“Ave Machina! Deus Est Machina!!”

Raise your hand if you remember Power Rangers…

Ok, now raise your hand if you still watch Power Rangers…

Ok, you don’t really have to answer that. I, myself, don’t watch Power Rangers anymore. I have however recently been taking a look at the original Japanese series which the U.S. Power Rangers was based on; Kyoryu Sentai Zyu-Ranger which in Japanese means “Dinosaur Squadron Beast Rangers.”

Zyu-Ranger was a very different show from the American series Power Rangers. In Zyu-Ranger the titular rangers were actually five ancient warrior priests, as oppose to five “teenagers with attitude,” awaken after millions of years to fight the evil witch Bandora. As priests they served the prehistoric Daijuujin or “Great Beast God.” Since there was no Zordon or Alpha 5 in Zyu-Ranger it was Daijuujin who acted as the team’s instructor and mentor. Western fans will recognize Daijuujin as the Power Ranger’s Megazord.

That’s right ‘the Megazord’ was originally a fully sentient mechanized deity, not just a big toy robot for a group of super-powered teens.

The concept of robotic deities is actually one which is encountered quite often in Japanese popular culture whether it be in Tokusatsu shows like Zyu-Ranger or in the form of anime (Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Evangelion, Shaman King, etc..), video games, or robotic toys like this “God Jesus Robot” which was popular in Japan in the 1980s and lives on today as an internet meme.

But wait, how can a robot be a god?

The answer to this question is actually part of a far greater one, namely why is it that the Japanese view of robots is so much more optimistic than that of Westerners? As is evident the Japanese have a clear fascination with the idea of robotics, which undoubtedly helps to explain why they are also the world’s leading experts in the field and will probably be the first country to possess actual sci-fi style robotic workers.

Westerners, however, have been fascinated with idea of artificially intelligent automatons for just as long as the Japanese have, but with one key difference. While the Japanese have been dreaming up stories about god-like robots that will make our lives better Westerners have been conjuring nightmare scenarios such as those seen in films like Metropolis (1927), Westworld (1973), The Terminator (1984), The Matrix (1999), and I Robot (2004) where such machines ultimately turn on their creators and either enslave or destroy humanity.

What can explain this polar opposite reaction to the idea of robotics? According to a thought provoking essay entitled How Religion Affects Our Views of Humanoid Robots published earlier this year on zyobotics.com the answer may actually lie in both culture’s mytho-religious backgrounds and how such sacred stories have themselves perceived the idea of man-made life.

To begin with, stories about man-made artificial intelligence have never gone over well here in the West. One of the earliest examples is a legend concerning the philosopher Rene Descartes who was said to have constructed a mechanical maiden called Ma fille Francine in 1640. All was well until Descartes took the robot with him on a sea voyage where the God-fearing sailors threw the creation overboard believing it to be the work of Satan.

Another example, even more pertinent to our discussion, is the story of John Murray Spear a former Universalist minister turned spiritualist who in 1853 attempted to usher in a New Age by constructing a mechanized messiah later immortalized under the moniker of the God Machine. Spear’s God Machine excited many people at the time of its completion and the minister proudly took his new deity on tour across New England. Unfortunately, things once again took a turn for the worst when an angry New York mob, torches in hand, set fire to the barn where Spear was housing his synthetic savior, ultimately destroying it.

However, the most famous western myth to involve the creation of artificial intelligence gone bad is not one of metal but of flesh in the form of Mary Shelley’s gothic classic Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus (1818); the basis for every robot run amok story ever written since then.

According to Religious Studies scholar Prof. Robert Geraci in an article for the November 2006 issue of Theology and Science, this distinctly Western distrust of intelligent automatons is based largely in part on the Christian association of physical matter with evil, sin, and death and that in order to be “saved” one must transcend this corporal sphere of existence. Because of this the idea of beings (i.e. robots) whose existence is wholly physical (as oppose to humans who are assumed to have a spiritual component or soul) is a frightening concept. This is, of course, without even touching on the obvious factor that certain religious proponents would also undoubtedly perceive the idea of man creating life as being inherently blasphemous.

