reading notes: the monkey king, part b

•  the dragon king and the princes of the dead sat before the lord of the heavens and presented their complaints about sun wu kung 
• the lord of the heavens ordered a god to take him prisoner 
• the god said that he was born of pure powers and that the king should issue an order for him to come and be forgiven of his sins, and if he doesn't, he would be punished with no mercy
• the god descended and gave him his order, so sun wu kung obliged and mounted a cloud to heaven
• sun wu kung was moving so fast that the god was left behind, but caught up and let him into the heavenly gates
• he did not show respect to the lord so everyone wanted him to be punished, but the lord excused him 
• the lord appointed him to be the stablemaster of the heavenly steeds, so he attended his duties with zeal
• sun wu kung asked what his position was ranked, and his friend told him it was not 
• he grew angry and beat out of heaven with his iron rod and went home 
• he was given an imperial robe as a present from two devil kings 
• he ordered them to make a flag that said great saint who is heavens equal 
• the lord of the heavens ordered his sons to take the ape prisoner, but he was able to quickly defeat them 
• the evening star came down to appoint him his title, since nobody could defeat him 
• the great saint was built a castle east of the peach garden of the queen mother of the west 
• he idled every day, so the lord of the heavens gave him the job of watching over the peaches 
• he watched over all the peaches and did it well
• the queen mother started to prepare for the peach banquet, so the great saint led the faeries into the garden to pick the peaches 
• the great saint became angry because everyone was invited to the banquet but him, so he turned into another god and showed up at the banquet 
• he got drunk and stumbled into the house of laotze, where he ate and drank the pills and elixir of life 
• he knew what he did was horrible so he returned home to earth, where the apes asked him to go back and steal more wine
• everyone who had been in contact with him went to the lord of the heavens to tell them what had happened 
• the lord sent his army to battle, and all were defeated after taking most of the ape's followers
• someone recommended the lord of the heaven's grandson to defeat him- yang oerlang
• they fought 300 rounds with no decisive results 
• yangs spirits captured most of the apes 
• the ape became nervous and began to change shapes, fleeing from the conflict 
• he disappeared and took shape of yang oerlang, taking the throne
• yang found him and they continued to battle out of the kingdom 
• laotze flung a circlet of diamonds at sun wu kung, causing him to slip 
• they tied him up and took him prisoner, but all efforts to kill him failed 
• they put him in a fire but he was not harmed, and leaped out of the oven after 7 days 
• buddha came to speak to sung wu kung 
• buddha said that if sung wu kung could leave his hand with one somersalt, then he will tell the lord of the heavens to make way for him, and if not, he would yield to buddha 
• he did not do it, because his name was not written on buddhas hand, so he tried to escape and failed 
• he was tamed for hundreds of years and then had to fetch writings for a monk for the rest of his life 
• they put a gold circlet on him so he could not escape, and it would tighten every time he misbehaved 
• 
  Ape King 
  Source: DeviantArt
  
  
  Bibliography
  R. Wilhelm, The Ape Sun Wu Kung. Un-textbook