INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

Well you wouldn’t usually get more than one episode in one week, but alas, we did not account for the Queen passing away last week. But alas, time's arrow neither stops nor goes back as they say and we must move swiftly forward. 

I hope you also had a lovely moon festival if you celebrate it on the 10th September. I went down to Chinatown in London to celebrate with my Chinese cousins - we had mooncakes and fluffy cake and I even tried pig intestine, which was wild. But this monster actually is almost as famous as the story of Chang'e and the Moon Rabbit within Chinese culture.

DESCRIPTION:

This week, we’re heading back over to China - and looking at an amazing monster, who definitely does not deserve that title, but maybe ‘beast’ would be more apt? But this episode is on the wonderful and mystical Monkey King, or otherwise known as Sun Wukong. I’ve shortened it to just Wukong, as it’s just easier within a writing context.

Wukong is described as a half-monkey, half man figure from Chinese mythology. He’s most famous from the Chinese story of Journey to the West, where he goes on to earn his immortality and fame that he currently is associated with in media and modern myth.

He is usually described as having a usual humanoid but hairy body, with a long spider monkey like tail and a monkey’s face, wearing typical buddhist vestments. He’s known as the trickster and also the most hot-headed and powerful character in Journey to the West, which is known as a Chinese satire and comedy because of Wukong’s sassy quips throughout their travels.  

He carries a few bits of magical equipment, and has a massive variation of powers - which I’ll go over in more detail.

In terms of equipment, he is usually carrying the following five magical items;

Firstly, and most importantly, the Rúyì Jīn Gū Bàng, which is the only one of these that I’ll say in their native language, because the others are all in chinese characters! This translates roughly to Magic Golden-Clasped Rod. This is his primary weapon, which was originally an iron rod that was used to measure the depths of the ocean. The staff weighs 8.1 tonnes, but due to Wukong’s powers, he can lift this easily and also shrink it, usually wearing it like a hair pin behind his ear when he’s not using it.

Then we have the Phoenix-feather Cap, which is basically a circlet adorned with phoenix feathers, which isn’t noted to have any powers, but we do know from myth that phoenixs are attributed to rebirth and reincarnation, so it might be that it just wasn’t used in his adventures. He was also given Golden chain mail, which he wore under his vestments, protecting him from most physical harm - again, it’s not magical so to say, but it is pretty rare and a cool thing for a monkey king to be wearing. He was gifted both of these by the Dragon Kings, but we’ll get into the actual story later on.

He also has a magical headband, which controls the wearer and tightens to inflict horrific pain when a specific chant is spoken - originally given to him as a trap rather than a gift, Wukong works out how to overcome the tricks within the headband and use them for himself. Lastly, the cloud-stepping shoes, which were made of lotus fibre and allowed Wukong to glide on the clouds at tremendous speeds - sometimes appearing as flying on them due to the speed and height above the ground he could use these. 

But he did have some actual powers, possibly the biggest one being shapeshifting. He had the power to change into 72 different shapes, including objects - but he could never get rid of his monkey tail - therefore giving him away in some of the worst times. He also had the power to take off the hair from his body and use the strands as multiples of himself, causing the illusion of having many versions of himself. 

He also had fire resistance, a power to harness the wind and could survive in deep water. He could also utilise this skill to freeze enemies bodies in motion, which was handy in a fight I imagine. Speaking of protection, he could also draw a circle around himself or others with his staff to cast a protective barrier. He could also break locks by pointing at them, jump 33 miles in a single leap and summon all local deities to his position for assistance. Lastly, and probably the coolest is that he can identify evil no matter what form it takes - although it does sting his eyes whilst he does it. 

ORIGIN:

So onto etymology, Sun Wukong literally translates into Monkey awakened by the emptiness, which definitely sounds ominous - but the history behind this guy is pretty cool, and definitely isn’t as ominous.

Wukong’s story begins in the famous legend of the Journey to the West, which you’ll hear me say a million times in this episode. This novel was written during the Ming dynasty in the 16th century by Wu Cheng’en, and is considered one of the most famous and classic Chinese legends of all time. It focuses on the monk, Xuanzang, who is given the momentous task of retrieving the Buddhist sutras from India and Central Asia, with him are three protectors - one of which being our wonderful Sun Wukong, as an atonement for the sins he had committed in the past. 

What sins? Well let me tell you about Wukong’s history as a character - as really, in terms of cultural and historical origin - that’s all there is, he’s a character in a story written in the 16th century, but he’s gone to live on in his own myths and legends. 

Wukong’s life begins like most other peoples, as a rock on the mountain Huaguo, and is so whipped around by the strong winds that the rock is shaped into a monkey and becomes imbued with life. Wukong at this point has no powers, he’s just a monkey that was made by the wind but he finds a tribe of monkeys who live in the Cave of the Water Curtain and becomes the King of them in a pretty short time. He sees one of the elder monkeys pass away, and realises that he’s terribly mortal - and leaves the tribe to seek immortality through the ways of Buddhism. He trains with the monks, and learns the 72 transformations, and most of his other powers that are not linked to his weaponry.

However, during this time the Ten Judges of the Dead come to collect his soul, obviously symbolising that he was old and it was his time. But Wukong fights back and manages to remove his name and the rest of the monkey tribe from the Book of Life and Death, making them immortal, but through pretty nefarious means. 