In contrast to this are the Japanese Buddhist and Shinto traditions which teach that all things have a soul or kami. This not only goes for people, animals, and plants but for rivers, mountains, forests and even inanimate objects like samurai swords, sandals, and sowing needles. Because of this prevailing idea it’s not at all hard to see why the Japanese would not have the same inherent disdain for robots that many Westerners seem to possess. For the Japanese a robot would have a soul, the proverbial “ghost in the machine,” as do all other things.

Likewise, according to researcher Kristy Boyle the Japanese’ love of robots can also be traced back to their strong affection for puppetry or Karakuri Ningyo which dates back as far as the 12th-Century. Japanese puppets, says Boyle, can take many forms from theater puppets to children’s toys but there is also a special class of puppets known as the Dashi Karakuri which are used in religious festivals. These puppets are used to mediate the boundaries between the human world and the spiritual world and are important ritual tools for ensuring fertility, healing the sick, bringing luck and rain. It is with the same reverence towards the Karakuri that many Japanese roboticists approach the idea of modern day artificially intelligent robots.

But getting back to the original point, how can a robot be a god?

The answer is quite simple from a Japanese point of view. First off Daijuujin (a.k.a. Megazord) meets the Shinto qualifications for a god in that he invokes awe in his mortal subjects, the Zyu-Rangers, and even in his enemies (Bandora is completely shocked when she first sees Daijuujin in his complete form). Secondly, if kami (souls or gods) can be found in all things, even weapons like swords, then it is quite easy to see how a weapon like Daijuujin can also be in possession of a kami. Furthermore, as a humanoid robot Daijuujin recalls the sacred Dashi Karakuri puppets thus making him an ideal mediator between the mortal realm and the spiritual one. In essence Daijuujin as a robot can be a god in Japan because he meets all of the qualifications and invokes all of these sacred ideas.

This concept is one that will be undoubtedly hard to grasp for many Western-minded readers who in my experience have a hard time grasping even the idea of the role of idols in Eastern religions. For these people, whether they are religious or not, the idea that a physical object – be it a fetish, idol, statue, puppet, or robot – can be more than what it appears – that it can in fact be or at least embody a god – is a wholly baffling concept due to Western religions own conception of God as invisible and beyond depiction.

In the end it is nevertheless interesting to see how technological advancements, such as robots, have been and are being interpreted by different cultures. In the recent film Terminator Salvation (2009) the cyborg character Marcus Wright was played out as a messianic figure (he’s even crucified twice in the film) who helps the human resistance in their fight against the evil A.I. Skynet. Then there are the two Transformers films which feature the heroic Autobots in their fight against the evil Decipticons. There’s even a council of god-like robots called The Primes who appear towards the end of the second film in what looks to be some sort of cyber-heaven. Both films have been massive box office hits, so perhaps times are a changing here in the West and a more positive view of robots is on the way in.

Sources:

“Robots!” by Sam Boykin, in Creative Loafing (March 28-April 3, 2001)
How Religion Affects Our Views of Humanoid Robots (April 12th 2009) at zygbotics.com
John Murray Spear's God Machine (May 2002) by Robert Damon Schneck at forteantimes.com
Power Rangers - What you might not have known (May 16th 2009) at retrojunk.com
More on Kyoryu Sentai Zyu-Ranger at http://www.supersentai.com/

Lent: The Story Behind the Tradition

Today (Feb 25th) is Ash Wednesday, the start of the Christian holiday of Lent. Lent occurs forty days before the major Christian holiday of Easter and is used as a time for fasting. Traditionally, a religious fast involves giving up food and water and relying solely on God’s grace to sustain you. However, today most Christians simply give up something of value or enjoyment such as TV or video games, a certain snack food or even sex.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the ancient practice of marking ones face with ashes as a sign of humility and penitence. The tradition of Lent itself is derived from the New Testament tale of how Jesus fasted for “forty days and forty night” in the wilderness while being tempted by the devil, though this feat actually took place at the beginning of his ministry rather than forty days before the end of it.

This story, commonly referred to as Jesus’ Temptation, can be found in the Gospel of Mark (1:12-13), the Gospel of Matthew (4:1-11), and the Gospel of Luke (4:1-13). These three gospels, known to scholars as the Synoptic Gospels, are the only places in the Bible where this tale is told. The Gospel of John (circa. 90-100 C.E.) is silent in regards to this story as are Pauline and the other apostolic letters.

