#Journey to the West

[ryversreality]

sorry for my absence, been busy all semester. Here’s a Wukong as a peace offering

(click for quality 👊😼)

currently designing his generals and some art of FFM/Mount Huaguo

[quitealotofsodapop]

Not to mention if he had shown Tang, a scholar who lived and breathed JTTW, his memories... I'm pretty sure Tabg would have straight up attacked him for trying to describe what happened to Wukong while he was held captive by Heaven had been anything less than what it was: Torture. For example, at this point, Sun Wukong is more than a fairytale or storybook character. He's more than just some demon who lived thousands of years ago as a footnote in a history book. He's a person, not only that, but he's someone who has since become part of Tang's family! He's a flawed but still wise master who is impulsively self sacrificial to the point of unintentionally hurting the people who care about him, he's temperamental and tends to be forgetful about the limits of normal mortals because he's never had a baseline, he's petty, but ultimately... Sun Wukong is someone who cares deeply and honestly about the people who manage to get past the ironclad walls he has erected around his heart, someone who is selfless at heart even when his actions seem selfish, someone who has had a very difficult life and is still learning to let other in and trust them. Tanghas read Wukong's story a hundred times over, analyzed his written actions a thousand times, out of everyone he is probably the one who knows the ksot about Wukong's past besides the Demon Bull King and Macaque, the person who pribavly raised Wukong the most besides the Sentinels and his mate respectively. He recognizes how much Wukong has changed for the better, how he's still learning after all these centuries, and how he's trying so very hard to be a good mentor for MK and teach him the lessons he never had so he doesn't suffer the same way he did even while his own past comes back to bite him.

So no... Tang would absolutely be offended by Azure's narrative

YUP. referencing.

Tang about to bust out his Bachelors in ancient Chinese history and literature to poke a million holes in Azure Lion's whiteashed narrative:

(In the Scroll of Memory as Azure is showing his memories of the Rebellion): Tang, suddenly appearing in the memory: "Where is Erlang Shen?" Azure, startled: "How did you get in here?" Tang: "As someone who lives for this era in history - I can poke so many holes in your story. Sun Wukong was strong enough for the Jade Emperor, but fell to his nephew Erlang Shen, his Plum Hill Lads, and Lao Tzu's binding ring. From there he was tossed into the Trigram Furnace and was forced to endure 49 days of the Samadhi Fire to extract his immortalities." Azure, pleasantly impressed: "You know your stories well monk-" Tang, interupting: "AND-! I am not finished. The great Tang Monk, aka Tripitaka, did not yield to the Taoist gods! Only to the Buddha and his diciples! To call him an Agent of the Oppressors greatly overlooks how many times he helped his fellow mortals, even at the threat of being executed for his faith!" Azure: "You're becoming overwhelmed-" Tang, angry tears: "And I know Wukong! He wouldn't have targeted you guys at Camel Ridge unless you did something warranting his anger! How can you call him a traitor when YOU left him to burn!?" (*Azure's memories dispate, instead showing Wukong when he was with the Pilgrims - from the perspective of Tripitaka. Wukong is laughing along with his brothers Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Ao Lie*) Tang, volume increasing: "Wukong didn't stay with the Pilgrims to hurt people. He stayed because he knew that his mind and emotions needed healing after such a tremendous amount of pain. They cared enough for him to address this pain and help him towards being a true sage. Something your *Brotherhood* obviously never bothered to do! HE DIDN'T BETRAY YOU AS MUCH AS YOU BETRAYED HIM!!" (the memory scroll completely disapates back to reality. the entire MKrew + the Brotherhood are staring shocked at Tang's show of power*) Tang: *breathing heavily and angry crying* MK, wide-eyed and impressed: "...whoa" Pigsy, proud: "Yup. Don't try to twist what happened back then Azure. My Tangy knows his history." Peng, whispers to the others: "The Golden Cicada lives on. I knew I wasn't mistaken." Yellow Tusk: "I suggest we retreat for now. Once the Celestial Realm senses our escape, they are sure to have increased their defences." Azure, eyes narrowing: "No. We go forward with our plan. No matter what this monk-" Tang: "I'M NOT A MONK!" Tang: *casts Magic Missile*

Because at the end of the day, Azure understimated the receipts that Wukong's new dad-friend would have on their political movement.

[ryin-silverfish]

I really like Azure Lion as a character. Yeah, you can stop following me now. /j

But no, seriously, I like how LMK has adapted this particular character, given him way more potential complexity than his novel counterpart——not that it's a high bar, the LCR trio of JTTW are just demon warlords living in a literal human slaughterhouse.

Which is why I deeply dislike the take that "Oh, Azure manipulated SWK into fighting the JE! He's just using him like a pawn!" Like, wow, way to completely butcher two characters' personality and agency in one go.

