parent nodes: Journey to the West | Lewis Lee | Sun Wukong
The Monkey King, Sun Wukong (孫悟空, pinyin: sun1 wu4kong1, also surn vukorn), is perhaps the most famous and beloved fictional character in all of classic Chinese literature. He is the main character of Journey to the West, a story dating back to the Tang dynasty. Through a series of audacious stunts he acquires immortality, shape-changing ability, cloud travel skills, and ownership of a handy as-you-will resizeable cudgel which can be nestled behind the ear for easy carrying or resized to tree-trunk size for pounding the sense out of dragons. Above all he has monkey chutzpah.
Sun Wukong learned many of his magical tricks while serving as a disciple under the Patriarch Subodhi; it was the Patriarch who gave him the name "Wukong" ("aware of emptiness"). (The Patriarch, who by the time they parted ways was certain the monkey would come to a bad end, made him promise never to tell anyone who his teacher was.)
He is invited to the Heavenly Kingdom by the Jade Emperor in the hopes that a promotion and title will make him a little more manageable. He proves to be an incorrigible monkey, however, and soon he is scarfing down the Empress's Peaches of Immortality and popping Lord Lao Tzu's Pills of Indestructability like they were Tic Tacs. Feeling guilty, but not that guilty, he becomes the biggest headache for everybody in heaven. Finally, the heavenly authorities had no choice but to attempt to subdue him. He fought the Four Heavenly Kings, Erlang Shen and Nezha successively. After great effort and teamwork by the heavenly forces, including many famous deities, he was finally captured. He was stuffed into Lord Lao Tzu's eight-way trigem cauldron to be distilled into an elixir. The cauldron's sacred flames was hot enough to consume anything (including immortals). After a good long cook and then some, they lift the lid to peek -- and out jumps Monkey King, completely unharmed apart from some smoke in his eyes.
All other options exhausted, they finally appeal to the Buddha himself, who arrives in an instant from his temple in the West. The Buddha bet with Sun Wukong that the Monkey could not fly out of his palm. Wukong, confident of his own ability agrees. He took a great leap and lands in a desolate section of heaven. There were only five pillars visible. Wukong surmised that he had reached the ends of heaven (and the pillars were the pillars holding the realm aloft). He made a marking on the centre pillar as proof that he was there (not unlike a modern day vandal). Then he leapt back and lands in Buddha's palm. Smiling, Buddha asked him to turn around. He looked back and saw that the marking he made earlier was on Buddha's middle finger. Monkey had lost the bet. Immediately, he tries to escape, but Buddha turned over his palm and imprisoned Monkey under a mountain. There he must remained imprisoned for five centuries until he can offer to serve the future Sanzang, the T'ang Priest, who is destined to make the journey to the West to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures for China. The bodhisattva Guanyin helps Sanzang by giving him a magical headband which Sanzang puts on Monkey's head. With a special word Sanzang is able to tighten the band until Monkey cannot bear the pain. In that way he is brought to his true calling as a disciple of Buddha.
For the rest of the epic Sun Wukong faithfully helps the T'ang Priest on his journey to the west. The are joined by Friar Sand (Sha Wujing) and Pig (Zhu Bajie), two other monsters who have been tamed in advance by Guanyin and woven into Sanzang's destiny. The group gets into many scrapes and must learn many Buddhist lessons before they return safely to the T'ang empire with the treasure of the Buddhist scripture.
Miscellaneous
It is believed that the character Sun Wukong was partly based on Hanuman, the "monkey god" of Hindu described in a book by Xuan Zang. He also bears some similarities to mischievous six year old boys. Sun Wukong became so well-known in China that he was once worshipped by some as a real god.
Son Goku, the central character in the Japanese animation Dragon Ball, is partly based on Sun Wukong.
The character Son Goku in the manga Gensomaden Saiyuki, whose plot is loosely based on Journey to the West, is partly based on Sun Wukong.
Craft, the central character in the American film Craft's Journey, is partly based on Sun Wukong.