Lastly, please note that this essay is written from a scholarly view point. This means that I will not be treating the Bible as the “Word of God” but rather as a collection of myths (sacred cultural stories) and histories written down by mortal men. I will also be championing the current scholarly opinion that the authors of the four New Testament gospels were not the men whose names they bear but were rather anonymous early Christians who neither knew Jesus personally nor witnessed his ministry first hand. Finally, all dates are rendered in the standard scholarly format of B.C.E., Before Common Era, and C.E., Common Era, rather than the traditional Christian inspired B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini.)

Mark’s Simplified Version

The Gospel of Mark (circa. 70 C.E.) is the oldest of the New Testament gospels having been written roughly fifty-years after Jesus’ death. For this reason it is widely considered to be the most reliable of the New Testament writings concerning the factual happenings of Jesus’ life. In addition to being an extremely straightforward work, Mark’s gospel contains no miraculous birth story, very few extravagant miracles (no turning water into wine, killing fig trees by cursing them, or raising the dead) and no account of the resurrection. Over all the author of Mark’ gospel is one who likes to keep things simple.

This is especially evident when it comes to the tale of Jesus’ encounter with and subsequent temptation by the devil, an account which takes up a full eleven verses in Matthew’s gospel and thirteen in Luke’s but only occupies two verses in Mark…

“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”

- Gospel of Mark (1:12-13)

It is important to note that Mark’s author dose not tell us how many times Satan tempted Jesus or what the temptations were. What this indicates is that either these details were not known to Mark’s author or that they had not yet been invented. If the latter is the case then we can understand that even though the basic framework for the temptation was in place in the year 70 C.E. the mythological details would not be filled in until ten years later in 80 C.E. with the penning of Matthew’s gospel.

Differences and Discrepancies in Matthew and Luke

As is so common when studying the Gospel of Matthew (circa. 80 C.E.) and the Gospel of Luke (circa. 90 C.E.) we find that both authors agree in theme but not in details. Both agree that Jesus was lead into the wilderness by the “Spirit” for “forty days” where he was tempted by the devil three times. They do not agree, however, on the order of these temptations, the exact challenge of the first temptation, or on how the affair finally ended.

In regards to the order in which the temptation were given both authors agree that Satan first challenges a hungry Jesus to miraculously provide food for himself. However, they disagree on exactly what that challenged entailed. Matthew’s gospel says that the devil told Jesus to; “…command these stones to become loaves of bread” (Mt.4:3). Luke’s gospel, on the other hand, says that the devil told Jesus to; “…command this stone to become a loaf of bread” (Lk.4:3). Jesus, however, refuses to break his fast and quotes the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Deuteronomy; “‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mt.4:4 & Lk.4:4)

Following this first temptation comes a second. According to Matthew’s author the devil takes Jesus to the very top of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem where he challenges him to “throw yourself down” and see if God sends his angels to catch him. To validate his challenge the devil quotes the 91st Psalm. However, Jesus rebukes him once again with another passage from Deuteronomy; “‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Luke’s author, however, dissents. He writes that the second temptation involved the devil showing Jesus “in an instant all the kingdoms of the world” and offering them to him if he will only “worship me.” Naturally, Jesus declines with yet another quote from Deuteronomy; “Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

Luke dose not say how the devil showed Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world”, only that he “led him up” to do so. The author Matthew says that the devil took Jesus “to a very high mountain” for this temptation and it is here that we see yet another very strong indication that either Luke is using Matthew’s gospel as a source or that the two are both sharing a common source. Either way, both authors agree on the over all theme of the second and third temptation, one was to tempt Jesus’ loyalty to God, the other his hubris, even if they do not agree on the order in which these temptations took place.

Another interesting contradiction is the way in which Matthew and Luke's authors depict Jesus' adversary; the devil. Matthew's author depicts Satan as a tempter in a manner similar to that of an annoying friend who keeps trying to use peer pressure to talk you into doing something and who Jesus eventually is forced to tell off; “Away with you, Satan!” (Matt.4:10). Luke’s author, on the other hand, stresses the test aspect of Jesus’ encounter with the devil. Luke’s Satan offers Jesus challenges rather than temptations and leaves on his own occurred once Jesus has successfully; “finished every test” (Lk.4:13).

