Storytelling: The Search for Eternal Life

This is the story of a very powerful king; a stone monkey king. He was born from a supernatural rock that burst forth at the dawn of creation. He was not given his kingly title from birth, but the stone monkey was a powerful and mysterious creature to behold. Even the gods in the heavens above were weary of his power. One day while with a group of normal monkeys the stone monkey proved to them all his power and authority by jumping through a waterfall and finding himself a castle built into the side of a mountain. He claimed this cave castle as his own, and was crowned king by the monkeys that beheld this feat.

(Jumping Through the Waterfall)

He lived with his subjects for many years, but soon became discontent. Even though he had the power he wanted and all the riches he could have ever imagined, he knew that one day Death would call for him and take him away from his earthly pleasure. Becoming distraught at the thought, he began to weep in front of his subjects. However, there was one wise old monkey among the group that was attending the king. This wise monkey told the king of a way that he could find the secret of eternal life. The Buddhas, the spirits, and the gods all had eternal life, so all he needed to do was find where they dwelled and beg them for the secret to being immortal. At the mention of this plan the king became resolved. He soon packed up some of his things and headed off to find the people who could share the secret to evading Death. 

After sailing for many weeks, he finally set ashore in Asia. While there he decided to learn how to become more like the humans he saw around him. He lived among the humans for 10 years in search of someone who could teach him what to do to get eternal life. He searched high and low, looking for any signs of spirits dwelling among him. He looked all around to see if he could find the living place of the Buddhas. He scoured the entire continent for evidence that a god was residing in the midst of the humans. After many years, the stone monkey king gave up hope of finding who he needed in Asia. So, he set off for the West.

The stone monkey king travelled for many weeks by land and see until he found a new land to explore. When he arrived, he looked up to see an enormous mountain jutting up right in front of him. From the mountain, he heard the most beautiful singing that he had ever come across. He knew that he had found the place in which the spirits dwelled. When he climbed up and found the source of the singing he was sad to see that if was just a lowly farmer. Must to his surprise the stone monkey king found out that the farmer learned his song from a wise old spirit that lived at the top of the mountain. So, the monkey went and climbed to the very top where he did indeed find the spirit. 

The spirit saw the drive that the stone monkey king had and decided to take him under his wing. The first thing he did was brand him with a new name: Sun Wu Kung. After doing that the spirit taught Sun many different skills, like tending a garden, cleaning a house, having manners. He didn’t teach him how to become immortal though, and Sun Wu Kung was becoming impatient. After any years of living with the spirit and learning from him, Sun Wu Kung demanded to be taught how to become immortal. The spirit sadly informed him that he didn’t know how to make oneself immortal, for he had been born immortal. This infuriated Sun Wu Kung, but he didn’t let him stop him from finding what he truly wanted. So he set off again in hopes of finding out this secret.

Bibliography:

"The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Author's Note:

In the original story this monkey king made out of stone doesn't want to die. So he sets out on a journey to find someone who could teach him how to get eternal life. He is told that the spirits, the Buddhas, and the gods have eternal life and must know how someone could get it for themselves. I wanted to tell the story in my own words and not change too much from the original. I did change the ending a bit. The place where I ended was actually the middle of the story. I could see my word count get a bit too high so I thought this would be a good place to stop. So I changed it to were the spirit didn't know how to become immortal so Sun Wu Kung had to set off to find someone knew. I wanted it to end so you didn't know whether he became immortal or not.