#later journey to the west

[journeytothewestresearch]

What's Luzhen's name supposed to translate to? I know Wukong's means 'awakened to emptiness,' but when I tried putting the character for Luzhen in Google Translate it said the first character means shoe or something? I'm sure there's some deeper meaning that AI is failing to grasp there.

It translates to "Monkey who Walks Reality."

For readers wondering what they are referring to, see section three of his article:

[bonnisbon]

MK THEORY

Season 4 has let me think a lot of things about MK since they have shown his monkey form... well, I have another theory for you.

In season 4, episode 7, MK is hinted and later revealed to be a monkey, let it be mystical monkey, and I have a theory of who he might be (or inspired by)

Sun Luzhen from Later Journey to the West, a Ming Dynasty novel.

Sun Luzhen, in the novel, is a monkey born from a stone who eventually is the disciple of Sun Wukong.

I have my reasons onto why MK can be Sun Luzhen or inspired by Sun Luzhen, whether it is intended or not by the writers.

MK's name in the mandarin/taiwanese dub

孙小圣 (Sun xiaosheng) is a name Sun Luzhen is often referred to, as well as 齐天小圣 qitian xiaosheng (Small Sage Equal to Heaven)

What is MK's chinese dub name? 齐小天 (qi xiaotian)

Did you make the connection?

In the novel, he repeated all the patterns Sun Wukong did in Journey to The West (overtook heaven, ate +6 things that made him immortal...) and at the end, Sun Wukong puts him the same circlet he had in the journey.

What if in season 5, MK is destined to suffer the same fate as Sun Wukong? The circlet...

Anyway, this is just a theory, but I can't stop thinking about the possibilities

Harbinger of Chaos.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Sorry just realized something funny about the Shadowpeach pregnancies.

First it was one (MK), then two (Eclipse Twins) and now three (Lunar Node Triplets). Maybe it is a good thing they are not interested in having any more magical pregnancies, if this keeps up they will be having quadruplets or quintuplets.

Haha! It was more a happy accident on my part XD

But yeah, Shadowpeach best be careful making more kids in the future. The "Buy 1, get 2 Free" situation with the Lunar Node Triplets have probably made them more wary when planning for future infants.

I wanted Macaque's little toyline shadow clones/Eclipse Twins (LMK) to be their kids, then I wanted the non-canon Yuebei Xing and ofc I had to include her brothers Jidu and Luohou (all three from "Journey to the South") cus they're so cool.

There are other "unofficial" kids of Sun Wukong in extended Journey to the West-inspired media that I wouldn't really count tho.

King Pāramitā (+4 unseen brothers) from "A Supplement to the Journey to the West" - set between an alternate timeline of Chapters 61 and 62 where Tripitaka gets kidnapped by a time traveller (even in 1640 people were pulling that trope) that somehow convinced him to give up the pilgrimage. King Pāramitā and his four brothers were apparently concieved when SWK accidentally got PIF knocked up when he transformed himself into a stomach bug/parasite in order to extort the Fan from her (Chapter 59 of JttW). I find that situation a bit too uncomfy/medically inaccurate so no. If anything I'd give Ironbull the bonus five kids, and that Pāramitā was the result of SWK accidentally lifting a curse from the couple - like when parents joke that their kid's "true parent" was a bottle of alcohol.

And since LMK's MK himself is likely a whole reference to Sun Luzhen from "Later Journey to the West" (17th century), it would be a little redundant to make a Sun Luzhen kid. Does give my Wukongverse idea of each of the SWKs having an "MK" weight tho.

In hindsight; between my au Shadowpeach's bio and adopted kids, I accidentally gave SWK the "five sons" (MK, Rumble, Jidu & Luohou, + the adopted Chenxiang) he's said to have had in A Supplement. XD

I would like to thank @journeytothewestresearch for their endless dedication and research into these sort of topics, since I use their articles as sources. I apologise for using your research as fanfic material. Go check their website out if you got any Jttw questions.

[wuzhiqi-enj0yer]

[the-monkey-ruler]

Besides Chenxiang, has Sun Wukong had other apprentices? I know this question had been answered in another blog on the subject or I don't know if it was here.

Officially Wukong only has had one other disciple being the unnamed First Prince of the Kingdom of the Nine Headed Lion Arc. Bajie trained the Second Prince and Wujing trained the Third Prince.

Chenxiang is considered his second cause he is another legend and this time tying Wukong and Erlang back together.

There have been lots of media where Wujing takes on disciples like Monkey King (2022) 悟·空 with Xiaosheng, Westward Journey Online II (2002) 大话西游2经典版 with a monkey mix of Wukong and the Six Ear's magic, LEGO Monkie Kid Series (2020) 乐高悟空小侠：英雄出世 with Qi Xiaotian, Post Journey to the West (CMS) (1988) 后西游记 with Sun Luzhen and so on and so forth.

I think that Sun Luzhen is also a popular one as he as in the Later Journey to the West (Hou Xiyouji, 後西遊記, 17th-century) novel, another old story but nowhere near as popular as Lotus Lantern has become in recent media. I think that is any other disciple would be considered 'official' then he would be considered the official third or second disciple personally.

