#celestial monkeys

[the-monkey-ruler]

so i did a deep dive today for this thank you for the new headcanon

i’m thinking yuán as in 猿 - 犭 = 袁

ape - animal radical = long cloth

like how 猻 - 犭 = 孫 = 孙 (simplified)

猻 is from 猴猻 hóusūn which means monkey

monkey - animal radical = grandson

孙悟空 • sūn wùkōng • grandson awakened to nothingness

袁巫支祁 • yuán wūzhīqí • long cloth great shaman/witch/sorcerer/wizard to support/bear/sustain

if you look at old chinese paintings of gibbons, they look like they have black bodies and white heads

btw i high recommend an evaluation of robert van gulik’s the gibbon in china and its place in modern sinological discourse on the academia app. it’s free and ripe with information about how gibbons were viewed and depicted in ancient china. robert’s book is damn expensive tho. i envy anyone who has their hands on it.

here’s an excerpt that surprised me:

The third theme is suggested in the following: “The gibbon is better than the monkey , the former is clean, gentle and recluse, the latter is dirty, noisy, greedy and vulgar” (“Mei yuan su hou”美猿俗猴) (TGIC 58). RvG thought this idea was pragmatic. Ancient Chinese literati like Wu Yun (“Poem of the Black Gibbon”) (TGIC 54-56), Li Deyu (“Poem of the White Gibbon) (TGIC 56-57), and Liu Zongyuan 柳完元 (773–819)21 (“Essay on the Hateful Monkey-breed” or “Zeng wangsun wen” 憎王孙文) (TGIC 54-56). Each compared the quarrelsome and volatile monkey with the aloof gibbon (TGIC 56). The lament is evidently directed against the people at court who caused their patron’s downfall (TGIC 57). Wu Yün, Li Deyu and Liu Zongyuan contrasted the violent and vulgar monkey with the high-minded and well-behaved gibbon. So the monkey is described as greedy, cruel and undependable, and ugly in appearance” (TGIC 57).

oh and the novel calls wūzhīqí great sage water ape… they were totally born from water. water egg? water womb?

and since it’s semi-popular in lmk fandom to make six-eared macaque a wind monkey due to the macaque king, that would leave red-buttocked horse monkey a fire monkey. red is the color of fire and the horse’s element is fire. in buddhism there are 4 great elements: earth, water, fire, and air so it all weirdly fits.

Oh damn you did such an AMAZING deep dive in both the language and history!! I adore it!!

I am aware the theory that Macaque King is the Six Ears is a common theory and with that the tie in with being the Great Sage of Ventilation, not just in LMK.

It would be cool if the Spiritual Primates had a connection to the elements, even if it is not the five. I actually forget that Buddism had its own elements that are technical since I always counted akasa/space.

But perhaps if the idea that each primate is also birthed from inanimate objects perhaps something like

Stone - Wukong

Pearl - Wuzhiqi / Gibbon

Magma - Baboon

Tree Root - Macaque (since air is also connected to wood in Chinese lore)

If they were ever to use the Gibbon as either the same Wuzhiqi from the Yuan Xiyouji she would be an amazing addition, or perhaps they could have used the Sage leaning background as well. In either case, there's so much history when it comes to both primate lore that I really think there can be a lot done with these findings

[lost-from-the-page]

Headcanon that all the stone monkeys have like a ‘extra trait’. So macaques has his six ears (obviously) that he uses for his hearing. The long armed gibbon has a tail (gibbons don’t have tails) that they use for keeping up with the monkeys. The baboon( forget his full title) has like horns or antlers as a symbol thing (to represent how he is like yin and Yang and antlers/horns are beautiful but are dangerous) and sun wukong has like feathers to help when he is using his cloud or something

[quesocheeso]

MK, or Xiaotian in this AU has three separate type lives he lives, he mainly lives in FFM and considers that his “main” life, but as Megapolis started growing he found a fondness towards the people there and started visiting with Macaque once he was older

At the point in time the AU starts, Xiaotian is 15 years old and has started working part time at Pigsy’s and goes by MK there, he finds it nice to be a nobody just working a normal life,,, not to say he hates his life in FFM, everyone is chill there towards the royal family, but being the son of the emperor of all realms does create a disconnect towards his peers

