Havoc in the Palace of Heaven

A monkey was born out of a stone on a mountain top, taught himself magic from a hermit, made himself king of his own mountain, and has since become immortal and extremely difficult to kill. Heaven has noticed.

Heaven, in this story, is a government. It has an emperor, ministries, registers, ranks and a great deal of paperwork, and its usual answer to a troublesome creature is to offer him a job. So an official is sent down to invite the monkey up — politely, and without mentioning how small the job is.

His name is Sun Wukong (Sūn Wùkōng). Nobody has told him what a stable-keeper does.