Sun Wukong

01Identity

Sun Wukong in Chinese tradition

Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is a magical monkey whose adventures form a central part of Journey to the West. In Collier's retelling, he seeks immortality, defies the heavenly court and meets his match in Buddha. He later protects the monk Tripitaka on a pilgrimage to India, using the powers he learned during his Taoist training.

SourceChinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 9, Monkey section, from the stone birth through the heavenly rebellion· Chinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 10, The Pilgrimage section, from Buddha's challenge through the return from India

a magical monkey who can transform himself and fly on clouds
SourceChinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 9, Monkey section, from the stone birth through the heavenly rebellion· Chinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 10, The Pilgrimage section, from Buddha's challenge through the return from India

Context

Roles

Collier frames the Monkey story as a retelling of the first part of Journey to the West. Monkey is its central character, and his exploits show the Taoist training and powers that shape the opening account.

SourceChinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 9, Monkey section, from the stone birth through the heavenly rebellion

Collier's opening account presents Monkey's training through Taoist teachings, flight, and transformations. Its pilgrimage continuation says that Monkey converts to Buddhism while continuing to use the knowledge gained from his Taoist training.

The quick answers

Who is Sun Wukong?
Sun Wukong is a Chinese hero.
Source
Source
- Chinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 9, Monkey section, from the stone birth through the heavenly rebellion
- Chinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 10, The Pilgrimage section, from Buddha's challenge through the return from India
What happens in Sun Wukong's Birth, Immortality, and Rebellion?
A stone gives birth to Monkey, who becomes king and seeks immortality.
Source
Source
- Chinese Mythology Rocks!

03The names

The names Sun Wukong answers to

Monkey King

Collier's English name for Sun Wukong

SourceChinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 9, Monkey section, from the stone birth through the heavenly rebellion

Monkey

Collier's shortened name for the Monkey King

04The myths

The myths of Sun Wukong

2 myths, with sources recorded for each, with 1 reviewed modern rework linked where the evidence supports it.

Sun Wukong's Birth, Immortality, and Rebellion

On the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers, a magic rock gives birth to a stone egg. A monkey emerges from it, bows to the four directions, and joins the animals on the mountain. One day he jumps through a cascading waterfall and discovers a furnished cave behind it. He calls the other monkeys to see it, and they proclaim him their king. When Monkey realises that he may soon face Yen-lo, the King of Death, he leaves home to search for immortality. After ten years of wandering, he becomes a disciple of an immortal and learns Taoist teachings, flight, and transformations into trees, animals, and rocks. The immortal later banishes him for showing off.

The Monkey King returns to his cave and defeats a demon who has been taking monkey children. He then visits the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea and takes an iron pillar that shrinks into a staff. The dragons also give him cloud-stepping shoes, a phoenix-feather cap, and a golden chain-mail vest. Back on his mountain, he boasts that he is the equal of any god.

The Jade Emperor first makes him stable master, then places him over the peach garden. Monkey eats the peaches reserved for a heavenly feast, raids the kitchen and wine cellar, and swallows Lao-tzu's immortality pills. When the heavenly army comes for him, he fights it with his staff, and its hundred thousand troops cannot defeat him.

Sun Wukong's Birth, Immortality, and Rebellion, a MythSource painting of the scene

In the modern world

The Monkey King

Film

Stone birth, the search for immortality, and the Dragon King weapon survive in the 2023 animated reworking.

1 source· checked 2026-09-05

1Chinese Mythology Rocks!T1

Sun Wukong, Buddha, and the Pilgrimage

After Monkey's defiance has brought the gods against him, he announces that he should rule Heaven. Buddha stops the fighting and asks why Monkey believes himself superior. Monkey boasts of his spells, transformations, and somersaults. Buddha offers his palm as a test: if Monkey can jump across it, Heaven will be his. Monkey leaps away and finds what he believes are five pillars at the world's edge. He writes a boast on one pillar before returning.

Buddha turns his hand to show that the pillars were his fingers. Monkey has not escaped the palm at all. Buddha seizes him and seals him inside a stone box high on a mountaintop, where he remains for five hundred years. Kuan Yin later finds him during her journey to prepare a route for pilgrims. Monkey regrets his arrogance and agrees to convert to Buddhism and help worthy travellers.

The emperor finances the pilgrimage, and the monk San Zang becomes Tripitaka. He travels with Monkey, a dragon in the form of a white horse, a pig, and the sandy-haired monster. The group sets out for India to obtain the scriptures. Monkey uses flight, transformations, invisibility, acrobatics, and his iron staff against monsters and demons. After eighty-one adventures, the pilgrims receive the scriptures and return to China.

Sun Wukong, Buddha, and the Pilgrimage, a MythSource painting of the scene

1 source· checked 2026-09-05

1Chinese Mythology Rocks!T1

The wider mythology

Works that draw on more of the mythology than any single story: full retellings of the saga, and worlds built out of the material.

SMITE

Game

Sun Wukong remains the Monkey King as a playable mythic character in SMITE.

Also mentioned in

Stories elsewhere on MythSource that mention Sun Wukong, each on that figure’s page.

Guanyin Recruits the Pilgrims for the Journey West · on Guanyin
The Jade Emperor and Monkey's challenge · on Jade Emperor