Forty-Days and Forty-Nights: A Homage to the Hebrew Bible

“He was in the wilderness forty days…” - Mark 1:13

“He fasted forty days and forty nights…” - Matthew 4:2

“…where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” - Luke 4:2

One thing which all three of synoptic gospels do agree on, however, is that Jesus was in the wilderness fasting for; “forty days.” However, Matthew’s gospel is just a tad more specific in that it specifies that Jesus was in the wilderness for; “forty days and forty nights”, a phrase which may sound familiar to those acquainted with the Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament.

The phrase “forty days and forty nights” appears nine times in the Hebrew Bible. The first time is in the Book of Genesis where we are told that God flooded the Earth for “forty days and forty nights” (Gen.7:4 & 7:12) in an attempt to purge sin from the world. The second time we hear this phrase is in the Book of Exodus where we find Moses atop Mt. Sinai for “forty days and forty nights” (Ex.24:18 & 34:28) receiving the Ten Commandments from God. The third and final time is in the Book of 1st Kings where we read that the prophet Elijah traveled for “forty days and forty nights” (1 Ki.19:8) to Mt. Horeb where he spoke with God.

As has been dually noted by other scholars in the past the author of the Gospel of Matthew has quite a penchant for drawing references between the Hebrew Bible stories and the life of Jesus. More quotes from the Hebrew Bible appear in the Gospel of Matthew than any other New Testament gospel. In addition to this, a careful study of the New Testament’s tales of Jesus shows that from the very beginning a conscious connection was made in the minds of Jesus’ followers between their Messiah and the figures of Moses and Elijah. Thus it is not surprising that in addition to other biblical parallels we should also find Jesus also spending “forty days and forty nights” in the wilderness communing with God just as Moses and Elijah did.

Cross Cultural Parallels

On the other side of the world and some five-hundred-years prior to Jesus’ trial in the wilderness another young religious reformer had a nearly identical experience. This young reformer was an Indian prince who had left his family and wealth behind to seek enlightenment near the Gaya River beneath a Bo tree. Named Siddhartha Gautama, but better known the world over as the Lord Buddha, legend has it that temptation came to him in the form of a powerful demon called Mara (lit. “life stealer”).

Like Satan in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mara offers Siddhartha three temptation in the form of his three daughters; Lust, Restlessness and Greed. Because Siddhartha’s goal was to reach enlightenment and thus find a cure for the world’s greed the third temptation is particularly interesting. According to the Buddhist scripture Samyutta Nikaya. 4:2:10, Mara told Siddhartha to use his spiritual powers to turn the Himalayas into gold so as to quench mankind’s greed. Siddhartha, of course, declines just as Jesus declined to turn stones into bread to quench his own physical hunger.

After failing to tempt Siddhartha, Mara attempts to frighten him with thunder clouds and then by hurling a barrage of weapons at him. However, both of these attempts also fail and Siddhartha reaches enlightenment. Two gods then appear before Siddhartha, now the Buddha, and Mara and demand that Mara depart. These gods then request that the Buddha go forth and preach the revelation that the universe has delivered unto him. This two is similar to the story of Jesus in how we are told by both Mark (1:11) and Matthew (4:11) that Jesus was waited on by angels.

Where This Leaves Us

In the end one can see that the tale of the Temptation of Jesus is obviously a much more complex and highly mythologized tale than many of us give it credit for. Its role in the Gospel’s retelling of the life of Jesus is to show us that all men, no matter how great, struggle with temptation but that it can be overcome if only we look towards God. The holiday of Lent is meant to pull us away from the world, if only a small cherished part of it, and closer to God which has been the quest of great spiritual men of all faiths for thousands of years.

Pictures:

Top Right: A girl celebrates Ash Wednesday by having her forehead marked with ashes drawn in the sign of the cross.

Left: Gustave Doré's (1832-1883) The Temptation of Jesus.

Center: The "wilderness" which Jesus was tempted in has traditionally been identified as the desert Jeshimon, a name which literally translates as "the devastation." The ancient Jews and Helens feared the wilderness not only because of its lack of food and water but because it was also believed to be the haunt of various ghosts, demons and ghouls.

Bottom: The Temptation of Buddha

Sources:

All scripture is quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Holy Bible (1989), Oxford University Press.

