Sun Wukong (Journey to the West)

Background

Long ago, a stone monkey was born from a magic rock on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and subsequently became king of the monkeys through a test of bravery. The Monkey King later sailed the world for ten years looking for a divine master to teach him the secret of eternal life, eventually becoming a disciple of the Buddho-Daoist sage, Patriarch Subodhi, who gave him the religious name Sun Wukong (孫悟空, "Monkey Awakened to Emptiness"). Under the sage's tutelage, Sun mastered Daoist elixir arts resulting in his immortality, as well as the 72 Transformations, flight via the Cloud-Somersault, martial arts, general magic, and medicine. The Monkey King was later reported to the Jade Emperor by the Dragon King for bullying him into giving the immortal a magic weapon, the nine ton "As-You-Will Gold-Banded Staff" (Ruyi jingu bang, 如意金箍棒) and a suit of armor; and also by the King of Hell for inking out Sun's name, as well as those of all primates on earth, from the book of life and death.

Unable to beat him, the Jade Emperor assigned Wukong a job in Heaven, albeit the lowest one. Unhappy about this, Wukong rebelled and thwarted the Emperor and his heavenly army several times, forcing them to call upon Buddha himself for help, who sealed Wukong under a mountain to reflect on his actions. Six hundred plus years later, Guanyin offered Wukong freedom in exchange for him protecting the monk Tang Sanzang on his quest to collect the Buddhist sutras. With his teachings, Sanzang helped Wukong to become humbled and enlightened, and the two set off on a journey to the West alongside others who would join them.