Such takes reduce SWK to some innocent kid, when he is at most an impulsive, daring teenager who haven't met a single real obstacle so far——he robbed the dragon kings blind, and they couldn't do a thing! He struck his name and all his monkeys' names off the Book of Life and Death! What couldn't he do?

And Azure's failing isn't him telling a toddler: "You know what? Driving your tricycle into oncoming traffic will be real fun, trust me kiddo." It's letting his friend go way over the speed limit and not telling him that he should maybe, y'know, slow down, bc he'd seen his epic driving skills, SWK's the bestest driver he ever met, surely nothing would happen!

(And also, no one in that car is sober, except Macaque.)

What I'm getting at here is, even without Azure, SWK is not gonna be content with sitting on his mountain, eating peaches forever. Hell, he sure doesn't in the novel, where his demon king brothers are little more than namedropped NPCs.

He is always gonna want more, chase after greater destinies, drown out that existential ennui and fear of death at the back of his mind with bigger and bigger power-ups and the laughters of his companions.

He told himself he would be content after getting this one thing he wanted. That he could stop at any time. But alas, like any ADHDer, he will not stop at this one exciting thing, and sooner or later, the boredom sets in, and he gets ideas and impulsively leaps into making them reality.

That is the Mind Monkey at his worst: being a whirlwind of chaos, while unknowingly enslaved to his own chaotic mind.

(In the book, this is Wu Cheng'en's reminder to the reader that, even though you shouldn't keep your heart constantly under lock and keys, Neo-Confucian style, the other extreme——letting it go completely wild, disregarding all external rules and consequences, can be equally disastrous.)

And when that car was driven through the Celestial Palace's front door, off a bridge, and straight into a ditch, it was him in the driver's seat, steering the wheels the whole time.

Everyone else in that car failed terribly as friends when they didn't voice any objections, or try to get him off the driver's seat, or realize that cheering and egging him on is an awful idea, however genuine their blind trust was.

Like, they are certainly not helping, and made the situation much, much worse. If you let your buddy drive while under influence and hand him more beers in the car, even if you are also drunk out of your mind and aren't actively trying to get him into a traffic accident, you are a shitty, irresponsible friend.

But the thing is? SWK is still responsible for the consequences of his decisions. He could have stopped, by his own volition, and no one was holding a gun to his head and forcing him to drive. He, too, wanted this.

That, to me, makes a much more interesting narrative than "Poor innocent baby SWK was puppeted into becoming the Great Sage in Heaven by shady blue cat, how awful!"

Oh, and since I'm feeling particularly salty today, I'll also ask some last questions: is SWK so weak-willed and devoid of self-agency to you that he couldn't even OWE his most famous title, the Great Sage in Heaven, 100%, without being manipulated into it?

Is SWK so immature and unintelligent to you that he is incapable of being a genuine idealist or rebel, that he cannot agree, out of the depth of his heart, that the Celestial Realm sucks balls and needs better management?

TL;DR: Havoc! Era Azure Lion isn't some cult leader brainwashing this kid into becoming his figurehead. He's the dumbass who's too busy staring at his teenage crush to care about the blaring police sirens.

Also, I had a bit of an epiphany after writing this: why am I so annoyed by people reading Azure's idealization of SWK as him intentionally manipulating and love-bombing him? Because it is a very western and modern reading.

For someone with traditional Confucian beliefs, it is perfectly normal——it is what you are supposed to feel, as a liege who has found your just and virtuous lord.

If Romance of the Three Kingdoms existed back then, he would probably describe himself as the Guan Yu to SWK's Liu Bei, however wonky the analogy was.

(Gosh, now I want a "Four Classics read each other" crossover.)

I'm not saying it is healthy or wise. But under this context, putting your lord on a pedestral was normalized, and even encouraged, as the virtue of a righteous gentleman. It was the sort of ideals romanticized culture-wide. NOT having such beliefs would probably make you look weird.

And since the Celestial Realm in the novel is a parody of Confucian hierarchy in a Daoist trenchcoat, it was really no surprise that an idealistic ex-celestial soldier would hold the same beliefs.

To torture the analogy further, the problem is that he was trying to be the Guan Yu to SWK's Liu Bei, when the Brotherhood had more in common with the Bandits of the Marsh, down to their giant downer ending.

[journeytothewestresearch]

Soul-Stealing Picture Phobia

I've heard of the superstition that cameras steal someone's soul when a picture is taken. I'm not sure when or where this belief first took hold, but Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) exhibits an example that predates the camera. Chapter 32 reads:

Among those thirty little fiends, there were some who did not recognize Eight Rules. There were a few, however, who found his face somewhat familiar, and pointing at him, they said, "Great King, this monk looks like the portrait of Zhu Eight Rules." The old fiend told them at once to hang up the picture so that they could examine it more closely. When Eight Rules saw it, he was greatly shaken, muttering to himself, "No wonder I feel somewhat dispirited of late! They have caught my spirit in this portrait!" (emphasis added) (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 2, p. 101) 那三十名小怪，中間有認得的，有不認得的。傍邊有聽著指點說話的道：「大王，這個和尚，像這圖中豬八戒模樣。」叫掛起影神圖來。八戒看見，大驚道：「怪道這些時沒精神哩，原來是他把我的影神傳將來也。」

I'm sure a phobia of having one's picture drawn goes back even further.