The World's Religions (1958) by Huston Smith, Don't Know Much About the Bible (1998) by Kenneth C. Davis, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994) by John Dominic Crossan, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1994) and Reading the Bible Again for the First Time (2001) by Marcus J. Borg, Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings (1997) by Marcus J. Borg and Ray Rieger, The Birth of Satan (2005) by T. J. Wray and Gregory Mobley.

East Meets West: A Christian Take on Journey to the West

As some of my readers may remember back in June I did a post on Monkey: Journey to the West, the contemporary Chinese opera based on the famous 16th-Century Chinese legend. When I saw Monkey back in June at the Spoleto Arts Festival in South Carolina I was blown away. Having been a big fan of the original Journey to the West myth I have almost always been thrilled by anything – from comics to film – that even made reference to Sun Wukung the Monkey King; the tales’ titular hero. That being said it should come as no surprise to anyone that I was naturally quite excited when a friend of mine showed me a graphic novel he had recently picked up which featured the Monkey King as a prominent character.

The graphic novel in question was Gene Luen Yang’s award-winning, critically acclaimed American Born Chinese (2006) which tells the tale of Jin Wang, a teenager living in San Francisco who is ethnically Chinese but was born and raised in America, just like the book’s author. American Born Chinese is primarily a story about the struggle that every teenager goes through in trying to find out who they are. In Jin’s case, coming to terms with what he sees as a conflict between his ethnicity and nationality. It is also a story about racism and a good portion of the book deals with a character called Chin-Kee; the living embodiment of every negative Asian stereotype one can possibly imagine and the novel’s most controversial character. However, in addition to the exploits of both Jin and Chin-Kee, American Born Chinese also stars the Monkey King as the book’s third protagonist and it was this aspect which originally drew my attention to the novel itself and kept it there.

American Born Chinese actually opens with a retelling of the Monkey King’s origins – ‘born from a stone atop the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit’ – before spinning off into the modern-day tales of Jin and Chin-Kee. Periodically, the book’s narrative would return to the Monkey King’s tale explaining how he was the greatest warrior in all the land and master of numerous mystical martial arts from cloud surfing to shape-shifting. Eventually, the Monkey King grows so powerful that he becomes uncontrollable and begins to run amok terrorizing the other gods, goddesses, demons and spirits of China.

What is supposed to happen at this point in the story is that the goddess Guan-Yin calls upon the help of the Buddha. The Buddha appears and challenges the Monkey King to a bet, saying that he can not jump across the entire breath of heaven. Sun Wukung arrogantly accepts the bet and takes a mighty leap, landing at what he believes to be the far end of heaven where nothing exists except for five mighty pillars. To prove that he has actually been to the edge of heaven the Monkey King takes a leak on the pillars and then leaps back to the feet of the Buddha who then shocks him by revealing that not only did he fail to leap across heaven, he never even left the Buddha’s palm. The five pillars that the Monkey King saw (and soiled) were actually the Buddha’s own fingers.

Now, I say that this is what is supposed to happen because on page 67 of American Born Chinese something rather different begins to happen instead, as can be seen below:

At first I wasn’t sure what to make of this sudden abrupt deviation from the original legend. Perhaps I was looking at an alternate version of the tale that I had not heard before but with which the author was more familiar. However, as I stared at the page and the four “emissaries of Tza-Yo-Tzuh” something weird occurred to me. I knew these four creatures from somewhere else, from a different mythological system. The lion, eagle, ox and man (here a woman) were classical symbols of the Judeo-Christian god. They appeared in both the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel (1:10) and the New Testament Book of Revelation (4:7). They were also representative of the four gospels, each one personifying a different aspect of Jesus Christ’s nature: the man his humanity, the eagle his divinity, the lion his regality and the ox his servitude. In fact, to make matters weirder, the same week I was in Charleston to watch Monkey I had toured one of the city’s historical churches and seen these same four creatures carved into the frame of the church’s front door.

Then there was this mysterious Tza-Yo-Tzuh character whose name the page’s footnote told me meant “He Who Is” in Chinese. It was a name that I not only didn’t recognize from the traditional Chinese pantheon of deities, but one which sounded hauntingly similar to the infamous “I Am Who I Am” declaration made by the Jewish god Yahweh in the Bible’s Book of Exodus (3:14).

