The Greatest Buddhist Fiction Ever Written

One of the most popular Chinese classical fictions out there is the tale of the Monkey King and his journey to the west. The Monkey King is half human and half monkey, born of a meteorite that fell from the heavens. He matures and becomes the king of his monkey tribe. As king, he would often worry about death and old age – not for himself but for his monkey-people. He wants the best for his tribe and wants to protect them from anything and everything, even from something as inevitable as old age. So one day he decides to take a journey.

He travels to a school of Taoism (harmony with existence) and spends at least several lifetimes there in mastering the art of immortality. There he also learns shapeshifting and other magical arts. There are different variations of the tale but the most common is that he grows to be too mischievous in his use of his power. So he gets recruited into Heaven as a God – a lowly God of horses – so that the many other Gods could keep an eye on him.

In Heaven he befriends a lot of the other Gods, one of them the Queen of the Heavens– who he teaches to ride horses. But during his time in Heaven, he continues to be mischievous and gets himself into a lot of trouble. His friends often vouch for him but he never learns his lesson.

He takes his pranks too far when he steals and eats from the Heavenly Garden. While he thinks the garden fruit are mere fruit, they are in fact fruit that grant something like 20 years of prolonged life per bite – gifts grown by the Gods to give to deserving people.

For this, he is sentenced to death. But he flees back to his monkey tribe and tries to escape punishment. The forces of Heaven follow him and decimates his entire tribe. He is captured and given the death penalty. But his friends in heaven, most of all the Queen, demands his release.

The Buddha is summoned for a verdict. He gives the Monkey King a riddle – a very simple but profound one. But in his arrogance and foolishness, the Monkey King fails the test; and as a result, he is imprisoned under a mountain for 500 years.

He is imprisoned there until he is met by a travelling monk. The monk asks the Monkey King to accompany him on a journey to the west to retrieve ancient scrolls. The Buddha agrees with the idea, and thinks that if anybody could teach the monkey to be still and respectful, it would be this monk.

And so, the Monkey King and the monk set out on a journey. This is where the actual tale begins and becomes a tale of virtue and endurance – a tale now recognized as one of the most influential Chinese fictions in the world.