And then there was Sun Wu Kong. The Monkey King.


If you like Chinese Literature you know who he is; one of the most important characters in Journey to the West and the most beloved mythical creature in all china. I think there is no book richer in symbolism, political comflict, philosphy, poetry, religion and historical happennings crammed in together in to a fantasy novel (maybe, perhaps, The Aztec). But then, I haven't read Three Kingdoms or Dream of Red Mansion. Those will have to wait because after the six tomes of Journey to the West and after I read Lu Xun's The True Story of AQ.

I love the Monkey King because he was born from a stone, the moon as his mom the sun as his dad, wild as nature, soul of a child, directly honest, you know? My kinda guy. I love specially the scene where he creates havoc in heaven, drinking all the heavenly wine, all the elixir pills (Aren't Gods glorified Junkies?) the Inmortality giving peaches, and so on... and then all the freaking Gods try to beat the living shit out of him, but you know, the monkey is the man! And Blam!!! He kicked everybodies asses.... it was only the great Buddah who could control the damned monkey, he said, if you can jump out of my right hand an come back I will give you what you want... bleh.. you find out the rest by yourself.

There is so much to it, how the author uses animals to simbolize certain gods or political figures, to represent so complex relationships as hegemony, feudalism and such. The most important and central part is the historical part, the pilmigrige from a monk of china to go to india in search of the sriptures of Buddah to copy them and bring them. It is said that the journey took 18 years.

Monkey is perfect but Pig is more human.... grab a good translation of the book and enjoy....

J.