The next page then introduced me to Tza-Yo-Tzuh who with his flowing red robe, long white beard and shepard’s staff looked like a Chinese version of Moses. I continued to read as Tza-Yo-Tzuh confronted the Monkey King and challenged him to same bet that the Buddha does in the original legend. Like the original the bet plays out the same way; Sun Wukung attempts to leap to the end of the universe, finds the pillars, pees on them and then returns to the feet of Tza-Yo-Tzuh only to discover that he never even left the opposing deities’ hand.

Following this on page 80, Tza-Yo-Tzuh then inform the Monkey King that he is the creator of the universe, of all life, of all things – even Sun Wukung. It was at this point that I knew for certain who this guy was; he was the god of Judeo-Christianity reimagined as a Chinese deity. What confirmed it for me wasn’t simply his declaration of being the maker and shaper of the universe but the fact that he did it by essentially quoting Psalm 139 straight out of the Bible. You can take a look for yourself below:

As I finished the chapter, which ended with Tza-Yo-Tzuh trapping the Monkey King beneath a mountain in the same way the Buddha had in the original myth I decided to flip to the back of the book and take a look at the author’s bio which was printed on the inside flap of the back cover. There I learned that author Gene Yang was not only an independent comic book writer and artist, but also a computer science teacher, a resident of San Francisco, a husband, a father and a Roman Catholic. My suspicions confirmed I immediately returned to reading wanting to see where this decidedly Christian variation on the story of the Monkey King was heading next. In the original myth, the Monkey King is freed from the mountain by the goddess Guan-Yin who enlists him as the bodyguard of the monk Tripitaka who has been sent on a ‘journey to the west’ to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures and bring them back to China. In American Born Chinese, however, it is the monk who frees the Monkey King after having been tapped by the four emissaries of Tza-Yo-Tzuh and told he has been chosen for a sacred mission of an undisclosed nature. No surprises this time, the entire thing was laced with Christian ideas and phraseology and it had become apparent that the author had decided to almost completely break away from the original Monkey King myth.

Nevertheless, surprises or not, as I kept reading I began to find myself growing more and more irritated with the author’s rewriting of the Journey to the West. Soon irritation turned into anger and I began to find myself upset that Gene Yang would dare to bastardize what was arguably the most important story in the history of China. Wasn’t this book, American Born Chinese, supposed to be about coming to terms with your ethnicity and embracing your native culture? If so, why was Yang rewriting the legend of the Monkey King turning it into something decidedly non-traditional, non-Buddhist, non-Eastern? By this point I was so angry, I was seriously considering not finishing the book at all. I told my friend who had given me the book about the problems I was having with it and he told me to calm down and finish it, that it would all make sense in the end.

Well, he was right.

I’m not going to tell you exactly how American Born Chinese ends because I think everyone should go out and read it for themselves. I will tell you that, in the end, all three characters – Jin, Chin-Kee, and the Monkey King – do end up meeting in a spectacular closing scene. I’ll also tell you that the author makes no apologies regarding his Christian take on Journey to the West. The story remains unabashedly Christian to the end, going so far as to even change the goal of the heroes’ journey altogether:

However, the book is never preachy and at no point – even when I was upset with it – did I feel like Gene Yang was trying to force his faith on me. You see, what I realized in the end was that American Born Chinese is not just about Jin trying to reconcile his Chinese ethnicity with his American nationality, it also about the author trying to reconcile his own ethnicity and nationality with his religious faith, and the way he manages to do so is devilishly clever.

After reading and re-reading American Born Chinese as well as several interviews with the author – including one where he humbly and cleverly defends his right to write a Christian version of Journey to the West – I have come to really love this book and have already recommended it to several people. It is a book that will challenge you on many levels and hopefully lead you to think about some of the bigger and harder questions in life regarding not only the role of faith and myth, but also about racism, ethnicity and nationality and how all these things effect our lives and our cultures.

Also check out Gene Yang's essay on American Born Chinese and his Monkey King fan-site.

All comic pages posted above are taken from American Born Chinese (2006), by Gene Luen Yang, all rights reserved.

The Chinese Zodiac

This post is dedicated to Christa, who always felt sorry for the cat.

