The three worlds all know the story of the Monkey King.
But no one has heard my name.
I was born in the bamboo sea at moonset, and no one heard my first cry. I could hear the sounds of all things—the whisper of the wind, the movement of the clouds, the fragments of the sermons of the gods—but I could never hear anyone calling my name.
I eavesdropped on Patriarch Bodhi's sermons and hid in the grass outside the mountain gate, carving every word into my bones. I taught myself the seventy-two transformations, practiced somersault clouds, entered the Dragon Palace, entered the underworld, and did all the things that Sun Wukong did, one by one.
But the Dragon King threw me a broken steel knife and said, "That monkey took away all the good weapons. Are you worthy?"
The underworld promised me to revise the Monkey Clan's life and death book, and then sued me to heaven.
I occupy the mountain as the king, and the people under my rule call me "Great Sage." As soon as the incense is lit, the mountain god and the land come to drive him away: if he is not canonized, he has no right to be sacrificed.
Later, I met the monkey.
He was wearing a tight band and was wrongly accused by his master. He killed several bandits and was expelled from the master. I watched from behind the tree and suddenly felt ridiculous - he had everything I wanted, yet he lived such a useless life.
If it were me, I wouldn't let Master be angry at all.
If it were me, I wouldn't be wronged like this.
So I did something that shook the three worlds.
I knocked out Tang Monk, took away his luggage, and wanted to go to the West to get Buddhist scriptures by myself. Not for the scriptures, just to prove——
What I do will not be worse than him.
Guanyin recited the tightening mantra and we rolled together. The Jade Emperor's mirror can't tell the difference. Listening in the underworld clearly knows who I am, but
