Six-Eared Macaque

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Six-Eared Macaque
Sun Wukong (Monkey King) fights his impostor, the Six-Eared Macaque. From an illustration by the Japanese artist Ōhara Tōya (1771–1840).
First appearanceChapter 57
Last appearanceChapter 58
Created byWu Cheng'en
In-universe information
AliasFake Wukong
SpeciesMacaque
StatusKilled by Sun Wukong

The Six-Eared Macaque (

Sun Wukong
(Monkey King).

In Journey to the West

The Six-Eared Macaque—and not to be mistaken for the Macaque King (獼猴王), one of the same Seven Sages (七聖) Fraternity of Sworn Brothers, that

Flower-Fruit Mountain to set up his own pilgrim band. He fights with the real Sun Wukong and neither is able to overcome his opponent. No one is able to differentiate between the real and the fake Sun Wukong—the Six-Eared Macaque's spell of impersonation is so good that he also responds to the "Headache Sutra", preventing the pilgrims from differentiating between him and Sun Wukong—until the two appear before the Buddha, who tells them about the four spiritual primates. The Six-Eared Macaque attempts to flee when he hears the Buddha speak about his true identity, but the Buddha traps him under a giant golden alms bowl. The macaque is then killed by Sun Wukong.[1]

Interpretations

Hongmei Sun argues that Sun Wukong's killing of his peer, rival and doppelgänger is "self-contradiction to an extreme", especially since the Six-Eared Macaque has already been trapped by the Buddha which parallels Wukong's own capture in the novel's early chapters. To Wukong, the Six-Eared Macaque represents "the monster in him", "a self whose boundary has just been pinned down", and his elimination symbolizes Wukong's personal progress in achieving Buddhahood and freedom.[2]

The story has also been interpreted in Buddhist terms. Chapter 58 is titled "Two Minds cause disturbance in the great universe..." (二心攪亂大乾坤) and contains a poem that begins with "If one has two minds, disasters he'll breed" (人有二心生禍災). Monkey symbolizes the mind in Chinese Buddhism, and the two monkeys are likely metaphors for zhenxin (真心; "true mind") and wangxin (妄心; "false mind"), being opposite yet indistinguishable—because they are, in fact, one. In this sense, killing Six-Eared Macaque in a swift blow enables Wukong to recognize "the true oneness", or tathātā, to his nature.[3]

Hoong Teik Toh believes that this episode is derived from the Indian epic Ramayana (which contains the story of the brothers Vali and Sugriva who appear indistinguishable to Rama during their battle) but did not offer any evidence.[3]

In other works

The Six-Eared Macaque is reincarnated in one of the earliest sequel book, the Ming dynasty Xu Xiyouji (續西遊記; "Sequel to the Journey of the West").[4]

References

  1. ISBN 0-226-97153-8
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-295-74320-2
    . Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  3. ^ a b Toh, Hoong Teik (2004). "Some Classical Malay Materials for the Study of the Chinese Novel Journey to the West". Sino-Platonic Papers (137): 35–36. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  4. ISBN 0-8248-2812-7
    . Retrieved 12 June 2024.
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