I wrote this a few months ago. I figured fans of Chinese history and literature may find it interesting...
When Heroes Meet: Sun Wukong and Yue Fei In Fiction, Martial Lore, and Holy Texts
By Jim R. McClanahan
Two of my favorite research topics are Sun Wukong (孙悟空), the immortal monkey demon-turned-Buddhist monk from the Chinese classic Journey to the West (1592, 西游记) and the historical General Yue Fei (岳飞) from the Song Dynasty (960-1279). One would think that these two have nothing in common, but you might be surprised to learn it’s the opposite. The two have met in person and through other supernatural personas in Chinese fiction and martial arts legends, as well as Hindu holy texts. This informal survey will serve as a brief introduction to the subject in place of a more detailed study which I plan to do at a later date.
Sun and Yue first meet in person in a brief Ming Dynasty novel entitled A Supplement to the Journey to the West (1641, 西游补). This work, which acts as an addendum taking place between chapters 61 and 62 of the original, has Monkey trapped in a dream world in which he travels through time and space in search of his master Xuanzang, who has given up the quest to India. After traveling to the Song dynasty, some junior devils appear and tell Sun that King Yama has recently died of an illness and that he must take his place as judge of the dead until a suitable replacement can be found. He ends up judging the fate of the recently deceased Prime Minister Qin Hui, who was instrumental in Yue’s false imprisonment and death. Monkey puts Qin through a series of horrific tortures, after which a demon uses its magic breath to blow his broken body back into its proper form. He finally sends a demon to heaven to retrieve a powerful magic gourd that sucks anyone who speaks before it inside and melts them down into a bloody stew. He uses this for Qin's final punishment. Meanwhile, Monkey invites the ghost of Yue Fei to the underworld and takes him as his third master for teaching him Confucian ethics. He entertains Yue until Qin has been reduced to liquid and offers the general a cup of the Prime Minister's "blood wine." Yue, however, refuses on the grounds that drinking it would sully his soul. Monkey then does an experiment where he makes a junior devil drink of the wine. Sometime later, the devil, apparently under the evil influence of the blood wine, murders his personal religious teacher and escapes into the "gate of ghosts," presumably being reborn into another existence. Yue Fei then takes his leave to return to his heavenly abode. Monkey sends him off with a huge display of respect by making all of the millions of denizens of the underworld kowtow before him.
I believe it’s possible Yue was mentioned in the novel because the Ming dynasty, when it was written, was fighting with the Manchu, descendants of the Jurchen whom the general had historically fought. They eventually invaded and conquered China three years later in 1644.
Modern depictions of Sun Wukong (left) and General Yue Fei (right)
It is possible Yue’s mention in the novel influenced a plot device from his famous folklore biography The Story of Yue Fei (1684, 说岳全传). The first chapter explains that he is a reincarnation of the Buddhist bird deity Garuda. He originally sat at the top of the Buddha’s throne, but was exiled from paradise for killing a celestial bat (an embodiment of the Aquarius constellation) for passing gas during the Buddha’s sermon on the Lotus Sutra. Part of this episode was borrowed directly from Journey to the West, which predates Yue's novel by over 90 years. Garuda is presented as a man-eating demon as old as the universe and the Buddha's spiritual great uncle. He is so powerful that Sun Wukong has to enlist the aid of the Buddha. The Buddha tricks the demon into landing on top of his throne through the power of illusion and takes away his ability to fly.
Practitioners of Emei Dapeng qigong (峨嵋大鵬氣功) claim that this style of breathing and stretching exercise was taught to Yue by Zhou Tong’s friend, an unnamed monk, and that this was the source of his martial prowess (an obvious nod to the Tendon-Changing Classic). Yue’s novel mentions Zhou taking him and his other students to meet a Buddhist priest on some mountain. This is who I think the practitioners have connected the “unnamed monk” with. They further borrow from both novels by saying the name of the style comes from Yue’s past reincarnation as a great bird (dapeng) that was so powerful that not even Sun Wukong could defeat him. This style most likely doesn’t predate the 19th-century because this is when the Eight Pieces of Brocade style of qigong was first attributed to the general.
As some readers may already know, Garuda is originally a Hindu deity. One popular critic of Chinese fiction suggests that Yue and Garuda were connected based on the similarities with their names. Yue’s “courtesy name” was Pengju (鵬举), while Garuda’s Chinese name (appearing in various sutras) is Great Peng, the Golden-Winged Illumination King (大鵬金翅明王). Apart from this, both are portrayed as being fiercely loyal to their mothers and enemies of dragons/nagas in their respective literature. In his novel, Yue is saved (from a flood), raised, and educated by his mother. Therefore, he worships the ground on which she walks. She is the one that gives him is famous (albeit historically dubious) tattoo “serve the country with utmost loyalty” (尽忠报国). As for dragons, his exile from heaven actually serves a dual purpose. He is sent to earth to battle an evil red dragon that has reincarnated as the leader of the Jurchen armies. The Mahabharata (c. 4th cent. BCE), a Hindu holy text, describes how Garuda goes on a great quest to retrieve an immortal elixir to ransom his mother, who has been enslaved by his aunt, mother of the nagas (giant serpents). Hindu lore and art often portrays him eating nagas.
Modern scholarship has shown that Sun Wukong is roughly based on the Hindu monkey deity Hanuman. He is a prominent character in the Ramayana (c. 4th cent. BCE), another Hindu holy text. Hanuman and Sun Wukong share similar magic powers, fighting ability, and blunt weapons. How the former influenced the latter is very complicated, just know that bits and pieces of the Ramayana trickled into China via Buddhist sutras from the north and Hindu converts from Southeast Asia in the south. Both Hanuman and Sun Wukong are portrayed as being fiercely loyal to their masters. Hanuman is instrumental in retrieving Sita, the wife of his master Rama, from the clutches of an evil demon named Ravana. Sun Wukong escorts and protects his master, the monk Xuanzang, from demons during their journey to India.
What’s ultimately interesting about Garuda and Hanuman is that they are both loyal servants of the god Vishnu. Garuda is Vishnu’s mount that he rides through the skies. As mentioned, Hanuman is the servant of Rama, who is the 7th reincarnation of Vishnu. Vishnu was later absorbed into the Buddhist Pantheon, and some lineages actually consider the Buddha to be his 9th avatar. It took a while, but both Sun/Hanuman and Yue/Garuda came around full circle to meet again under the service of the Buddha in Chinese fiction.
