Book: The Magical Monkey King retold by Ji-Li JiangGenre: Chinese folktale
Rating:★★★☆☆
Inspired by the crazy drama I was watching (done now, review of that soon if I can tackle it... AHH!!!) I picked up this funny little book at the library one day in order to learn more about this very popular folktale.
We learn first how this silly monkey came to exist. Basically, a storm swept across the land. At the top of a very very tall mountain, there was a stone. After the storm, the stone was shattered in pieces, leaving only a black stone egg. It sat there for 99 days and then a dragon came and breathed fire on it. Then it burned for 9 days. After which, the egg was gone and a stone monkey sat there.
Eventually, the monkey came to life and he found a clan of monkeys to live with. He helped them to discover a beautiful secret garden where they lived happily for many years. They loved him so much, they made him their Monkey King.
But the monkey got sad because he wanted to live forever. So he goes on a quest and finds a sage who, after much trouble, finally teaches him a lot of life's secrets. Among them, magic. But he caused so much mischief, the sage kicked him out.
And so it goes, many other adventures follow. The Monkey King happily causes grief wherever he goes, but also saves his monkey clan from the demons. Also, later on he gets banned to a peach orchard, his favorite thing of all, and eats the peaces of immortality, but he gets in big time trouble. Eventually he meets up with Buddha himself, loses a bet and gets banned to live under a mountain for 500 years.
This is one crazy monkey! And in my drama, he was also very much crazy! But oh so lovable!
A very fun and enjoyable little tale filled with all sorts of lessons to learn in life. As I said over at Goodreads, this one would be a fun one to read to kids. I think they'd get a big kick out of it. I also enjoyed learning a bit of the background and basis for which the characters on my drama were based. What a blast.
is it a kid's version? or it just stops there. doesn't sound like a re-write.
ReplyDeleteI would call it a kid version, yes. And it stops when he is banned to the mountain, but it is just the start of his adventures I know. It says that at the beginning that it's the first part of his tales.
DeleteI love that you checked out the book that one of the dramas was based on. Sounds like a cute one for kids. But monkeys aren’t my favorite.
ReplyDeleteMany dramas are based on mangas too... and maybe I just might try one of those one of these days! LOL!
DeleteI really enjoy learning about Asian folktales, but the ones I've read have been more Japanese-centric. I might have to look into Korean and Chinese ones too.
ReplyDeleteAnd I might have to look into Japanese ones. :)
DeleteI need to see if my library system has this book. Sounds like a fun read, and one to read with my youngest. Plus, I did see the drama you’re referring to so there’s that. :-)
ReplyDeleteLOL! There is that! HA! I was sad that many of our other characters weren't really featured here that I could tell. No bull, or pig, or dog. There was a dragon kingdom. So maybe the dragon prince was sort of here. Sort of.
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