[witteautism]

we should give more attention to Sun Luzhen. Like

• He is born from a rock like swk

• He takes swk’s last name

• he also causes havoc in heaven

• swk’s spiritual successor

He is interesting me thinks

[royaltea000]

“A thousand generations serve to praise…”

[maxlovespigeons]

With the return of my hyperfixation, have some art I've drawn in the past I don't think I've ever posted to Tumblr

[ningadudexx]

born to be a sacrifice ^_^ forced to go wsg gang :3

without text

can you guys tell i rewatched a silent voice... festival scene got me like 😹😹😹😿😹😹😹😿😹😿😿😿😿😿😿

[loverofstufflof]

Being a Journey to the West fan is crazy, because you can see a cool Six-Eared Macaque design from a piece of media you’ve never heard of, black out, and wake up 4 episodes deep into some obscure donghua called “Monster but Wild”

[runaria]

Not me getting inspired to create a modern wukong yaoguai hunter gang/mafia style au while having just gotten my feet wet with the JTTW/Black Myth storyline 😭

...

Imagining Wukong in a golden varsity jacket decorated with a classic black dragon, and a self-stitched "no.1" on it, but being only second in command cause he can't behave himself. The group "leader" will still be Tang Seng, because he's the "big boss's" favorite, and has a good head on his shoulders. He can't fight for shit, but he's got good magic, which is good enough.

They roam the streets as vigilante demon hunters, in comparison to the state sanctioned hunters, whom of course is lead locally by Erlang Shen.

There's always beef between them, but they also always watch out for each other, coming in clutch to help the other out when they least expect it. The two groups would up-end entire cities to get to the other if they're in need.

... That's all I have for now LOL.

Poster teaser be upon ye 🫳:

[binx--the--jinx]

so a couple of friends showed me the canon design of the Monkey King in the Sonic universe, and then i was dared to draw my take on him, and thus..... this redesign was born!!

[toadbun]

Finally watched Overly Sarcastic Production's Journey to the West series. Big rec, also Red's artstyle is sooo pretty and i tried to replicate it some!

[quitealotofsodapop]

So... nor to bust the bubble, but the Black Bull Demkn may not be PIF's. There's a small section in the original boon where DBK actually cheats on his wife and leaves her for another woman. It's actually kind of pathetic how PIF spiraled after that since she'd presumably just lost her son, too. I know they definitely are still together in the aus and shoe, but there is one Canon instance that may have resulted in an illegitimate calf

I assume you mean the situation in Journey to the West were DBK and PIF briefly separated cus DBK decided to take Princess Jade Face as a lover for her inheritance? Thats regular Tang-era marriage problems (multiple wives were considered socially ok).

Yeah in the canon book verse its kinda bad timing on the Bull's part.

In the LMK verse however, these two are madly devoted to one another no matter what. I feel like if Jade Face ever appeared, her character would be altered to reflect that - either as a mututal bestie who got mislabled as DBK's lover overtime or as someone in a polycule situation with them.

The Black Whirlwind/Iron Ox is also one of the *human* characters in Water Margin. Those are just nicknames despite the odd concidence.

Black Boy (who've I've named "Huoshan") in "Later Journey to the West" is canonically PIF and DBK's second born son - having taken more after his mom in powers, but his dad in appearance.

[wuzhiqi-enj0yer]

Dark boy makes a return!!!

[the-monkey-ruler]

has anyone ever tried to adapt the early play version of the journey? or took some inspiration? like monkey's siblings

I'm trying to only read a couple of these movie/show summaries a day in order to not get burned out but I'll be honest... I don't think a single one of them has any of their own JTTW-inspired media ;_;

On one hand, I understand. Other adaptions of Journey to the West like The Story of How Tripitaka of the Great Tang Procures the Scriptures 大唐三藏取經詩話 or Zaju 西遊記 are interesting stories on their own they never gained that popularity or notoriety that Wu Cheng'en's 西遊記 adaption. And honestly, it makes sense in that Wu Cheng'en is the most popular as it was able to take the best qualities of Wukong, keeping him a mischievous but clever monkey while still making him wise and a respected fighter. It gave Wukong layers to be able to relate to any reader, being of higher class or of lower class, gaining such attention in both entertainment and scholarly work that it gained the 'canon' status.

So sadly any background of Wukong's four siblings was dropped and has yet to ever resurface.

Some more info on those if you want to look into them more.

The same being said with Supplement Journey to the West 西遊補, Journey to the South 南遊記, and Later Journey to the West 後西遊記. Once Wu Cheng'en's 西遊記 gained that popularity and status other authors wished to contribute as well. And while I am sad that there is no media of these early contributions to the novel I also understand that they are pieces of media on their own.

The 'sequels' are stories onto themselves that offer their own allegories whether that be political or religious takes by the individual author more so using the medium of JTTW so convey their stories. Similar to how artists/writers use JTTW as a medium to tell their own stories in reimagings or adaptions.

Wukong or anyone of the pilgrimage going through other adventures within the novel or having continuations after the novel is nothing new to media in modern times as there are a lot of moves/shows with original demons or making stories of what happened 'after' JTTW so I would take it like... why would a director take someone's else blueprints for a reimaging/retelling of JTTW when they have their own version of the popular story? Why take someone else demon when you can make your own? Why remake someone else's take on Sun Clan children when you have plans of your own?

Sadly that means unless some of these earlier JTTW media become REALLY popular really soon and someone is willing to put their entire goal into making them entertaining or watchable enough for the general population I think they shall only stay where they are... they are good stories but I do think what's holding them back is that on their own, they are just okay and what really made them survive is their connection to the popular adaption of Journey to the West.