Week 9 Story: The Truth About The Monkey King
History is written by the victors.
Do you think everything you read in history is true?
NO! Of course not! The people who write history are the ones who are still standing when the battle is over. Believing everything you read in history is foolish.
And the same is true if you believe everything you hear or read about the so called "Monkey King."
There are many things that Sun Wu Kung did that was not as flattering as you may have heard. His victories are embellished and his defeats, though few, are downplayed.
I am here to tell you the unfiltered truth.
First of all, NO ONE IS BORN FROM A STONE EGG!
What are you thinking?! Did you really believe that Sun Wu Kung was born from an egg of STONE?
No. He was not born from an egg of stone. He was born from another monkey, just like every monkey ever, and his mom raised him when he was young.
Sun Wu Kung left his family when he was 18 and decided to make a name for himself. Many believe that the majority of the stories written about him started here. His path to legend started when he abandoned his troop.
I will say this about Sun Wu.
He is the most intelligent ape to ever exist.
After living with the humans for just a little bit, he was able to completely learn their language and spread it to us, the monkeys who eventually became his subjects.
He has a lot of great ideas and one of them happened to be to find the Discerner.
Sun Wu finding the master is one of the few things that is truthful about his reputation. However, he did not earn the gift of immortality in the way he says he did.
Sun Wu illustrated the hardships he had to go through and how his cleverness was the only way the master gifted him with the knowledge of magic.
WRONG! LIES!
The Discerner was so fed up with Sun Wu's antics and tricks that he gifted him with knowledge to get HIM TO LEAVE! Not because he earned it, or tricked his way into it.
Sun Wu made it sound so glorious and heroic, but I learned the truth when I spoke to another student at the school that Sun Wu had attended.
It was not heroism at all that earned the gift of magic, but perseverance in being the most troublesome student the discerner ever had.
After discovering many abilities, the Monkey King began journey into madness and chaos.
He picked fights with demons, gods, and people of all backgrounds. His arrogance controlled him, and pushed him to more and more quarrels.
Finally, he picked one fight he couldn't quite handle. Us monkeys did everything we could to settle him down, but all of our attempts fell short.
It literally took Buddha to contain him and show him how corrupt and evil he had become.
Sun Wu was a good leader for us, but he is now trapped in a prison I don't think he will ever escape. And if he knew I was speaking about this to you right now, I'm not sure I would live to see another sunrise.
I hope to see Sun Wu Kung again one day, but part of me hopes he never escapes that prison.
Don't believe everything you read. Only half of it is true.
THE END
Author's Note:
I really did not know where to go with this story. I didn't want to do a retelling of the Monkey King, but I know I wanted to include him somehow. I haven't written this type of story before, and I wish I had gone into more detail but I was a little rushed. I basically assumed the role of a Monkey that lived through Sun Wu Kung's stories and wrote that most of his tales were embellished.
Bibliography:
"The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-monkey-king-sun-wu.html
Do you think everything you read in history is true?
NO! Of course not! The people who write history are the ones who are still standing when the battle is over. Believing everything you read in history is foolish.
And the same is true if you believe everything you hear or read about the so called "Monkey King."
There are many things that Sun Wu Kung did that was not as flattering as you may have heard. His victories are embellished and his defeats, though few, are downplayed.
I am here to tell you the unfiltered truth.
First of all, NO ONE IS BORN FROM A STONE EGG!
What are you thinking?! Did you really believe that Sun Wu Kung was born from an egg of STONE?
No. He was not born from an egg of stone. He was born from another monkey, just like every monkey ever, and his mom raised him when he was young.
Sun Wu Kung left his family when he was 18 and decided to make a name for himself. Many believe that the majority of the stories written about him started here. His path to legend started when he abandoned his troop.
I will say this about Sun Wu.
He is the most intelligent ape to ever exist.
After living with the humans for just a little bit, he was able to completely learn their language and spread it to us, the monkeys who eventually became his subjects.
He has a lot of great ideas and one of them happened to be to find the Discerner.
Sun Wu finding the master is one of the few things that is truthful about his reputation. However, he did not earn the gift of immortality in the way he says he did.
Sun Wu illustrated the hardships he had to go through and how his cleverness was the only way the master gifted him with the knowledge of magic.
WRONG! LIES!
The Discerner was so fed up with Sun Wu's antics and tricks that he gifted him with knowledge to get HIM TO LEAVE! Not because he earned it, or tricked his way into it.
Sun Wu made it sound so glorious and heroic, but I learned the truth when I spoke to another student at the school that Sun Wu had attended.
It was not heroism at all that earned the gift of magic, but perseverance in being the most troublesome student the discerner ever had.
After discovering many abilities, the Monkey King began journey into madness and chaos.
He picked fights with demons, gods, and people of all backgrounds. His arrogance controlled him, and pushed him to more and more quarrels.
Finally, he picked one fight he couldn't quite handle. Us monkeys did everything we could to settle him down, but all of our attempts fell short.
It literally took Buddha to contain him and show him how corrupt and evil he had become.
Sun Wu was a good leader for us, but he is now trapped in a prison I don't think he will ever escape. And if he knew I was speaking about this to you right now, I'm not sure I would live to see another sunrise.
I hope to see Sun Wu Kung again one day, but part of me hopes he never escapes that prison.
Don't believe everything you read. Only half of it is true.
 |
| Sun Wu Kung |
THE END
Author's Note:
I really did not know where to go with this story. I didn't want to do a retelling of the Monkey King, but I know I wanted to include him somehow. I haven't written this type of story before, and I wish I had gone into more detail but I was a little rushed. I basically assumed the role of a Monkey that lived through Sun Wu Kung's stories and wrote that most of his tales were embellished.
Bibliography:
"The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-monkey-king-sun-wu.html
Well hello there Rhett,
ReplyDeleteI have chosen to read your blog for my extra credit work this week. I see that we are both working on the same story. I also found the Monkey King an interesting story to read and write about. In this unit I found that many of the stories are hard to catch on to because they were originally in a different dialect but this story is easy to read and fun to write about.
Hi Rhett!
ReplyDeleteThe Monkey King story was one of my favorite stories I've read from the semester. I thought you had a pretty crazy rendition of it, and it was one that was very exciting to read. The dialogue interspersed with the prose made for an interesting read. You also made it pretty easy to understand, which I was glad for because the original was written in a style that was rather difficult. I can't wait to read more!
Hey there Rhett! I have to say that I really love the overall tone and style of your writing. I was excited and interested throughout reading the whole thing. I was glad that you were honest in your author's note, but that just made it even more impressive that your story ended up so well. However, it was still easy to read and understand. Great job overall!
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