Who is the Monkey King?

The Monkey, also known as the Monkey King (Swan Wukong, (孫悟空 / 孙悟空)), is a character from Chinese mythology and the protagonist of the Chinese novel “Journey to the West”, in which he is a monkey born of stone and thanks to the Taoist teaching, he acquires fantastic powers, but after many mischief, the Buddha himself punishes him under a mountain.The monkey acquires 72 earthly transformations, with which he can incarnate in various animals and objects.Skilled fighter, mischievous, can manipulate time, extremely fast, with great leaps he covered great distances (54,000 kilometers) and a strong follower of the Taoist movement trained by Lao Tzu himself.

Birth of The Monkey King

He was born in the forest, but the Monkey was an excellent magician. He wanted to improve, so he became a disciple of a Taoist immortal, who taught him even the most diverse magic. The monkey had the ability to fly thousands of kilometers, to change its appearance at will. He was the most experienced of its kind on earth.

His skills were unmatched, but he was a big prankster – he liked to play tricks. He got into trouble, so the Taoists he studied with sent him away, and he became the leader of his brethren in the forest.

Big and small monkeys were impressed by the Monkey’s skills, and he used his powers to defeat enemies. A big party was organized for him, but the Monkey got so drunk that he fell asleep drunk and the king of the underworld captured him.

Punishment of The Monkey King

He tore the chains with which he was chained, and the mischievous Monkey stole the book of punishments imposed on souls. In it, like the judges of the underworld, they described transgressions and good deeds, and everything for the living. Inside he saw how long the Monkey would live – its end would come at the age of 342. The Monkey did not like this, he crossed out the name and age, as well as those of his relatives, and thus became one of the immortals. The judges did not appreciate the monkey’s mischief and went to complain to the Jade Emperor about this interference. The emperor was very angry and decided to send a huge army to deal with the villain.

However, he thought about it, and instead of wasting energy and resources, he decided that he would best deceive him with an activity that would engage him in useful work. Thus the Monkey was appointed guardian of the imperial stables and behaved properly. At first he accepted the work with special care and thought that he was worthy of this high-ranking post, but then he realized that this was the only way the emperor occupied him so as not to harm him.

The Monkey became angry, began to break everything that could break in the Jade Emperor’s palace, caused all sorts of problems, and when the guard came to restrain him, the Monkey fled to Mount Huaguo. Thanks to his magical powers, and no matter how hard they tried to catch him, he kept eluding them.

The emperor reconsidered the situation and realized that it was best to negotiate with him and reappointed him to government service. This time to keep the peaches in the peach orchard, which was actually the source of immortality. Peaches gave incorruptibility and eternal life to anyone who tasted them.

Monkey King and Immortality

The queen mother of the West, Xi Wangmu, had a birthday and the gods organized a peach festival in the heavenly garden on this occasion. All sorts of gods were invited, but not the Monkey, and he was terribly angry. He took revenge on them by sneaking into the garden at night and eating all the peaches. He achieved his goal, became immortal and at the same time ruined the celebration. He then fled to the home of the Taoist sage Lao Tzu, where he stole the sage’s immortality pills. Peaches combined with pills, the Monkey became an even more dangerous enemy of the gods. He left the sage’s house and thought of his next trick.

He tried to conquer paradise, the soldiers went after him again, and he again hid in Mount Huaguo. The emperor decided to kill the Monkey because the problem was already too serious. But that was impossible because of the monkeys and Lao Tzu’s peaches. There was no solution but to turn to the Buddha and ask for advice on how to deal with the villain.