Group: Annelise Schroeder, Sara Neher, David Yang, Dukhwa Seo

“What crime is there that you have not committed? You have stolen peaches and stolen wine, upset the high feast, purloined Lao Tzu’s elixir, and then taken more wine for your banquet here? You have piled up sin upon sin; do you not realize what you have done?’ ‘Quite true,’ said Monkey, ‘all quite true but what are you going to do about it?’” (Ch.5 pg.60)

This quote shows how arrogant and selfish the Monkey is during this part of his life. The Nine planets were trying to discipline monkey but he was not the slightest bit worried about what they could do to him. This connects to the very first line in chapter five “Monkey knew nothing about official matters… he and his subordinates ate their three meals, slept soundly at night, had no worries, but only perfect freedom and independence” (pg.53). This connects to our next quote from Chapter six.

“We were about 100,000 men, and fought with him till dusk, when he used some magic method of self- multiplication, and we had to withdraw. On examining our booty we found we had captured a certain number of tigers, wolves, leopards, and other animals but not a single monkey” (Ch.6 pg. 64).

This event shows how the political leaders such as the Jaded Emperor, Vaisravana, and Vaistavana’s son, Moksha, cannot understand where the Monkey’s power comes from and how he could defeat 100,000 men in battle and this only provokes them to want to capture the monkey even more for what he has done.