Week 7 Story: Sun Wu Kung
(Sun Wu Kong from WikiMedia Commons)
Author's Note: For this story, I decided to take the story of Sun Wu Kung and decided to retell it as a bedtime story in order to ward children off from becoming overconfident.
"You got another good grade today I see," mother said.
"The test was too easy. All of them are. I never even have to study," I replied with a huff.
"Well then, Mr. Smarty Pants, you think all tests will be that way?"
"Of course they will. I'm smart, I don't have to work at it like everyone else," I replied.
With that, mother sighed and said, "Let me tell you a story tonight before you go to sleep."
Some hours passed and it was bed time for bed. Mother came into my room with a book of legends.
"This is the story of Sun Wu Kung, a great and powerful being who thought he should rule atop the heavens with his powers."
...
There was once a stone ape who was born out of a stone egg. This ape was a good person, who grew to popularity with other apes because he did things they could not. Eventually this led him to become the king of them when he showed them the way to a new, beautiful home behind a waterfall. They called him the Handsome King of the Apes. For a long time, the apes lived together in this new home, with the Handsome King as their ruler.
Some time passed and eventually, the apes realized they would one day grow old and weak. The Handsome King didn't like this thought, so at the guidance of one of his advisers, he sought out the power to be exempt from death. He boarded a raft that he created, and in some time reached Asia.
In Asia, the Handsome King came across a man who told him where he could find a saint nearby. The King ventured to the location and pleaded with the saint, otherwise known as the master, to teach him the truths of the world. The master named him Sun Wu Kung, and after some time, agreed to teach him the great truth.
With his new knowledge, Sun practiced the truth by training his breathing, soul, spirit, and instincts for some three years. He learned to fly, as well as transform himself into different things. But with his boastfulness came his downfall. While displaying his abilities to his friends, the master caught him and forced him to depart, telling that his unconstrained nature would some day bring evil to him. With this, Sun returned home to his apes.
Much time went on and Sun Wu Kung faced many dangers and adventures. Eventually, he desired the highest position of them all, as Lord of the Heavens. The Lord of the Heavens was already tired of Sun, having many complaints from others over his deeds, so this was long overdue. It came to be that Sun challenged for his position, and Buddha intervened.
Buddha challenged Sun Wu Kung. He stated that if Sun could use his abilities to leave his hand, then he would plead with the Lord of the Heavens to relinquish his title to Sun. Sun agreed, and attempted the challenge. When he had finished, he realized that he had never left Buddha's hand, and attempted to escape. Before he could, Buddha seized him, and imprisoned him. It was the last moment of freedom Sun had.
...
"So do you understand what the message was with this story, son?" My mother asked me.
"Yes mama, I'll be more humble," I said against my will.
"Good," she said, "I'll see you in the morning. Good night."
"Goodnight mama," I replied, thinking heavily about the story I'd just been read. Maybe I should take things a little more seriously...
Bibliography:
- Chinese Folklore, Sun Wu Kung, from UnTextbook
Hey Jacob!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this story! I also wrote a story in a bedtime story format between a mother and a child, so I thought it was really cool that you ended up using this format. I thought it was interesting that you chose to write from the child’s perspective, and I liked the premise of teaching a smart child to be humbler and more serious about their intelligence. I don’t know about you, but I was a pretty obnoxious smart-kid when I was little and had to learn this lessen through the years. I think that I definitely could have benefited from learning a story like this when I was a kid. So, I thought it was a really great story. I look forward to reading more of your writing throughout the semester.
-Cat
Hi Jacob,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the format that you wrote your story in, perhaps the kid used a bit to mature words for his age though? I am currently working on writing some scripts so I guess I am very stuck in that mindset haha. Otherwise I think it would have been great to have a authors note that was a tad bit more fleshed out, I have read this story before but it wasn't for this class so I couldn't remember much of how the original story was written.
- Anna Margret
Hi Jacob! I really like how you changed this story into a bed time story. It made the story more fun and easy to read! I like how the story was used to teach a lesson. It can be hard to try to find a way to make a story original and I think you did a good job of that. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteHi Jacob! I really love the idea of turning folktales into bedtime stories! I tried to do it for one of my stories, but it didn’t quite work out like I wanted to so I’m impressed that you made yours work. I had never heard of this myth about the apes before, so I enjoyed reading about it. I like how you begin and end with a convo between the mother and child.
ReplyDeleteHey Jacob! I love the idea of turning a story to a bedtime story within a story. Usually I am always looking for a character's development in a story and how they change due to the challenges that they face, but I think that the development of this story is that the character didn't change who he was even after learning the lesson to not abuse his powers multiple time! While I think that this story is great how it is, it would be interesting to see some dialogue between Sun and the master, in which maybe you can emphasize that the master is wiser than Sun but Sun doesn't care to take that into account when making the decisions that go against what the master had taught him.
ReplyDelete