- The journey back alan trachetenberg jstor full size#
- The journey back alan trachetenberg jstor series#
For example, Kirkova (2016) highlights a poem by the first Cao Wei emperor Cao Pi describing the great speed of their travel: “ Lightened you’ll soar, mount the floating clouds, / in a blink you’ll travel millions of li” (p. (emphasis mine)Įlements of this passage reference the long tradition of cloud-borne transcendents in Daoist literature. From then on, he had complete freedom, blissfully enjoying his state of long life'” (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. He Patriarch gave him an oral formula, saying, ‘Make the magic sign, recite the spell, clench your fist tightly, shake your body, and when you jump up, one somersault will carry you one hundred and eight thousand li … Throughout the night … Wukong practiced ardently and mastered the technique of cloud-somersault. Sun Wukong first learns to perform his cloud somersault in chapter two while studying Daoist cultivation under his first master, the Sage Subodhi:
The journey back alan trachetenberg jstor full size#
A full size scan of the calendar can be seen here. 1 – Detail of an 1812 calendar print by Japanese artist Kubo Shunman depicting Son Goku (Sun Wukong) flying on his cloud somersault ( larger version).
Interestingly, the somersault is portrayed as much faster than the clouds of other immortals (see section three below).įig. But other times, like in chapter 22, it can’t lift even a single person because the impure nature of mortals renders them “as heavy as the Tai Mountain” (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. For example, it is sometimes shown capable of transporting passengers, such as the “thirty or fifty” of Monkey’s children rescued from captivity in chapter two, thereby implying a single cloud (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. However, the magic skill’s attributes are not always portrayed consistently throughout the novel.
The journey back alan trachetenberg jstor series#
And in fact this is demonstrated in chapter 97 when it requires “a series of cloud somersaults” for him to retrieve the soul of an elderly benefactor from the underworld (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1), the very name “somersault” points to Monkey leaping from cloud to cloud. While Sun is traditionally portrayed in visual media riding a single cloud (fig. But of course lovers of the novel know how this wager ends, with a desecrated finger and our hero trapped beneath Five Elements Mountain. How could I possibly not jump clear of it?” (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. Sun gleefully accepts, certain of his success: “What a fool this Tathagata is! A single somersault of mine can carry old Monkey one hundred and eight thousand li, yet his palm is not even one foot across. Perhaps the most famous episode involving the somersault appears in chapter seven when the Buddha bets Wukong that he’ll give the rebellious monkey the throne of heaven if he can leap clear of the Enlightened One’s palm. The latter is a powerful skill because it enables him to travel 108,000 li ( 33,554 mi / 54,000 km), or one and one-third the circumference of our Earth, in a single leap. The Monkey King is famous for utilizing a vast arsenal of magic powers to protect the monk Tripitaka on the journey to India, chief among them being immortality, shape-shifting, hair clones, super strength, and flight via the cloud somersault ( jindou yun, 筋斗雲).