Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is one of the chief characters in Journey to the West. The Chinese novel reached its best-known form in the sixteenth century and draws on older tales, religious ideas, stage traditions, and the historical pilgrimage of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang.
From stone to rebel
Born from a stone, the monkey acquires supernatural training, a shape-changing staff, cloud travel, and several forms of immortality. He takes the title Great Sage Equal to Heaven and disrupts the celestial bureaucracy. The Buddha finally confines him beneath a mountain.
The westward pilgrimage
Guanyin arranges his release so he can protect the monk Tang Sanzang, a literary version of Xuanzang, on a journey for Buddhist scriptures. A headband and spell check his violence. Alongside Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing, he confronts dangers that test discipline, perception, and loyalty.
A literary and religious figure
Sun Wukong is not the historical pilgrim himself, and Journey to the West is not a simple record of Xuanzang’s travels. The character mixes comic rebellion, martial skill, Daoist techniques, Buddhist teaching, and popular religion. Later opera, film, games, and television select different parts of that inheritance.