Chaos & Order

What’s a trickster without some order to rebel against? There is plenty of hierarchies and structures in the many worlds of the Journey to the West for our anarchistic hero to upset. The celestial Jade Emperor is a common target, both for the satirical pen of the author Wu Cheng-en and for the disrespect of his main character, Sun Wukong. But he isn’t satisfied with disrupting the heavenly authorities and scaring the dragon kings of the four seas. If the adventures of Monkey would take place in the Greek mythology, not only Zeus and Poseidon would be threatened, even Hades would have to watch out.

In one of my favorite parts of the story, Monkey falls in a drunken sleep after a party. In a dream, messengers from Yama, the ruler of death, brings him to the underworld. Monkey is furious, he is supposed to be immortal! I’m not sure if the kings and civil servants of the land of death can fear for their lives, but they soon learn to fear the magical rod of Monkey. He demands to see the books where the life-times of all living beings are recorded.

“He looked through them all one by one, but could not find Sun Wukong's name in the sections devoted to hairless creatures, hairy creatures, feathered creatures, insects, or scaly creatures. Then he looked through the monkey section. Now although monkeys looked like men, they were not entered under the humans; although they were like the hairless creatures, they did not live within their boundaries; although they were like running animals, they were not under the jurisdiction of the unicorn; and although they were like birds, they were not ruled by the phoenix. There was another register, and Sun Wukong looked through this one himself. Under "Soul No. 1350" was the name of Sun Wukong, the Heaven−born stone monkey, who was destined to live to the age of 342 and die a good death.”

I love this part, where the obviously unclassifiable Monkey settles the matter by just erasing his name. I am sure Carolus Linnaeus would appreciate it too ;-)