(Extra note: Since the Brotherhood won the heavenly war, there was no burning of FFM and so all the demon monkeys who lived there are still alive and FFM is not inhabited by only normal monkeys but by actual demon monkeys, making FFM an actual kingdom with subjects)

Xiaotian loves his life both in Megapolis and FFM but he detests his life in the Celestial Realm because of all the properness and the fakeness of it all, Macaque trained him to detect every fake smile and deceit the people in the celestial realm were used to because to them this could mean between life or death, Xiaotian lives on edge every second he is there and doesn’t like being alone in the realm which leads to him clinging to Macaque every second or anyone vaguely familiar,, every time they stay for a few days he would follow his parents to their room and share the nest with them since he’s realized he can’t sleep in his room alone,, which due to their monkey nature isn’t actually a problem

Clothing wise, Xiaotian has a sunrise type of vibe to the color scheme he wears, especially the clothes made for him in the celestial realm, the dressmakers following the sun and moon theme used by his parents to create Xiaotian’s sunrise theme as a sunrise is created by the transition of night to day or the moon to the sun

[boomfam]

IN THIS ARTSTYLE TOO???

I present to you, one of the four celestial primates, Long-Armed Gibbon:

(In every dub besides Chinese, she goes by Gibby/Gibbon)

Design Details: As you can tell, some of her design is inspired from stars. Her outfit coloration is meant to be a direct swap of Red Baboon's. I decided to make her little face heart upside down, to really show her personality type. Her black outfit was inspired off of ninjas. If her cape looks out of place, good, it's supposed to. Her skin is grey just like a real gibbon. Hair is much poofier and spikier than the others. She prefers to fight with fists or use her powers. Strands of her hair can turn into little stars (you could call 'em "ninja stars" heh hehe..)

(Listen, we were given basically zilch on the other two primates so I worked with what I got.)

Here's a link to the season 5 fanfic I'm writing with her in it: Wattpad Link

[szynkaaa]

it's not like they live on a mountain with other monkey citizens running around

Or also known as Oz trying to flirt (??) but it backfires on her.

set after BMW when Oz is living on Mount Huaguo, hence the hanfu and the neater hairdo

I think I'm also slowly getting the hang of drawing Sun Wukong without having to look at 81 reference images

[luxthestrange]

LMK Memes #8

Monkey's x Celestial Y/n in a nutshell

[ningadudexx]

s5 spoilers...!!!!! in this animatic...!!!!!!!!!

hey guys mk the monkie kid posting here!!! just letting yu know i am nuts 😋✌️

[moezarte]

Luffy delivers a message to St. Charlos

[lazyraton]

Baby Celestial monkiesss

The Earth

The Stars

The Moon

The Sun

The white furred one belongs to OOMF Oh_Gh0st on twt(the long armed gibbon)(AKA Yue Se the most gorgeous Monkie I’ve ever seen)

The one on the very top is minneee, Chikao Mahou, the Red Bottomed Horse Monkey. He’s my baby<3

[boomfam]

So... If Monkey Mk took off his headband would his hair fall down or would it stay up like Wukong and Macaques?

Also I just noticed that Monkey Mk doesn't have a monkey nose lmao he really wasn't finished cooking.

[mochiajclayne]

rewatching one piece and realizing that law was literally the one who first approached luffy like do you expect me to be normal after this because this is the first time that I've seen someone initiate connection to luffy can you tell that my lawlu brainrot is activated like a sleeper agent

[the-monkey-ruler]

omg and in the play before the novel wukong had an older sister called holy mother wuzhiqi!

She was! Another good reason to remember the prototype Wukong (Xingzhe) was that he had SIBLINGS.

I always thought how cool it would have been if the celestial primates were inspired by them but considering that Xingzhe had four siblings making them five altogether would be one too many. And that there only seem to be 3 Monkey Sages and Wukong being one of them, making them 1 monkey too few.

The number four really never gets touched... damn.

But if there was a way to combine the lore together it could be that three of his four siblings are actually monkeys (Wuzhiqi Shengmu, Qitian Dasheng, and Shuashua Sanlang) while his first sister is more human in her description in other sources (Lishan Laomu).

If I would have to somehow combine Xingzhe's lore with the Spiritual Primates then I think I would do it something like this.