Powers & Abilities

• Martial Arts: Sun Wukong has been training with some of the best of the best in his respective universe, training with gods and great warriors. This has enabled him to be one of the best fighters in his universe, able to tangle with a clone of himself that had precognition with little issue.
• Enhanced Senses: Sun Wukong possesses amazing perceptive abilities. He is so perceptive that he is capable of seeing the wings of a dragonfly from up to a thousand miles away, and hearing things coming from both Heaven and the Underworld.
• Art of Earthly Multitudes: Upon acquiring his first form of immortality, Sun Wukong learned that he would beset by three calamities of thunder, fire, and wind from the Heavens, seeking to claim his life for defying death. Desperate to escape this fate, Wukong mastered the 地煞數, or the Art of the Earthly Multitudes, consisting of 72 different transformations granting different abilities to overcome these calamities. Each is performed using a magic sign.
  • Shapeshifting: One of Wukong’s most well-used abilities, this magic sign allows him to shapeshift into anything he desires, such as pine trees, forks, and animals. Wukong can utilize these transformations freely, whether it be for solving a puzzle or for combat, such as when he transformed into a three-headed, six-armed beast in his battle against Prince Nezha. He can’t just transform into objects and creatures, but also elements as well, such as the time he dispersed into intangible ether for a quick exit. He can also alter individual portions of his body, such as making his legs more durable. Wukong’s shapeshifting isn’t limited to himself, either. He can transmute other beings and objects the same way he can transform himself, such as turning Zhu Bajie’s body into that of a little girl’s after Pigsy fails at the transformation himself, or turning four logs into duplicates of himself, Tripitaka, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing. Wukong can even use his own unique powers while transformed. As an example, while shapeshifted into a fly, he’s able to pull off a hair and transform it like he can in his regular form. His shapeshifting abilities should probably work the same way as how he transforms his hairs, so the traits mentioned below may be assumed to carry over.
  • Hairs: After learning the Art of Earthly Multitudes, Wukong returned to the Monkey Kingdom, where he found that a monster had taken his monkeys hostage. In retaliation, he plucked a couple of hairs off his body and turned them into hundreds of clones in the first demonstration of this technique. Wukong himself claims that his clones can make even more clones, and that he can use this to multiply into billions if he wants to. Just on his own, he can create many thousands of clones at once by chewing some hairs up, then using the individual bits as all their own clones. He sent these ones into battle against Nezha and Heaven’s forces, whom they were able to defeat. Each of these clones has Wukong’s powers and skill, though they do seem to vary in strength. They also have a copy of his staff. Wukong has also used this to swap out his opponents weapons with mundane objects. Additionally, he’s often substituted his real body with that of a clone in order to escape, or for surprise attacks. He’s said to have eighty-four thousand hairs on his body and to be able to change them into “whatever shape or substance he desired,” so this isn’t limited to clones; he’s made random objects such as a paintbrush and a golden gourd with them before, as well as living beings, like a special insect that can make people fall asleep once it crawls into your nose (gross), a yellow hound, or a thunder spirit (this possibly just refers to a clone Wukong). At least in the case of the gourd, these objects weigh the same as the hair they’re transformed from.
  • Life-Saving Hairs: A collection of three hairs given to Monkey by the Bodhisattva Guanyin. The specifics of their powers are unknown, but they are said to be particularly stiff hairs that, when pulled from his body, will alleviate Wukong from his situation in even the most hopeless circumstances. Wukong has used them to escape from a magical burning vase, the flames of which threatened to kill him.
• Barriers: By drawing a circle around him and others on the ground, Wukong can create a barrier for protection against any harm that may come. However, that protection won’t help if Wukong or anyone else steps out of the circle.
• Reflection: Wukong can reflect various elements such as fire, thunder and water attacks with his either magic or physicality.
• Size Manipulation: Wukong’s ability to manipulate his own size is incredible, both when it comes to making himself bigger and making himself smaller. If he wills it, the Monkey King is capable of shrinking down to be as small as a hair, or pulling an Ant-Man and growing himself to be large enough to fill the entirety of the universe. Even more like Ant-Man, he can crawl inside someone in a shrunken state and transform back to his regular self to deal damage.
• Flight: Beyond just using his boots or magic, Wukong himself has the ability to fly.
• Body Freezing: With a single point of his finger, Monkey can cast the magic of immobilization, instantly freezing his opponents in place. This immobility can last for over a day.
• Air Manipulation: Wukong has the ability to manipulate air in a wide variety of ways. He can use it offensively by creating dangerous winds, and can use his own breath to shake mountains and uproot entire forests. When it comes to movement, Wukong has used his manipulation of wind to enable himself and others to fly through the air.
• Water Manipulation: With magic, the Monkey King can control water, which can be used to part away rivers and stir up oceans. He is also unable to drown
• Summoning: Wukong has shown to be capable of summoning gods and deities to aid him in whatever situation he may find himself in. This was shown when he summoned the Dragon King of the Northern Ocean to aid him.
• Invisibility: With magic, Wukong is able to conceal his body, making him effectively invisible to the average eye.
• Temporal Astral Projection: The Monkey King is not just limited to his physical body, and has demonstrated the ability to project his “Aura spirit” self from his body upon command. Despite being a spirit, he is still capable of fighting as he normally does and can physically interact with things, such as his staff. Additionally, other heavenly beings have shown the ability to reincarnate from their true spirits, such as when Zhu Bajie was reduced to his true spirit and reincarnated himself on Earth through a sow’s womb.
• Fiery Golden Eyes: Obtained from his 49 days within Lao Zi’s furnace, Wukong’s now inflamed eyes have the ability to see through shapeshifter’s disguises and illusions. Even before the days in Lao Zi’s furnace, Wukong’s eyes could shoot lasers. Right after hatching from his stone egg, he shot golden beams from his eyes which went right from the top of Mount Huaguo on Earth to the Palace of the Polestar in Heaven.
• Immortality: Sun Wukong's most important ability is without a doubt his immortality, which he has in several forms. After eating multiple foods that grant immortality, ​​cultivating a formula for it as well as having his name taken off the Book of Death, Wukong became incredibly difficult to kill, with an eternal lifespan and a nigh-indestructible body that is capable of surviving otherwise fatal wounds, as well as regenerating. However, if he were to be killed, Wukong has 72 extra lives in stock in accordance with his 72 transformations that must be dealt with, before he can be truly destroyed. To Wukong, getting his limbs or head removed is little more than a joke to compose a poem about. He can call severed limbs back to his body, or just grow new ones; after getting decapitated, he first tries to call his head back to him, but when a spell is cast on it, he just makes a new one. Wukong’s regeneration can overlap with his duplication, since if he’s cut apart, each severed piece will become a new Wukong.
• Resistances: Sun Wukong boasts a variety of resistances to different abilities, including:
  • Elemental Attacks
  • Soul Manipulation
  • Mind Manipulation
  • Diseases

