Monkey Tale: The Original Text that Introduced the Monkey King has Captivated Audiences for Centuries
Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s opera The Monkey King is based on the opening chapters of the hundred-chapter novel Xiyou ji (Journey to the West). the earliest surviving edition of which was published in Nanjing in 1592. Journey to the West is one of the great Chinese novels from the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. Beyond Sanguo zhi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), Shuihu zhuan (Water Margin), and Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber) are non-canonic epics like Jin ping mei (Plum in the Golden Vase) and Rulin wai shi (The Scholars). Opera fans will recall that the San Francisco Opera produced an opera based on Dream of the Red Chamber in 2016. Monkey King is a continuation of the San Francisco Opera’s work framing venerable Chinese novels in new contexts.
Drama flourished alongside fiction in Ming and Qing dynasty China. Many plays were based on novels. Plays were performed in private homes of the wealthy, in temples, teahouses, and outdoor festivals. Much of the population was illiterate; watching plays was how they became familiar with the great novels. A painting attributed to Qiu Ying (1494–1552) shows an episode from Journey to the West being performed as part of a festival.
The first chapters of the novel, which form the basis of the opera’s story, is a sequence which is often referred to as “Havoc in Heaven.” The resolution in the opera shows that Monkey has realized the truth of the teachings of the Buddha. In subsequent chapters of Journey to the West, not presented in the opera, Guanyin recruits Monkey to assist the monk Xuanzang on his journey to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures. They are joined by a pig and a sand demon, who each have magical powers even if they are no match for Monkey. The trip to India is full of treacherous demons and other obstacles; Monkey’s magical powers prove essential to the success of the journey.
The novel is venerable, but the character of Monkey is full of mischief. Some interpretations of the novel show him as a heroic rebel against all forms of authority, even Buddhism. Others suggest that by the end of the novel Monkey has awakened to the truths of Buddhism, and his mischievous days are over. The fact that the novel supports both interpretations is one source of its richness and one of the primary reasons why people have been talking about the novel for the last five hundred years.
While Journey to the West is five centuries old, the story that inspired it is much older. Images of Xuanzong and a monkey companion appear in Buddhist cave paintings along the Silk Road as early as the twelfth century. It is not clear how a monkey with magical powers became a companion to the monk, though one can certainly understand that if one were to walk from China to India having a companion who can perform magical feats would be a great advantage.
Illustrations of the monkey and his traveling party were included in the published novel, as fiction in the Ming dynasty was often published with illustrations. The technology used for printing—carved woodblocks—was the same for images as it was for text, which facilitated the use of illustrations.
But the story of the Monkey King is not simply a story to be read and enjoyed on the page; it is a story to be performed. Enjoy the show!
Ann Waltner is professor of history at the University of Minnesota where she writes on gender and kinship in Chinese and world history. She has been an associate dean, director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Minnesota, and editor of the Journal of Asian Studies.