Extra Reading Diary: Monkey King Unit

For this week's extra reading diary, I will be reading the first half of the Monkey King unit.

"Monkey King" by SnowSkadi. Source: DeviantArt.

Handsome King of the Apes

• The name of the mountain is very eye catching--the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits--I hope there are lots of flowers and fruits there
• Ooh, the rock has supernatural powers.
• Why was there only an ape, but no other animals that bursted out of the stone egg?
• Two streams of golden radiance.. like light? 
• These monkeys lived for so long--300 years+?!

The Great Sea

• They are scared of dying? Humans have a much shorter life span than they do!
• The Monkey King was a good monkey in that he wanted his family and friends to live forever instead of growing and old and dying, so he tried to look for ways to gain immortality. Whether that means becoming a buddha, blessed spirit, or a god.
• He went to the mortal world to seek immortality
• Humans didn't care about living, but cared about wealth

Sun Wu Kung Gets His Name

• The saint taught the monkey domestic tasks to lessen his wild nature and gave him his name.

The Master

• The Monkey King desperately wanted to gain eternal life, so he refused to learn about any technique of attaining the great truth without it giving eternal life
• The three blow across the head from the master was actually a secret code!

Learning the Art

• The master decides to teach MK the way of eternal life by magical incantation
• MK then practiced what his master taught him such as breathing techniques and how to tame his spirit
• He also learned how to transform himself 72 times
• He could also fly by forming clouds at his feet!

Sun Wu Kung Departs

• MK was showing his friends some of the things he learned and was scolded by his master
• This made sense because these arts are to be secret
• The master then sent MK away as a punishment
• MK stayed loyal until the end by paying his respects to his master before leaving

The Devil-King

• During MK's absence, a group of devils came and wreaked havoc at his home by taking away his children and kin.
• The cave the devils lived was the "Cave of Kidneys." What a hilarious name.
• MK has 84,000 hairs on his body that he could transform into little apes that could fight with him. How cool!
• He was able to successfully save his children (yay!)

The Dragon-King

• The MK's character turned bad. He soon used his power to steal from armies
• He wanted to find a weapon to suit him and his subjects told him of the Dragon King's magical weapon in the Great Sea
• The MK set out to obtain the weapon, but none of them were heavy enough for the MK's tremendous strength
• MK has powers over all the elements, so he can't drown in water or even burn in a fire

The Dragon-Queen

• The Dragon-Queen then offered the great iron bar of the Great Yu but the Dragon-King did not want to give it to the MK
• Reluctantly, the Dragon-King showed MK the bar, but the MK couldn't lift it and asked that it be a little shorter and thinner
• The rod then listened to the MK and grew smaller! He found out he could command its size.
• MK wanted armor as well but the Dragon-King had none for him and MK threatened him with the rod. He eventually got his armor. 

The Nether World

• He tucks the rod in his ear. How handy!
• He was taken to the place of death aka the nether world.
• MK demanded the Book of Life and read that he would die after 324 years.
• He then scratched off all the names of his kin off in the Book of Life, meaning they would never die!