Anyone who has ever been interested in astrology or gone out for Chinese food is undoubtedly familiar with the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. In the West, the Chinese zodiac is largely seen as merely a superstitious novelty, but in China is taken with utter seriousness. Along with a myriad of other astrological signs and symbols the Chinese zodiac can play apart in deciding everything from a person’s job, where they live, and on what day they should have their funeral. Another thing which many Western may not know is that the twelve animals on the zodiac wheel were not simply picked at random but rather earned their place as guides of mankind.

According to Buddhist legend the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac are the twelve creatures that appeared at the Buddha’s funeral to wish the great teacher farewell. As a reward for their piousness the twelve were made into symbols to help guide mankind in the Buddha’s absence. However, while this tale maybe sweet it is undoubtedly a product of a post-Buddhist China in an attempt to synchronize the ancient zodiac of China with the new religion of Buddhism.

An older and more authentic legend, tells a different and more complex story of how the twelve earned their place amongst the zodiac. In this tale the Yellow Emperor of Heaven devised the zodiac as a compass to guide mankind through life. When it came time for the Yellow Emperor to choose twelve animals to represent the twelve months of the year he decided that the only fair way to pick who should be placed amongst the zodiac was to have a great race. The first twelve creatures to cross the finish line would be the winners.

The main competitors for the prize were the; Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig and Cat. Naturally, most people have never heard of the cat before because (if you look above) he is not on the zodiac wheel. The reason for this is because he was tricked out of his place. The night before the race, cat and rat made a deal that when the one awoke in the morning he would rouse the other so that they could start the race together. Later on that same night, ox awoke and knowing that he was the slowest of the thirteen competitors decided to cheat a little and get a head start. As ox was setting off he woke rat who realized that with his short legs he would never be able to keep up with the bigger animals and decided to jump onto ox’s back and hitch a ride, completely forgetting about cat.

When the sun rose, the other animals saw that ox and rat had already gone and quickly began to rush after them. Cat was particularly angry because rat had broken his promise to him, and it is because of this that cats and rats, to this day, do not get along. As the other animals raced along they soon came to a raging river on the other side of which was the finish line.

Ox, with his great size and strength, had to no problem crossing the river but just as he was about to cross the finish line, rat jumped off his back and in front of him, which is why rat is the first of the twelve zodiac signs and ox is second. Following rat and ox was tiger and then hare and dragon. Hare managed to cross the river by jumping from rock to rock, but at one point slipped and fell in. Dragon could have passed hare, but felt sorry for him and helped him out of the river, which is why dragon is fifth and hare is forth.

Next came snake and horse and once again some trickery was involved. Snake, like rat, had decided to hitch a ride on horse without horse realizing it and when horse was just about to cross the finish line snake slipped off the mare given her such a fright that she stopped dead in her tracks allowing snake to place sixth and giving horse seventh. Sheep, monkey and rooster arrived eighth, ninth and tenth because they had helped each other build a raft to make it across the river. Dog placed eleventh because he had stopped to take a bath and pig was twelfth because he had stopped for dinner. Unfortunately, the poor cat did not make it into the zodiac because he was last, due in part to rat not waking him up and on account that cats are poor swimmers.

Source: Year of the Dragon: Legends & Lore (2000), by Nigel Suckling

Monkey: Journey to the West

Earlier this month (June 5th) I had the privilege of viewing what might quite possibly be one of the most amazing (not to mention unique) operas ever to debuted on the east coast; Monkey: Journey to the West.

Part of South Carolina’s massive multi-cultural Spoleto Arts Festival, Monkey: Journey to the West was conceived by acclaimed Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng with art direction and music by notorious Brits Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz). Told over the course of nine acts (total running time two hours) and performed completely in mandarin by a live Chinese cast of multi-talented actors and actresses and incorporating brief animated sequences, Monkey: Journey to the West was like nothing I have ever seen before on stage.

However, while Monkey: Journey to the West may be very new to the United States it is a story that is very old in the East. Originating as a Chinese legend combining the mythologies of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism as well as the real life exploits of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (602-664 A.D.), Journey to the West was first written down in the 16th-Century by an ex-vice magistrate of the Jiangsu Providence named Wu Cheng-en (ca. 1500-1582). In it unabridged written format Journey to the West is exactly one-hundred chapters long.

