Translated from Chinese by Julia Lovell
Published by Penguin, 2021, 339 pages. First published in English in 1942, translated by Arthur Waley. Original version published in 1592.

Some books never age but feel as fresh as if they were written yesterday. Monkey King is one of these: a Chinese classic, written in the 16th century. Its authorship is not entirely certain, but it was probably written by Wu Cheng’en, a Chinese novelist, poet and politician during the Ming dynasty.

The book tells of the journey to India of Tripitaka, a Tang-dynasty monk, to bring back some Buddhist scrolls. But the real hero of this story is the Monkey King, or Sun Wukong—a monkey with incredible superpowers, infinitely resourceful and utterly irrepressible.

The first seven chapters are dedicated to the Monkey King, and the story of the quest only begins in the eighth chapter. Monkey learns how to shape-shift, cloud-hop across vast distances in minutes, and create anything he wants by plucking out and chewing on his hairs. Delighted with his superpowers, he titles himself Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

Which, predictably, does not go down too well with the Jade Emperor in Heaven. He has been receiving complaints about the monkey, who seems to have a talent for annoying people. His advisers suggest inviting Monkey to Heaven and giving him a government job, so that they can keep an eye on him. (Yes, Heaven is a bureaucracy, where complaints are made through petitions.) Monkey is delighted: he is on the Heavenly Register of Officials, has people waiting on him hand and foot, and gets three square meals a day.

The Jade Emperor puts Monkey in charge of the Orchard of Immortal Peaches. This is a bad idea: Monkey eats all the peaches in the orchard. Then when Monkey finds out he has not been invited to the Queen Mother’s peach festival, he casts an immobility spell over the Queen and her attendants and devours all the food for the festival. Not to mention that he also drinks all the immortal elixirs. The Jade Emperor is at a loss, and the Buddha himself is summoned to help. He pins Monkey under a mountain, where he remains for 500 years.

Which brings us to the monk, Tripitaka, who is sent on a quest for the Buddhist scrolls. Tripitaka needs companions who can help him make the perilous journey, so Monkey is released from captivity to accompany him. Needless to say, Monkey could have somersaulted to India and back within minutes, but the journey is important in itself, and a way for him to atone for his sins and to grow. The monkey and Tripitaka are joined by two other disgraced immortals: Pigsy, a pig who can fly and Sandy, a river monster.

What follows is what the translator Julia Lovell calls “an action-packed situation comedy”. As the pilgrims make their way from China to India, they have to battle demons, fiends, monsters, cunning women and much more. They are tied up, sautéed, steamed, fried and harmed in various nasty ways. Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy, being immortal, cannot be killed—Monkey gets his head chopped off and promptly grows another one—and they manage to keep Tripitaka reasonably safe. The monk is of no help; he is easily discouraged and tends to collapse in tears, terrified, whenever they face difficulties. Pigsy can be exasperating; he is easily tempted by a bowl of noodles and his greed often gets them into trouble. He and Monkey are at loggerheads most of the time.

The pilgrims’ path takes them to the Land of the Women. Tripitaka and Pigsy drink from the stream, which gives them both terrible stomach aches. To their horror, the women in the nearby huts, instead of helping them, cannot stop laughing. The river they drank from is the Mother-and-Child river: what Tripitaka and Pigsy are feeling are labour pains. That is not the only thing the pilgrims have to deal with: being the only males in the land, they are ogled on the street and forced into marriage. In other words, they get a taste of what it is like to be a woman.

Monkey King is based largely on Chinese folktales and mythology, and according to some sources, Monkey is based on Hanuman from the Ramayana. As is the case with many ancient classics, the book is open to interpretation. It can be seen as a slapstick adventure, an allegory of the human condition, or a criticism of power and of those who wield it. Taoists, Buddhists and Confucian scholars have argued over it. It was republished in Mao’s time with annotations, the only “old” piece of literature not denounced by him. Both Mao and Zhou Enlai emphasized Monkey’s defiance of authority, seeing Heaven and the Jade Emperor as oppressors. In fact, Mao saw Monkey as an inspiration and identified with him. The book has also inspired films, comics and other works. The original version of the book published in 1592 is 100 chapters long; the English translations are abridged.

This is a new translation, and Lovell has done a wonderful job of bringing the language up to date. The dialogue is snappy, and the book had me chuckling throughout. There is also a beautifully illustrated map at the beginning (I love maps in books!).

I was disappointed when Monkey King came to an end. I could have spent a lot more time with the three monsters, especially Monkey, whom I missed when he wandered out of the story. This is a delightful book, and one that will lift your spirits.