Monkey King
Celestial simian sovereign
The Monkey King is a trickster deity from Chinese mythology, central to the sixteenth-century novel *Journey to the West*.
Born from a stone and possessing supernatural powers, he wreaks havoc in heaven before being subdued by the Buddha and eventually accompanying a monk on a pilgrimage.
The character—also called Sun Wukong—remains iconic in East Asian popular culture, appearing in countless adaptations across film, television, and video games.
- shape-shiftingTransforming one's appearance at will
- Chinese mythologyTraditional sacred stories from Asia
- trickDeliberate deception
- seventy-twoNumber after seventy-one
- stoneSolid earth fragment
somersault · cudgel · cloud · Taoism · Buddhism · Buddhist scriptures · peach · enlightenment · staff · golden · Sun Wukong · born · transformation · immortality · rebellion · tail · Chinese folklore · martial arts
- Asian classicsI Ching, Analects, Laozi, Sun Tzu, Bhagavad Gita
- Monkey GodsSun Wukong
- Asian Folkloreyokai, kitsune, oni, tengu, folktales
- Buddhist loresacred stories, koans, moral fables, bodhisattvas, nagas
- heroeshero, heroes, heroine, heroines, superhero