Staff Legends 93
legends, which can be traced back to the Song period, evolved through a se-
ries of prose narratives and plays, culminating in the sixteenth century in
one of the masterpieces of Chinese fiction, The Journey to the West. Generally
believed to have been authored by Wu Cheng’en (ca. 1506–ca. 1582), the
novel served as a source for an enormous body of oral literature and drama,
securing Sun Wukong’s position as a popular literary and dramatic hero, as
well as the object of a religious cult, for centuries to come.^38
Sun Wukong’s role in the Journey to the West cycle is that of protector to his
master Xuanzang. Throughout their pilgrimage, the two are attacked by count-
less monsters, whom Xuanzang is unable to counter, both because he is physi-
cally feeble and because he is morally committed to the Buddhist prohibition
of violence. It is therefore his “Monkey Novice Monk” (Hou Xingzhe), as Sun
Wukong is titled, who shoulders the responsibility for their defense, which he
admirably performs through the use of a magic weapon. The fearless monkey
is armed with a divine staff (bang),^39 which he obtained at the Water Crystal
Palace of the Dragon King of the Eastern Ocean (figure 15). As indicated by its
name, “As You Wish, Golden Rings Clasped Staff ” (Ruyi jingu bang), the
weapon complies with its proprietor’s wishes, changing its size at will. Its regu-
lar operational length is two zhang (approximately twenty feet), but it can be as
tiny as a needle, hidden inside Sun Wukong’s ear, or as tall as the heavens.
Sun Wukong can change not only his staff’s dimensions, but also his own.
Mastering transformation magic (bian), the heroic monkey is capable of assum-
ing at will any shape or size:
[Sun Wukong] held the treasure [the staff] in his hands and called out,
“Smaller, smaller, smaller!” and at once it shrank to the size of a tiny
embroidery needle, small enough to be hidden inside the ear. Awe-
struck, the monkeys cried, “Great King! Take it out and play with it some
more.” The Monkey King took it out from his ear and placed it on his
palm. “Bigger, bigger, bigger!” he shouted, and again it grew to the
thickness of a barrel and more than twenty feet long. He became so
delighted playing with it that he jumped onto the bridge and walked out
of the cave. Grasping the treasure in his hands, he began to perform the
magic of cosmic imitation. He bent over and cried, “Grow!” and at once
grew to be ten thousand feet tall, with a head like the Tai Mountain and
a chest like a rugged peak, eyes like lightning and a mouth like a blood
bowl, and teeth like swords and halberds. The staff in his hands was of
such a size that its top reached the thirty-third Heaven and its bottom
the eighteenth layer of Hell. Tigers, leopards, wolves, and crawling
creatures, all the monsters of the mountain and the demon kings of the
seventy-two caves, were so terrified that they kowtowed and paid
homage to the Monkey King in fear and trembling. Presently he revoked
his magical appearance and changed the treasure back into a tiny
embroidery needle stored in his ear.^40