Journey to the West (Monkey: Folk Novel of China) | Chapters 1–3 | Summary

For the purpose of summary and analysis, chapters of this text have been combined, usually in groupings of three.

Summary

Chapter 1: The Monkey's Story

In the small country of Ao-lai, a rock splits open to reveal a stone egg that transforms into a living stone monkey. Monkey, as he is called, quickly assimilates to life in the forest on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and joins the monkey band that lives there. The monkeys decide they want to know the starting point of a nearby stream. Monkey investigates and finds a cave filled with stone furniture behind a waterfall. Thousands of monkeys move into the Water Curtain Cave, and Monkey appoints himself king.

After about 200 years Monkey starts worrying about growing old. He decides that instead of being born again on Earth he wants to live "forever among the people of the sky." A fellow monkey observes that "religion has taken hold upon [Monkey's] heart." If he doesn't want to die, Monkey needs to become a Buddha, an Immortal, or a Sage. Two days later, Monkey leaves the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit in search of immortality. He wanders for nine years among humans and meets Patriarch Subodhi, who takes Monkey as a student—giving him the religious name Aware-of-Vacuity.

Chapter 2: The Monkey's Story

After seven years, Subodhi determines that Monkey is ready to learn the Secret of Long Life. He recites a poem that shakes "Monkey's whole nature ... to the foundations." Monkey has received illumination. Three years later, the Patriarch teaches Monkey 72 transformations. These will help Monkey survive the Three Calamities that Heaven will send to kill him every 500 years. Then Subodhi shows Monkey how to soar on the clouds.

One day Monkey makes the mistake of transforming into a pine tree at the request of his fellow students. Subodhi is extremely disappointed that Monkey put the secrets of illumination at risk and kicks him out. Twenty years later, Monkey is forced to return to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. Upon his arrival, Monkey learns that the Demon of Havoc has been terrorizing the monkeys of the Water Curtain Cave. Monkey challenges the demon to a battle and transforms the hairs covering his body into 84,000 little monkeys. They keep the demon busy while Monkey steals his sword, with which Monkey kills the demon and his followers.

Chapter 3: The Monkey's Story

Monkey decides that his clan needs weapons in case they are attacked again. He goes to a city of soldiers and steals their armaments. All 47,000 monkeys in his clan are now armed but, as their king, Monkey deserves something superior to the weapons of his subjects. He asks the Dragon of the Eastern Sea for his best weapon. After much negotiating, Monkey ends up with "the magic iron with which the bed of the Milky Way was pounded flat." He transforms it to his satisfaction, then requests a uniform to accompany it. When the Dragon King refuses, Monkey threatens him with the magic iron. The king and his brothers cobble together an outfit of disparate pieces "just to get rid of him."

Monkey dreams that he is taken to the Land of Darkness, home of Yama, the King of Death. He becomes irate, insisting that there's been a mistake—he's immortal. The Ten Judges of the Dead stand helpless as Monkey crosses out his name and those of the other monkeys in the register. "Now at any rate you've got no hold over us!" he tells the judges before waking up.

The Dragon of the Eastern Sea visits the Jade Emperor, leader of the heavens, in the emperor's Golden-doored Cloud Palace. There the Dragon of the Eastern Sea complains about Monkey's behavior. The First Judge of the Dead registers similar complaints. The Jade Emperor is annoyed, but the Spirit of the Planet Venus suggests they indulge Monkey—giving him a minor job in Heaven and monitoring him. The spirit collects Monkey, who vows to return for the other monkeys if Heaven seems like a good place to live.

Analysis

Monkey is an abridged translation of Hsi-yu chi (Xiyouji), or The Journey to the West. The original Chinese version of the novel has 100 chapters, which British translator Arthur Waley (1889–1966) cut down to 30 for Monkey. Everything he removed from the original version of the book deals with Tripitaka's journey from China to India. Monkey's story, which encompasses the first seven chapters of both the abridged and unabridged versions, remains intact.

For many readers, these first seven chapters may seem like their own stand-alone story compared to the remaining chapters. However, what happens to Monkey in the first seven chapters has a marked effect on what happens in the rest of the book. He's the one character who appears in nearly every chapter and serves as the story's protagonist.

Monkey is told from the perspective of a third-person omniscient narrator who is aware of Monkey's thoughts as well as those of the gods. From the book's very first sentences, he adopts the tone of an oral folkloric storyteller. Chapter 1 begins, "There was a rock that since the creation of the world had been worked upon by ... Heaven and ... Earth ... till at last ... it developed into a stone monkey." This tone is present throughout the novel but is most noticeable at the end of every chapter. "If you do not know ... you must listen to what is related in the next chapter," the narrator says at the conclusion of Chapter 2. These direct addresses to the reader aren't so much hints of what's to come as they are enticements to keep reading. Oral storytellers use similar encouragements to get listeners to return and hear more of the story. These small asides are a constant reminder that segments of Monkey and The Journey to the West originated as folktales.

Monkey and Hsi-yu chi are entrenched in Chinese folklore and religion. Taoism (Daoism) and, to a lesser extent, Confucianism, pop up frequently in both books, but Buddhism is the prevalent religious philosophy followed by the main characters. This is the religion Monkey seeks out in Chapter 1 after one of his brethren tells him he needs to become a Buddha, an Immortal, or a Sage. A Buddha is someone who has followed the path of Buddhism to enlightenment—a state of intellectual and ethical perfection. Enlightened beings have freed themselves from suffering. This is the highest achievement in Buddhism. An Immortal has the ability to live forever—the goal that Monkey seeks when he leaves the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. Someone who possesses great wisdom and virtue is a Sage—a concept that originated with Confucianism and was adopted by Taoists and Buddhists alike.

The novel also displays Chinese tradition, including that of taking of a student for spiritual instruction as Patriarch Subodhi does Monkey in Chapter 1. The student serves the master as a servant and benefits from his or her continued mentorship and instruction.

In Chapter 2, Monkey is said to have been "illuminated." Illumination occurs when the mind is purified from all damaging influences, including ego and negative emotions and feelings. Illumination is necessary to achieve enlightenment. This is why Patriarch Subodhi gives Monkey his religious name. In the original version of Hsi-yu chi, Monkey's religious name is Sun Wu-k'ung (Sun Wukong), which literally means "Monkey awakened to emptiness." In Monkey Waley translates this as Aware-of-Vacuity. "Vacuous" does mean empty, but it's also used to describe people who don't seem to have a single intelligent thought in their head. Monkey's behavior in the next section aligns more with the latter definition than the former.