The Real and the Fake Monkey King

A monk is walking from China to India to fetch Buddhist scriptures, and he would not last a week alone. His protection is Sun Wukong (Sūn Wùkōng), the Monkey King, who can change his shape, cross a thousand miles in one somersault, and kill nearly anything that steps onto the road. That last part is the trouble. The monk controls him with a gold band welded around his head: when the monk recites the tightening spell, the band shrinks, and the strongest creature on the road rolls in the dirt.

They have just quarrelled over a killing, and the monk has driven Wukong off. Two disciples are still with him — Zhu Bajie (Zhū Bājiè), a pig who thinks mostly about the next meal, and Sha Wujing (Shā Wùjìng), who carries the luggage and keeps the peace. There is also somewhere to appeal. Guanyin (Guānyīn) is the Bodhisattva who assembled this pilgrimage in the first place, she lives on an island anyone who can fly may reach in an afternoon, and she hears a complaint the way a magistrate does: both sides speak, and her ruling stands.

So Wukong goes to her to argue his case. And while he is kneeling at her lotus seat, a monkey with his face, his voice and his iron rod walks up to the master on the road, carrying a cup of cool water.