Sun Wu Kung and the Flying Fruit

Sun Wu Kung, the Monkey King, had just returned to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits from learning the secrets of immortality with the Master. The other monkeys decided to have a banquet behind the waterfall in celebration of their King's return.

Sun Wu Kung and his apes were having a joyful time eating multitudes of fruit and drinking plenty of wine. They looked down at the long stone banquet table to find that they had run out of fruit. The apes hadn't yet had their fill of food, so they decided that someone must go outside the waterfall-hidden cave to get more. Kind Sun Wu Kung obliged for his people.

Sun Wu Kung leapt out through the waterfall and hurtled tens of feet down towards the grassy valley floor below. He saw many more fruits in the trees and embedded in the grass beside the waterfall's stream.

Meanwhile, in Heaven, the Jade Emperor, Lord of Heaven, had heard about Sun Wu Kung's attainment of immortality and superhuman abilities. He thought to himself, "One must be exceedingly stubborn if they have walked the path to eternal life." The Jade Emperor decided to play a little trick on the Monkey King to test just how stubborn he was. He also had the side motive of wanting to rid himself of the potential problem that an immortal Earthling might become.

So the Jade Emperor planted a beautiful golden-yellow fruit in the valley grass where Sun Wu Kung was gathering food. As Sun Wu Kung picked fruits out of the grass and the trees, he came upon one that was standing upright. It was the golden-yellow fruit of the Jade Emperor and it was resting there in the grass. The ape wondered why it was the only fruit of its kind there in the valley.

The Jade Emperor had another trick up his sleeve. As soon as Sun Wu Kung had this question in mind, the Heavenly Emperor spoke through the fruit to make it seem as though it were intelligent. "I am the fruit that offers endless knowledge upon whosoever shall consume me. Eat me, thou ape, and become all-knowing!"

Sun Wu Kung had attained immortality but he never dreamed he'd have the chance to gain omniscience! Much less by just eating this delicious-looking fruit which had seemingly fallen from the sky by chance. Sun Wu Kung's wild desire to have two infinite powers took him over and he lunged at the fruit, dropping all of his gatherings in the process.

The Jade Emperor then caused the fruit to rise twenty feet into the air. "I will snatch you, all-knowing fruit!" cried Sun Wu Kung. He leapt up into the air and swung his arm at the fruit. The Jade Emperor caused the fruit to float even higher. He then spoke through it and the fruit said, "From the sky I have fallen and into the sky thou must chase me if thou so desire to consume me!" With that, the golden fruit soared upwards and out of sight.

With fury, Sun Wu Kung flew after it. After a few seconds of accelerating into the sky, Sun Wu Kung once again caught sight of the delicious fruit racing ahead of him. When Sun Wu Kung started closing the gap, it reached another level of acceleration and glided further ahead. The Jade Emperor protected the fruit from burning up in the atmosphere. At least until it broke into outer space and kept on flying.

It was a fortunate thing that Sun Wu Kung had already mastered eternal life, because he raced into outer space behind the fruit. The fruit moved on passed the moon with the Monkey King still on its rear. Just then, Sun Wu Kung saw the fruit vanish and he knew that it had simply reached an unperceivable speed.

So Sun Wu Kung turned a somersault and teleported after the fruit. Now they were near Mars. As soon as the ape caught the fruit with his glance, it vanished again. Sun Wu Kung turned another somersault and they were at Jupiter. The Jade Emperor realized how persistent this ape was and had a plan in mind to get him off the fruit's tail. He made it fly around Jupiter's massive orbit, but this did not shake the wild ape.

The Jade Emperor flung the fruit further out into space. The ape king circled Jupiter a couple more times before he discovered that the fruit was no longer there and followed after it. The fruit reached Saturn as Sun Wu Kung closed in on it. Just when the fruit's capture seemed immanent, the Jade Emperor flung it around the rings of Saturn. Once again, the Monkey King obliged in chasing it around a massive planet.

After a few revolutions, Sun Wu Kung realized that he wasn't going to reach the fruit. At least, not alone. Sun Wu Kung picked many of his hairs off his body and transformed them into copies of himself. He stationed these copies in varying positions all around the rings of Saturn. This seemed like a full-proof plan, but the Jade Emperor's piloting of the fruit was skilled. It dodged and evaded every single one of Sun Wu Kung's copies as it maneuvered around the planet.

The Monkey King was stubborn and would not give up. So the Emperor pulled a big move and flung the fruit outside the entire solar system and into interstellar space. Sun Wu Kung wildly turned somersaults after it.

The chase between the all-knowing fruit and the relentless Sun Wu Kung went on for years. Finally, the two reached the edge of the Milky Way. Sun Wu Kung halted at the edge as he watched the beautiful fruit hurtle out into the terrifying void of intergalactic space. The otherwise brave and ruthless Monkey King would dare not enter into that space. So, with his pride broken, he turned around and flew home.

Once he returned to Earth and his home at the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits, the other apes questioned him. "Where have you been, O Handsome King? You have been gone many years since last we saw you at the banquet." Sun Wu Kung would not speak about the ordeal that had broken his pride. He let the entire story be forgotten and it was never recounted in any of the legends.

*Author's Note: I read The Monkey King unit this week, which is where I got the character of Sun Wu Kung from. Sun Wu Kung is the Monkey King as told in the story. In the myths, he does actually live on an island called the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits with his ape subjects. They refer to him as "The Handsome King of the Apes" which is why I had them call him "Handsome King" at the end of the story. This story of mine takes on the role of a lost chapter in the legend of Sun Wu Kung. It takes place after Sun Wu Kung's return from the Master's abode where he learned the secrets of immortality. In the original story, Sun Wu Kung goes to fight the Devil-King in the North after his return. So my story cuts between his return and his fight with the Devil-King. To supplement this as a lost chapter, I came up with the reason that Sun Wu Kung's pride was simply broken after not catching the fruit. As Sun Wu Kung is considered prideful, even in the stories, it seemed like a legitimate storytelling device to have Sun Wu Kung keep silent on the ordeal and allow it to become a forgotten legend.

Bibliography:

• The Monkey King Unit: Blogger
• Banner Image: Sun Wu Kung Collective
• Image 1: Sun Wu Kung Flying through the Air
• Image 2: The Jade Emperor