Status Updates From The Rise of the Monkey King...

"Please tell me my given name now," said Monkey.

"Because you seek truth, I will call you Wukong," replied the master.

"Now I am known as Sun Wukong!" rejoiced Monkey.

Sun Wukong studied with the master for seven years, and then one day, the master asked him, of all 360 paths to wisdom that he could teach him, which one would he choose to follow?

"I'm sorry!" says Monkey. "I don't have a name, because I don't have parents."
"Were you born from a tree?"
"No, from a rock."
"So, your parents are Heaven and Earth!" says Master Subodhi. "Show me how you walk."
Monkey was wearing human clothes, but he walked like a monkey.
"You walk like an ape, and your face is not pretty," says Subodhi. "You resemble an ape [husun], so your surname will be Sun."

Monkey tells him where he is from, but Subodhi thinks he is lying because Aolai is so far away. Monkey responds that he has traveled ten years to get here. When Subodhi asks him his name, Monkey thinks he asks about his temper and claims to not have one—if you scold or hit him, he won't reply in kind.

"Stupid Monkey. I asked about your name, not your temper," says Subodhi.

Monkey King says, "Yes, I am the new student."

They enter into the cave where the teacher, Subodhi, is teaching about 30 students. Monkey King bows down before the teacher, and asks him to teach him.

Subodhi asks him what his name and home country are.

The Monkey King walked down the road to a cave with a sign above: "The Mountain of Mind and Heart." He climbed a tree and played while he waited. When a young man comes out of the cave, Monkey King says he has come to learn. The boy says that he must be the new student he was sent to fetch.

Monkey King tells the man that he should be studying with his neighbor, the sage.
The man says he cannot; he must stay and take care of his mother.
"I understand," says Monkey King. "Can you tell me how to find this immortal?"
"He lives down this road, about 7 or 8 miles," says the man. "He has many students at the Mountain of Mind and Heart in the Crescent Moon and Three Stars cave."
"Thank you," says Monkey King.

Monkey King ran, shouting, "An immortal! An immortal!"
The old man asked him why he thought that.
"Your words are those of an immortal. Teach me!" said Monkey King.
"I learned those words from my neighbor. He told me to sing them when I was worried, and just now I was worried."

Monkey King walked into a forest and heard someone singing a song about his happy and simple life: "I chop wood; I sell wood. I buy some rice and a little wine. I sleep in the woods; the earth is my bed; a root is my pillow. I laugh easily; I don't worry. I don't have any plans. My life is simple and happy!" When Monkey King heard this, he thought, 'That is a sage."

The Monkey King looks and looks for a holy sage. He crosses over from the Southern Continent to the Western Continent. He encounters frightening animals but no sages. Then he comes to a beautiful mountain with a forest of trees. There must be a sage here, he thinks.

Monkey King travels by boat to the southern continent. He scares the local fishermen and steals the clothes of one and puts them on, so that now he looks like a human—but an ugly human. Then he walks day after day looking for a sage, but all he finds are people who want wealth and fame. They just want more stuff.

The Monkey King decides to go in search of a sage. The monkeys give him a great banquet before he departs. They eat, drink, sing, and dance all day. Then they go to sleep.

Monkey King says sure we're happy today, but we will have to meet Yama, the god of the underworld some day. Then all the monkeys were sad, until one monkey remembered that sages do not die, they live as long as the world. But Monkey King does not know where a sage lives. The monkey tells him that he lives in an old cave, but he doesn't know where exactly.

The monkeys all bow down to their new Handsome Monkey King. They play all day on the mountain and sleep at night in Water Curtain Cave. But Monkey King is not happy; he is worried about what happens after this life. The other monkeys try to convince him to just be happy now.

The stone monkey comes out of the cave and tells the other monkeys about it. He suggests they all go in, and reminds them that they had promised him the kingship if he passed through the waterfall.

The monkeys all shout that whoever goes through the waterfall to the other side will be their king. So, Monkey jumps up and goes through to find a room with an iron bridge, and a comfortable-looking cave with a stone bed, a stone table, and...

One day, the monkey and his friends decide to find where the river comes from. The follow it up the mountain until they come to a beautiful waterfall.

One day the stone monkey's eyes open and he shoots a beam of light into heaven. All in heaven are nervous except the Jade Emperor, who explains the light to them.

The stone monkey plays with the other animals on the mountain. One day it is really hot, so they play in the cold river, making little houses out of stones.

On the mountain is a large stone, and out of the stone, after a million years, is born a monkey--not a baby monkey but an adult monkey. He plays with the other animals; they are his friends.

Because it is late, the storyteller will only tell the story of his birth and how he became king.

After the creation, there is a mountain off the coast of the eastern continent like a palace, with a forest around it filled with animals, green grass, and tall trees.

When a child wants to hear a bedtime story, the storyteller decides to tell the story of Sun Wukong, a powerful, clever, but sometimes naughty monkey.