Great Sage Equaling Heaven (Qitian Dasheng) 齊天大聖 - Changed to Sun Wukong

Great Sage Reaching Heaven (Tongtian Dasheng) 通天大聖, - Six Eared Macaque getting Xinghe's original title, maybe even hinting that he was the turbulent Sun Xingzhe prototype.

Playful Third (?) (Shuashua Sanlang) 耍耍三郎 - Red Bottom Horse Monkey

Holy Mother Wuzhiqi 巫支祇聖母 Wuzhiqi Shengmu- Long Armed Gibbon

I would think that maybe switching Xingzhe's original title with the 齊天大聖 would just highlight how different the Yuan Sun Xingshe and the Ming Sun Wukong were written. Giving a little meta-outlook that perhaps the Yuan tale was inspired by the Six-Eared Macaque all along which for an adaption I would find SUCH a cool reference.

There is a lot that could go into this kind of adaption, especially since there are still other monkey gods that are known about today that could be tied into giving the Primordial Primates some more background and lore, connecting them that they were all once monkeys of legend but eventually lost their prestige through time as their eldest brother overtook the spotlight.

It would just be awesome to give the Primates just more attention in that they had just vague backgrounds I get directors would want to just have fun with them, but having real ties to past Xiyouji adaptions just... would be so meaningful really.

Though another interesting tie-in (and might be more of a stretch) could be giving the other three celestial primates with the Three Monkey Sages.

That kind of adaption could be suggesting that the other three Sages were sticking together and making their own name until one of them gave in and wanted to imitate Sun Wukong.

Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (DanXia DaSheng) 丹霞大圣 - The Red Face Monkey Sage - Six Earred Macaque

Great Sage Reaching Heaven (TongTian DaSheng) 通天大圣- The Black Face Monkey Sage - Long Armed Gibbon

Playful Third ShuaShua SanLang (耍耍三郎) - The White Face Monkey Sage - Red Bottom Horse Monkey

This is more based on the looks and the particular reason that I think that Six Ears being the Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage is better here since the Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage actually DID steal Wukong's identity in the Pacification of the Demons of Linshui 臨水平妖傳. Also, the Black Faced Monkey Sage looks more like a Gibbon and the White Face Monkey Sage looks more like a Baboon to me.

This has made me go on such a tangent but this is all to say that there could be SO MUCH MORE LORE in adaptions given to the primordial primate with how many AWESOME legends there are out there.

[hitohitonika]

family business

[quesocheeso]

Introducing another major character: Nezha!

For the AU I thought it’d be interesting to play with the design of Nezha having a younger appearance, since he is supposed to be the god of children and I’ve seen other medias do this too.

Nezha plays a major role in the development of the celestial realm and politics after Wukong ascends the role, admittedly this does not happen from the beginning. Nezha is allowed a role in the court around 400 years after the ascension of the throne due to his previous ties to the jade emperor and his court, his loyalty was strong until he realized he could help more from the inside and that his previous role on the court had not let him do much other than being a glorified guard.

He respects Wukong’s strength but he is not yet trustful of his abilities as the ruler of all realms, so he demands to be his assistant, to keep him on track and on the matters that are important. Although, once he does start working for him he does figure out that Wukong is not as bad as ruler as he was expecting, politically, his court is full of people who are experts in their own matters and provide a variety of discussion and solutions during meetings, and while he though Wukong had stayed the same Monkey King he knew from the wars and mayhem, he had grown as a ruler and cared about the realms in ways that Nezha had not seen other celestials had.

Nezha is closed off and even hostile for a while at the beginning, but he does start mellowing out around the time that Macaque is expecting, being the god of children he can’t help but be protective and clingy, leading to the Six-eared Macaque having a kid following him around like a duckling.

Also I find it really funny that Nezha was the first to find out Macaque was pregnant even before he did

Nezha is not shocked because Macaque is expecting, no he thinks he’d be a good parent,

He’s more in shock that Wukong procreated.

Bonus:

(Nezha becomes so close to the royal family that there is an inside joke in the court that he is the Emperor’s eldest child. Much to Nezha and Wukong’s dismay and Macaque’s amusement.

Remember this.)

[voidzpng]

I would like everyone to meet my new obsession : Monkey

I'm still trying to figure out a consistent way to draw him

[goldetrash]