The Legend of the Monkey King

Not sure where these drawings are from ... any help appreciated so I can credit the artists.

The premise of Journey to the West is that Tripitaka needs to obtain the Buddhist scriptures in order to save the people of the land of the South as they only know “greed, hedonism, promiscuity, and sins.”

What makes the trip so dangerous is that Tripitaka is a 10th generation monk whose flesh, when eaten, the demons believe will give them immortality. Interestingly though, these so-called demons also want to do good, just that they are lazy and want the easiest way out. Time and again we meet demons who tell each other, “let’s capture and eat Tripitaka so we don’t have to do good works and gain immediate immortality.” Some demons also turn over a new leaf and vow to only do good for the rest of their lives after encounters with Sun Wukong.

This a very different notion from the term “demons” as used by Westerners where demons are the incarnation of evil and there is nothing good about them. So I think there should be another term used and “monsters” would be much better as many of these creatures that fight Sun Wukong are actually ordinary animals like him that have learned supra normal abilities and magic through one way or another. In fact, the Monkey King, is also a “demon”. As they have decided to use these powers for evil means, their form becomes ugly unless they choose to disguise themselves into a more handsome form.

However, once they have died, which they usually do under Monkey King’s cudgel, they return to their original being.