Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Reading Notes: The Monkey King, Part B

The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921)

The Lord of the Heavens
The complaints about Sun reached the Lord of the Heavens. While they wish to punish him, they are persuaded to give him a chance to redeem himself, and invite him to Heaven. He is still very brazen and full of confidence, and does not respect the Lord as others do. The Lord brushes this off, and appoints him stablemaster, where he watches over the heavenly horses.

The Great Saint
At a dinner being held, Sun asks what power his title of stablemaster has, which the others in attendance laugh at, saying that it is a demeaning title. This infuriates Sun, who uses his gold rod to escape Heaven and head home, where he recounts his adventure. As his apes prepare a meal, two devil-kings present him a robe, and declare that he is the same as the Lord of the Heavens, and he takes to this idea, calling himself "The Great Saint who is Heaven's Equal" at their suggestion.

Notscha, Son of Li Dsing
In Heaven, the decision is made to take Sun prisoner. However, the first warrior sent to retrieve him is defeated soundly. Notscha is the next to fight him, and he matches Sun, but Sun is able to defeat him using his powers, creating a clone of himself to gain the advantage. Returning to Heaven, Notscha tells of his defeat, and that Sun is too strong for anyone to defeat. They decide to give Sun another empty title, which pleases him.

The Queen-Mother of the West
The Lord has a castle built for Sun, where he lives idly for many days. This worries some of the inhabitants, so they have Sun watch the Queen-Mother of the West's peach trees. He asks about the trees, and when he learned that the back row of peaches give eternal life, he eats all of the ripe ones, which take 9,000 years to ripen. Later, when the peach banquet comes, the caretakers find that only one half-ripe peach is left from this back row, while the other rows were full of peaches.

Laotzse
Sun, who had transformed into a peach worm, is angered that the peach he was in had been disturbed, and becomes angrier when he is told about the banquet and had not been invited. He heads to the Queen-Mother's palace, and no one else is there, so he drinks much of the wine, becoming exceedingly drunk, and decides to leave to head home. He ends up in Laotzse's home by accident, and finding gourds full of the pills of life, eats all of them. However, he now feels guilty, and decides to leave Heaven. Returning home, the other apes request these pills after he explains his adventure, so he returns to acquire pills for all of his apes.

Guan Yin
The Lord of the Heavens is told of Sun's transgressions, and is immediately infuriated. All of Heaven was brought together to capture Sun, but they were unsuccessful, as he turned one of his hairs into thousands of ape-kings again, defeating Li Dsing's army. Guan Yin tells the Lord that his grandson Yang Oerlang can defeat Sun, so they allow Yang to create his strategy, and he leaves to fight Sun. Sun infuriates Yang after learning his identity, and they begin a large battle.

Statue of Guan Yin
Source: Pixabay

Yang Oerlang
The fighting scared the many apes on the mountain, and Sun runs from Yang. Yang is able to follow closely, and Sun transforms into a bird. After a moment, Yang knows which one is Sun, and transforms himself to give chase. They transform into many different animals, Yang chasing Sun. Sun turns into a buzzard, and Yang shoots at him. Sun falls from the sky, and transforms into a palace, which Yang sees right through, and he threatens to destroy the palace, scaring Sun. Sun runs again, transforming into Yang and taking over his palace. Their fight would continue at Yang's palace.

Buddha
With help from Laotzse and Guan Yin, Yang is able to capture Sun and prevent him from transforming. They try to kill Sun, but are unable, so they place him in the oven to remove the elixir of life from him. However, he hides in an area away from the fire, and when the door is opened, escapes from the oven. Sun destroys everything with his rod, and after heading to the Lord's palace, Buddha is summoned to deal with Sun.

The Destiny of Sun Wu Kung
Sun asks why he is not Lord of the Heavens, and Buddha says the Lord has mastered the skills needed. Sun says he is more worthy, and attempts to pass the challenge Buddha gave him to obtain the title, but fails. When he attempts to escape, Buddha traps him, and forces him to live in solitude for hundreds of years until he has reformed himself. Once released, he wears a circlet from Guan Yin that punishes him for misbehaving, and is unable to remove it, as it is affixed to him. With this, he becomes well-mannered.

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