Monkey King: Hero Is Back — Journey to the West, the source novel
At a glance100 chapters · completed
Monkey King: Hero Is Back draws on Xi You Ji (西游记), Journey to the West, a Ming-era novel in 100 chapters attributed to Wu Cheng'en (吴承恩). It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It tells of the monk Tang Sanzang's pilgrimage to India to fetch the Buddhist scriptures, protected by three disciples, including the famous Sun Wukong.
Origins and publication
The novel is based on the real journey of the monk Xuanzang, who travelled to India in the 7th century. The first chapters tell of the birth of Sun Wukong, a monkey born from a stone, his training in magical arts and his revolt against Heaven, for which the Buddha imprisons him for five hundred years under the Mountain of Five Elements. He is freed to escort Tang Sanzang, along with Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing.
The novel mixes adventure, humour, satire of the heavenly bureaucracy and Buddhist and Taoist symbolism. Its 81 trials have supplied plots for centuries of operas, films and series.
How it differs from the donghua
The film takes great liberties. It imagines a meeting between Sun Wukong and Tang Sanzang as a child, whereas in the novel the monk is an adult when he frees the monkey. It also invents the demon Hundun and makes the loss of Sun Wukong's powers the heart of the story. Finally, its tone is that of a family adventure film, far from the novel's satire.
Reception and success
Journey to the West is one of the most read and adapted books in China. It inspired the 1986 TV series, still rerun, dozens of films, the manga Dragon Ball and the video game Black Myth: Wukong. Sun Wukong is probably the most popular character in Chinese literature.
Trivia
- Wu Cheng'en's authorship is not certain: the novel was published anonymously in 1592.
- Akira Toriyama's manga Dragon Ball loosely draws on the novel, starting with the name of its hero, Son Goku (Sun Wukong in Japanese).
- The episode A Little Demon's Summer, in Yao: Chinese Folktales, is also set in the world of the novel.
My take
Journey to the West is a long and often repetitive novel, but astonishingly free and funny. The first chapters, about the Monkey King's revolt, are a high point. It is the best way to understand why so many Chinese films return to this character.
Who is it for?For anyone curious about Chinese mythology and viewers who want the real story of the Monkey King.
— Spidermas, for Donghua Fan
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The authorTian Xiaopeng 田晓鹏The pioneer of Chinese 3D