This brings the attention of the Jade Emperor, who wasn’t as much a person, but an entity and the first God within Daoist theology - and he grants Wukong the title ‘Keeper of the Heavenly Horses’ and invites him to live in the Immortals Residence on Mount Penglai as a God. Eventually though, Wukong finds out that this title is actually the lowest someone can get in the heavens, and he’s not a God. He leaves the mountain and returns home, then declares himself "Great Sage, Equal of Heaven". The Jade Emperor sends thousands of soldiers, but none defeat the Monkey King, forcing the Emperor to give him the title of Guardian of the Heavenly Peach Garden, which doesn’t sound much better - but it kind of is. 

These peaches contain the power to grant immortality for up to 9,000 years, so Wukong eats all the peaches obviously. Later, the Emperor throws a lavish banquet and makes sure to let Wukong know he is not welcome, and Wukong flips out and goes on a rampage. He steals heavenly wine and Laozi’s pills of immortality - then defeats 100,000 celestial soldiers before running back to his mountain. He then sets off to continue to find more immortalising objects, making his way to the undersea palace of the Dragon King of the East Sea, where he pulls a supporting beam to the castle off the wall and declares it as his staff. The Dragon King retorted that he could have it if he could use it with it’s immense 8.1 tonne weight, which Wukong did with ease, and was so insulted that he would even consider such a bet - he also demanded the other physical gifts I mentioned earlier from the Dragon Lords - which they weren’t too happy about either. So now Wukong had an incredible amount of immortality, although still not fully immortal - and all his powers and weapons - he was a machine.

Meanwhile, the Jade Emperor, who by now is frankly pretty tired of his shenanigans - appeals to Buddha and asks him to contain the Monkey King. Buddha does so and appears to Wukong in a gigantic form, holding the King in his hands, he challenges Wukong to escape in one somersault - and Wukong fails. Buddha then traps Wukong under the Five Elements Mountain for 500 years, until one of the other three protectors of Xuanzang comes along, Tang Sanzang, and frees him - with Wukong joining the team. 

He is known as the trickster, but also the most intelligent of the group of four - however, Tang Sanzang uses the magical headband to control Wukong’s temper by causing him horrific headaches if his jokes go a bit too far. After their journey, Wukong ultimately achieves enlightenment and becomes a Buddha, called Victorious Fighting Buddha, and finally gets his long-desired immortality.

Obviously, if you do want to know the ins and outs of this story, do give it a read - it’s a great novel, but I will warn you that it’s also very long. But this is the kind of short version and to be honest, all we really have on this character in regards to origins, he’s a nice easy one this week.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there’s a load this week as this monster is really ingrained into modern media as he’s such a good character to adapt! In this though, just to note that I’ll be talking about the Monkey King in adaptations of Journey to the West, as well as general tropes including Monkey Kings in other media here.

For art, it’s a bit complicated as the art is ancient tapestries, so they don’t have dates or artists attached a lot of the time - but you can find them by looking at Sun Wukong with Tang Sanzang & Sun Wukong fighting a wind demon, but have a look at modern art with the games that are attached to this too.

In movies, we have quite a few like; Kung Fu Panda, The Cave of the Silken Web (1927 & 1967), A Chinese Odyssey, The Forbidden Kingdom, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, The Lost Empire: The Legend of the Monkey King, The Monkey King 1, 2 & 3, Monkey Sun, New Pilgrims to the West, Monkey Goes West, Princess Iron Fan & The Land of Many Perfumes.

For TV, we have; Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny, Jackie Chan Adventures, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Monkie Kid, Miraculous Ladybug, Super Sentai, Into the Badlands, Digimon, Dragon Ball, Naruto, My Hero Academia, One Piece, God of High School, Shinzo, Saiyuki, Queen’s Blade, Monkey Magic, Journey to the West: Legends of the Monkey King, Journey to the West: Return of the Demon King, Monkey King: Hero is Back, Monkey King Reborn, Journey to the West, Monkey King: Quest for the Sutra & The New Legends of Monkey.

In video games, we have ones such as; Dota 2, League of Legends, Asura’s Wrath, Best Fiends, Fate/Grand Order, Awesomenauts, Monster Legends, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Final Fantasy 14, Mickey’s Journey to the West, Honour of Kings, Unruly Heroes, Smite, Heroes of Newerth, Monkey King: Hero is Back, Fortnite, Gunfire Reborn, Black Myth: Wukong, Megaman, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Civilisation 6, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Pokemon, Bookworm Adventures vol.2, Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, Warframe, Kingdom Hearts 10 & World Heroes.

My book recommendation this week I would say have a read of the actual Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en, I did check and you can get all 20 odd books on Amazon, or you can get a shorter or should I say, only one book version too (and it was leatherbound) - so definitely check that out.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

Well because this guy is just a singular entity, it’s a little bit weird to talk about if he exists - also due to the fact that he’s now reached enlightenment, in theory, Wukong wouldn’t exist on the Earth anymore anyway. But it does mean that he definitely deserves a certain respect within mythology and folklore - and this one is still so respected and looked at within Chinese culture. 

It’s certainly an interesting one, but taking all of the history out of context - would a majestic staff wielding monkey man exist? I’m gonna say probably not, much like a lot of our hybrid monsters - it’s pretty likely that he wouldn’t have existed.

Nonetheless though, he’s a very cool monster with pretty cool powers and a great backstory - so we’ll take that.

But what do you think? Did the Wukong roam the Earth? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

A really fun monster this week, I really enjoyed how different this one was - I’m definitely going to try and cover ones like this in the future. I do have plans to talk about the Greek labour monsters from the Heracles myth, so maybe that’ll be slightly like this one. 

Now normally I would announce the next monster here - but it’s time for my bi-annual 2 week break! I’ll be away now until the 6th of October, when we’ll be looking at the first, I think at least, French monster. Make sure you’re keeping an eye on your local churches, because we’re looking at the wonderful Gargoyle when we come back.

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you in October babes.