Source:

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vols. 1-4) (Rev. ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

[pillowdrawz]

LEGO MONKIE KID X DRAGON BALL Z : Equivalent Soul Au.

Context: Sun Wukong Died by Azure Lion's slash and he got reincarnated or his soul merge On Son Goku. So basically Son Goku is the new Sun Wukong he doesn't know it . The New JTTW gang still defeated Azure but Barely.

I wanted angst and also Found family.

Also since Goku is FAR more different to sun wukong and NO I DON'T WANT FIGHTING SHUT UP GOKU SOLOS MY ASS I JUST WANTED FOUND FAMILY OKAY FOUND FAMILY-NO DEBATING-

[couldtheycatchkira]

[journeytothewest-daily]

Welcome to The Journey to the West (西游记) Daily!

You are about to beging a reading journey to get the hidden Buddhist texts accompanied by the monk Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, Sha Wujing, Zhu Bajie and Bai Long Ma.

To beging this journey you must subscribe to the newsletter, which you will find at https://journeytothewestdaily.substack.com/. You wil receive your first email this week, welcoming you and sharing information about what's to come and what I will include in the emails.

However, beforehand I want to tell you already that you won't receive a daily email, despite the name of the newsletter. The chapters are dense and full of references to folklore or religion references that you might be unfamiliar with, so you will receive an email every 2 or 3 days maximum.

If this is the first time that you hear about this newsletter and you don't know what Journey to the West is...

The classical Chinese novel Journey to the West is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who traveled to the "Western Regions" (Central Asia and India) to obtain Buddhist sūtras (sacred texts) and returned after many trials and much suffering. Gautama Buddha gives this task to the monk, whose name in the novel is Tang Sanzang, and provides him with three protectors who agree to help him as an atonement for their sins. These disciples are the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing, together with a dragon prince who acts as the monk's steed, a white horse. The group of pilgrims journey towards enlightenment by the power and virtue of cooperation.

The novel is perfect for the epistolary format, since it's is divided in different and disconnected adventures, so you don't have to always remember what happened in the previous chapter to read the next!

We'll be reading Anthony C. Yu's translation since it is the first unabridged version that we have available in English. It is about 100 chapters long.

As I said, you will receive a first email as soon as you subscribe and an introductory email in a few days. Please, share this post so more people can read along. Use the hashtag #jttwdaily if you want to comment your impressions. I'll share the most important dates soon.

May the Buddha help you in your endeavours.

[ninjahaku21art]

Battle on Mount Huaguo!

After Wukong stole the wine and peaches and returned to earth, his monkeys declared him the great sage equal to heaven! Once Nezha lost to him, the celestials called up Erlang to help deal with him!

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To see comics, art, wips in advance, consider supporting my patreon!

[elirastudio]

So other six demon kings joined Sun Wukong creating…

[legobowl]

No Such Thing as Heaven

In which, maybe in the grand scheme of things, heaven was too good to be true.

[digitalagepulao]

monkey love language

i absolutely adore just how aggressively physical monkeys can be with affection. they just fully press their heads into each other, lots of tugging and pulling, almost throwing themselves at each other when they want attention. i bet it takes Wukong some adjustment so he doesn't use his full force when he gets grabbed by the need to just squeeze someone lmao, but just as much as the others need time to get used to a monkey perched on them every now and then. plus grooming is often a bargaining chip and a way to build relationships and a show of affection and trust. so, a bit of monkey love for each of the group! :D

aaaand Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing face reveal!! working on a fullbody lineup to show off their heights as well, so consider this a teaser ;3

Bajie is half wild boar, half babirusa. I love the four-tusk situation babirusa have going on, but his bristled mane is too iconic to handwave away. plus, pigs that go feral grow tusks and thicker fur, so i wanted to capture some of that with the half-and-half design.

as for Wujing, he's a complicated one to explain, but for his face i really wanted his beard to stand out as well as the six skulls necklace. i'm going for a "intermittent waters" concept with him, since he's originally connected to a desert before being made into a river demon, so i'm drawing on mudskippers for his ear fins and face spots.

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[paxopalotls]

I've been watching a lot of jttw adaptations recently and I really like the Lego one so far

[sketching-shark]

Sun Wukong?!?!?

[nxptoons]

Bro bout to regret this prank 😶

[ningadudexx]

.

i love my abstract monkey man