Taiwei Chang

After the story of Journey to the West, Wu Kung - the monkey king became a buddha. However, he feels confused about his achievement. Why does he need to be a buddha? Why this is the right ending?  During the journey, he helped Tang Monk obtain Buddhist sacred texts. He killed all evil monsters that blocked their way and protected the Tang Monk. In the eyes of the general public and Bodhisattvas, he cleared away his sin during this process. However, what is his sin? Who defines that? The lord of heaven thought he was an impish monkey, and he defined his sin. In the beginning, he does not recognize his sin, until he was suppressed by the Buddha. Then, five hundred years passed, the Lord told him that protect Tang Monk would clean his sin. He cannot deny but obey. He continues his thoughts and makes an assumption: if there is a special tiger, who is strong enough to win in the battle against any other beasts. He lives in the forests. His wildness and instinct make him eat everything w...

This story is part of  The Monkey King unit . "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book , ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921). In this part, I want to talk about some moral or ethical issues. At the beginning of this story, the lord of heaven blames Wu Kung's "wild, unmannerly behavior". Then, the following plots show his power: he could choose to punish Wu Kung or do not punish him without a doubt. The gods who live in heaven, they do not follow specific laws or rules, but they just think Wu Kung did wrong things. This is a traditional role of any kind of gods in mythology. For example, Zeus, the god in European mythology, also has this kind of power. I think they both like to force their value into other creatures, or other people in the story.  In this part, the only reason for the lord of heaven who could tame Wu Kung is because he is related to Buddha. Since the existence of Buddha, so they could punish Wu Kung successfull...

This story is part of The Monkey King unit .   "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book , ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921). This part of the story shows us the birth of Sun Wu Kung and his journey. For me, this is a familiar topic, I have already read Sun Wu Kung's story many times when I still in China. In this storybook, the author briefly talked about his experiences, and I gain some new knowledge about Wu Kung. For example, when he leaves the cave in the water-curtain, the author mentioned, "Wind and waves were favorable and he reached Asia". This is a connection between myth and reality. I have never heard about that in the story of the Chinese version. Although it is just one sentence, it is very important I think. When I see that, I realized that there is a relationship between Wu Kung's adventure and reality. So, if I could also use this strategy in my own storybook, the story would be more vivid and impressive. ...