of recognizing the transformation of any demons. When 49 days was on, Wukong jumped out of the Bagua stove, overthrew it down, and frighted to the gods of the heaven, caused the heavenly palace in chaos completely. So the Jade Emperor had to appeal help to Tathagate, also named as Sakyamuni, the current head Buddha. Tathagata bet with Wukong that Wukong had no ability to fly out of the hand of Tathagata. Tathagata’s hand was boundless, and Wukong could not fly out of his palm, so Tathagata suddenly turned his palm and pressed Wukong under the Wuxing Shan, the mountain of five elements. Tathagata order to feed Wukong with iron pills when in hungr and drink copper juice when in thirst.  The heaven returned to normal peace again.
 
      Five hundred years later, because there were too much kills and fights in Tang empire in Nanshan continent, Tathagata ordered Guanyin Bodhisattva to help them with his advanced  Buddhism scriptures, but they must pick themselves in West heaven of Buddhas. Guanyan flied to Changan, the capital of Tang empire, and on the way she converted two demons: one was Wujing, or the Monk Sandy, who used to be general of rolling curtain for the Jade emperor, and was exiled in the sand river because of his failure of breaking the Jade emperor’s glass; the other one is Wuneng, also called Bajie, the pigsy. Bajie used to be Tianpeng martial defending the sky river for the Jade emperor, because he molested Miss Chang E, the fairy of moon palace, so Bajie was banished down the earth. He was reborn as a terrible pig monster living in the Cloud hole in Fuling mountain. Guanyin gave them the names of Sha Wujing and Zhu Wuneng, and asked them to wait Monk Tang and protected him to the west praying for Buddhism scripture. Guanyin also got the Jade Emperor’s forgiveness to White-Loong Horse, who was the son of the Dragon King in West Sea. The hansom dragon prince committed the heaven law and was tortured in a deep stream. Guanyin converted the prince and asked him to wait for Monk Tang and transformed as a riding horse for his course of picking scriptures.
 
      When Guanyin passed by the Wuxing Mountain, Wukong, who was still tightly pressed under the mountain, expressed his willingness to repent and begged for freedom. Guanyin also required him to wait and protect Monk Tang to the West to fetch scriptures.
 
     On the other side, Emperor Taizong of the Tang empire held the national civil service examination, and the young man named Chen Guangrui won the top prize and then married beautiful Miss Yin, the daughter of the prime minister. And then Chen Guangrui sailed down to Jiangzhou prefecture with his wife as the new governor, unfortunately on the road he was murdered by the evil boatman Liu Hon. Liu Hon not only replaced Chen Guangrui as the governor but also occupied his wife, who had just been pregnant. Ms Yin had to obey Liu Hon in order to revenge for Chen in future. After she gave birth to a son, she put him in a wooden basin drifting down the river, and she also put a bloody cloth with him written the secret of his family. Her son was actually the second disciple of the Tathagata, the Buddha head, named Jinchanzi, meaning Golden Cicada. He was demoted to the earth because he violated the teaching of Tathagata. He has reincarnated for 10 times in this earth. Jinchanzi was saved by the monk in Jinshan Temple and raised up in the temple as monk, and he was given a name of Sanzang. Sanzang was told the secret of his father’s death eighteen years later. After secret meeting with his mother, Sanzang appealed help to his grandfather, the prime minister of Tang empire, and then put Liu Hon to jail and executed to death. Later Sanzang continue to be monk and became a very famous master.  
 
      Emperor Taizong of Tang empire, who had experienced the suffer of hell in his dream, decided to build a huge monastery and needed to choose a virtuous monk to lead the Dharma rite. All the officials recommended Sanzang in the Hongfu Temple. Guanyin appeared in the sky of Chang'an, at the rite and instructed Emperor Taizong that the best Buddhism scripture are in the far West of Buddha, which could real escape the death and save people from disaster. So Sanzang volunteered to go to the West no matter how far and dangerous it was. Emperor Taizong sworn to be brother of Sanzang, and entrusted him to bring back the Buddhism scriptures from West. Therefore Sanzang was also called Monk Tang and emperor’s brother.
 
     When Sanzang arrived at Wuxing mountain after he lost all of his guards on the road. He heard the calling of Wukong under Wuxing mountain. Followed the words of Wukong, Sanzang climbed up the hill summit and took off the golden amulet of Tathagate, so the mountain exploded and Wukong could jumped out and regained his freedom. Wukong worshiped Sanzang as his master as previous agreement with Guanyan. Later Sanzang encountered his other disciples of Bajie, Monk Sandy and White-Loong Horse in arrangement.
 
     Wukong, Bajie, Sandy Monk and teamed up to protect Sanzang to the great course of going to the West for Buddhist scriptures. They met many demons, included Jinchi (Guanyin Temple Elder ), Wandering Wright, Tiger Vanguard, Yellow Wind Sage, Yellowbrow, Huangdred -eyed Daoist, 7 Spider Sisters, Red Boy, Bull King, Bishui Beast, Rakshasi ( Princess Iron Fan ), etc. Each of it was really a long and thrilling story!
 
     It was 14 years’ journey, after Sanzang, Wukong, Bajie, Sandy, and White-Loong Horse exorcised numerous demons, experienced 81 various disasters and tests, they finally arrived at Lingshan hill in West, the heave of Buddhas. Tathagata gave them the required Buddhist scriptures, and then ordered King Kong to send them back Chang'an very quickly by cloud. Emperor Taizong in Tang emperor was still alive and welcomed their arrival in great pleasure, and entrusted Sanzang to chanted sutras on the high stage at the Big Goose Tower Temple in Chang'an. After the completion of transmitting Buddhism scripture, Sanzang, Wukong, Bajie, Sandy flied back Lingshan mountain in West again to receive their award from Tathagata. Eventually Sanzang was  awarded as the Zhantan Merit Virtue Buddha; Wukong was Warring and Winning Buddha; Bajie was Tribute Envoy; Sandy monk was Gold Arhat; the White-Loong Horse was the Eight Dragon Guardian of Buddha Heaven.

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