Monkey King

The Monkey King or Sun Wukong (simplified Chinese: 孙悟空; traditional Chinese: 孫悟空; pinyin: Sūn Wù Kōng) is a fictional character best known as one of the main players in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West (traditional Chinese: 西遊記; simplified Chinese: 西游记), and many later stories and adaptations. In the novel, Sun Wukong is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices. After rebelling against heaven, he is imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha. After five hundred years, he accompanies the monk Tang Sanzang (唐三藏) riding on the White Dragon Horse and two other disciples, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing, on a journey to obtain Buddhist sutras from the West (India), where Buddha and his followers dwell.

Sun Wukong possesses many abilities. He has amazing strength and is able to support the weight of two heaven mountains on his shoulders while running "with the speed of a meteor". He is extremely fast, able to travel 108,000 li (54,000 km, 34,000 mi) in one somersault. He has vast memorization skills and can remember every monkey ever born. As king of the monkeys, it is his duty to keep track of and protect every monkey. Sun Wukong also acquires the 72 Earthly Transformations, which allow him to access 72 unique powers, including the ability to transform into animals and objects. He is a skilled fighter, capable of defeating the best warriors of heaven. His hair has magical properties, capable of making copies of himself or transforming into various weapons, animals and other things. He also shows partial weather manipulation skills and can freeze people in place.

The supernatural abilities displayed by Wukong and some other characters were widely thought of "magic powers" by readers at the time of Journey to the West's writing, without much differentiation between them despite the various religious traditions that inspired them and their different and varied functions, and were often translated as such in non-Chinese versions of the book.