好個孫猴子! (the end) (Literary figure)

from RoamAure flickr.com

So the monkey was imprisoned under the mountain. Before the Buddha left, he asked the deities of the mountain to feed the monkey, and said that five centuries later when his time was done, someone would come to his rescue.

Under the instruction of 觀世音菩薩(guan shi4 yin pu2 sa4), Bodhisattva Guan Yin, the monk 唐三藏(tang2 san zang4) or 玄奘(xuan2 zang4)was given the task of obtaining sacred text from the western regions. To protect the monk, 悟空 was assigned as one of his disciples to go with him.

Aware of how悟空was hard to discipline, Guan Yin gave Xuanzang a magical headband, which could never be removed once put on the monkey. The monkey was tricked to put it on, and when he became hard to control, the monk would chant 緊箍咒(jin3 gu zhou4), Tightening-Crown spell, which would tighten the headband and cause an unbearable headache to悟空.

Relating this緊箍咒 stuff to what a nagging mom or teacher can do with their “chanting,” you’re in the monkey’s shoes. This expression has been frequently used in our daily life referring to those effective measures to attack someone’s Achilles’ heel.

Literally the monkey’s name 悟空 means aware of emptiness. Some critics analyze the character from a religious point of view, asserting that the monkey is a symbol of our heart, which is so active, unleashed and uncontrollable. Before his journey to the west, he has been “monkey around” causing trouble and gone through the imprisonment. In some way, the journey to the west is a journey of the heart.

Others see it as a reflection of the political situation in Ming Dynasty, when the author 吳承恩(wu2 cheng2 en)was born. In the later half of Ming Dynasty, like any other precedent dynasties before they ended, it was a time of corruption and chaos. Through the novel, a fictional description of the deities and monsters on the surface, while in fact a reflection of the real world, Wu revealed his indignations and dissatisfactions.

However you see it, 孫悟空is a living image in the Chinese’s heart, with his brilliance, vividness, braveness and knight-errantry 行俠仗義(xing2 xia2 zhang4 yi4), though he did not emerge as so at first. In Min Nan, or Taiwanese, we often call little naughty boys 猴因仔, monkey boys, which sometimes also expresses parents’ or teachers’ affection towards them the same time when they’re accusing them as wild and undisciplined.

觀世音菩薩=观世音菩萨

緊箍咒=紧箍咒

吳承恩=吴承恩

行俠仗義=行侠仗义