Based on an ancient Chinese legend, Journey to the West tells the story of Sun Wukung; the Monkey King. Born from a stone egg atop the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, Monkey – as he is often called for short – is faster, stronger, and smarter than all the other monkeys and quickly becomes their king. He also receives a special magic bō staff from the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea which allows him to become the mightiest warrior in all of China.

Monkey’s exceptional physical, mental and spiritual prowess, however, soons leads to unbridled arrogance and pride. Scaling the Mountain of Five Elements – home of the Chinese pantheon – Monkey crashes the Queen Mother of the West’s peach banquet, eats all the best peaches of immortality and basically makes a general mess of things. Monkey then declares himself the ‘Great Sage Equal of Heaven’ before the gods and demands to be honored as such. Incensed at Monkey’s boasts the gods and saints of heaven try to put a stop to his antics but each fail.

Finally, as a last resort the gods call upon the help of the Buddha who challenges Monkey to a bet, saying that Monkey can not jump across the entire breath of heaven. Monkey arrogantly accepts the bet and takes a mighty leap. He lands at what he believes to be the far end of heaven where nothing exists except for five mighty pillars. To prove that he has actually been to the edge of heaven Monkey takes a leak on the pillars and then leaps back to the feet of the Buddha who then shocks Monkey by revealing that not only did Monkey fail to leap across heaven, he never even left the palm of the Buddha. The five pillars that Monkey saw (and soiled) were actually the fingers of the Buddha.

Having lost the bet, Monkey is imprisoned beneath a mountain by the Buddha where he remains for five hundred-years. He is finally released when the goddess of mercy, Guan-Yin, chooses Monkey to serve as the bodyguard of a young Buddhist monk named Tripitaka who has been chosen to make a pilgrimage to the west (India) and retrieve the Buddhist scriptures and bring them back to China.

Monkey agrees to accompany Tripitaka, but as a precaution Guan-Yin places a magic golden headband on Monkey’s head that will inflict migraines upon the sentient simian at Tripitaka’s discretion should he get out of hand. As Monkey and Tripitaka set out on their journey they are joined by two more traveling companions; Pigsy, a lethargic womanizer who was cursed with the physical attributes of a pig after he made unwanted advances towards one of the Jade Emperor’s daughters, and Sandy, a water demon who was thrown out of heaven after breaking one of the Jade Emperor’s prized vases.

Together, this unlikely team of monstrous misfits seeking redemption accompany and protect the pious, thought often naive, Tripitaka on his fourteen-year-long trek to India. Along the way they encounter numerous threats and obstacles including dragons, man-eating demons, a town full of people who detest monks, a valley of volcanoes, seductive spider-women, and much more.

Finally, the four companions reach India and the Mountain of the Buddha where they are receive the Buddhist scriptures and are bestowed various redemptive honors by the Buddha himself. In particular, Tripitaka and Monkey are each granted the status Buddha; Monkey becoming the Buddha Victorious in Battle.

Monkey: Journey to the West was the headlining show at this year’s Spoleto Festival, and once word got out proved to be the hottest ticket as well. The show I saw was defiantly a once in a lifetime experience and something I would recommend to anyone who was presented with the opportunity to see it. The Journey to the West has been one of the most influential myths in the history of China where Monkey is seen as a cultural hero. The tale has also proven influential in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan and became of favorite of British kids growing up in the 70s and 80s (like Albarn and Hewlett) when it was turned into a popular live action TV series by Nippon Television. Most recently the legend was used as the basis for the 2008 martial arts fantasy film The Forbidden Kingdom staring Jet Li as the Monkey King.

Monkey: Journey to the West is currently playing in London at the Royal Opera House.

At Top: Original promotional artwork for the opera by Jamie Hewlett.

Center: Buddha's bet with Monkey as depicted in the opera.

Sources:

Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China, translated by Arthur Waley (1942)
About A Little Monkey: The Origins of Journey to the West, by Karen King (2008)
Land of the Dragon: Chinese Myth, by Toney Allen and Charles Phillip (2005)
Illustrated Dictionary of Mythology, by Philip Wilkinson (2006)
Monkey King: Journey to the West, by Diane Wolkstein (2009)