Equipment

• Ruyi Jingu Bang: Sun Wukong’s iconic staff. Originally a gigantic iron pillar in the kingdom of Ao Guang by which the Heavenly River was fixed, Sun Wukong took it after none of the weapons of the Dragon King of the East Sea met his standards. It is immensely heavy, weighing around 17,550 lbs, yet is able to grow or shrink to whatever size the Monkey King commands it, from the size of a needle to tall enough to reach the 33rd Heaven. He often stores it in a shrunken state in his ear. In addition to its size-changing ability, it can magically open any lock Wukong points it at, as well as interact with non-physical, “non-existent” spirits (or even Wukong himself when he was a soul in Hell).
• Armor: Monkey’s signature set of armor, given to him by the Dragon Kings of the Three Oceans. It consists of cloud-treading shoes, a golden cuirass, and a phoenix-feathered cap.

Feats

Strength

• Fought all of the heavenly warriors, including numerous constellations.
• Participated in a battle that dimmed the cosmos with debris and disturbed Heaven and Earth.
• Can alter the course of planets and stars.
• Fought on par with, and eventually defeated Nezha.
  • This battle was stated to have shaken the entire planet.
• Ransacked the entirety of the Underworld.
• Created a planetary sized storm.
• Claimed he can move the moon with his bare hands.
• Destroyed forests and created tsunamis with only a breath.
• Capable of growing as big as the universe itself (3-54x Universal - see Cosmology section below).
• Supported two mountains that anchor the universe while moving at the speed of a meteor (Multi-Solar System).

Speed

• Grew his staff from the size of a needle to one breaching the 33rd Heaven and 18th layer of Hell (880 quadrillion c).
• Capable of traveling from the human world to that of the Underworld, which is separated by a space as wide as Heaven.
• Has flown to heaven and back incredibly quickly multiple times throughout the story.
• His eye beams shot from Earth to Heaven.
• Can travel 108,000 li (54,000 km) in one somersault.
• Implies that he can quickly pull the moon down from the edge of heaven.
• Capable of fighting with thousands of flying cudgels at once.
• Jumped from the Buddha’s hand to the edge of the universe (which was also Buddha’s hand, it’s weird).

Durability

• Survived being trapped under a mountain for 500 years.
• Carried a demon child weighing 1000 tons with ease.
• Survived supporting the weight of two heavenly mountains while running.
• Defeated a copy of himself, confirming he can withstand the amount of force that he dishes out.
• Survived clashing with Nezha with enough force to shake the entire planet.
• Has completely no-sold all sorts of weapons, fire, and thunderbolts; here’s a second mention of this feat from later in the novel.
• Survived having his head squeezed so hard it resembled an hourglass, though this caused him immense pain.
• Fought Heaven’s forces for a day straight without tiring.
• Could go for a thousand nights without sleep and never feel fatigue.

Skills

• A major inspiration for countless Western and Eastern stories.
• Pissed on the Buddha’s hand.
• Gained immortality at least seven different times.
• Defeated the armies of Heaven.
• Traveled to the Western Heaven alongside Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing.
• Fought off tons of demon lords in order to protect his comrades.
• Beat up a demon who wanted to fuck him.
• Managed to scare the four Great Dragons into camaraderie.

Weaknesses

• Sun Wukong is incredibly powerful, but that power often goes to his head. He will often get into fights where he has no chance of winning on his own, often leading to himself or his allies getting captured.
• His temper also can play a big role in this; for instance, Tripitaka or Zhu Bajie will sometimes say the wrong thing or remind him of his own failures, causing him to rush off to prove himself.
• Wukong also has a history of falling for unexpected tricks that take him out of the fight, such as the True Fire of Samadhi, the pain-inducing poison sting of the scorpion demoness, and the cave demon’s wind.