Week 7: Reading Diary, Continued: Notch, Son of Li Dsing.

The second half of the reading was a continued story of Sun Wu Kung. My favorite story from the second half was Notch, Son of Li Dsing. This story was intense and exciting to read. It was a battle I was waiting for to happen. I also think this story is when a greater plan takes place.

In the previous story, Sun Wu Kung was summoned to Heaven. The Lord of Heavens apointed his as stablemaster. When first reading this story my thought was that this was to keep Sun Wu Kung out of trouble. He was first brought up to Heaven because he was becoming a rather evil dictator. Sun Wu Kung had too much power for his own good you could say. In heaven, the time was different than on earth. Sun Wu Kung soon found out that stablemaster was not a high authority position and became infuriated. He left the HEaven and went back to his apes. They through him a feast and welcomed him back.

Once the Lord of Heavens found out about Sun Wu Kung's absence he sent Notscha for him. He wanted Sun Wu Kung to be captured and put in prison. This is when the battle took place. There was shapeshifting involved as well as trickier. It kept me close to the story and on edge. In the end, Sun Wu Kung was too much. He was too strong to be beaten in battle. Then the Evening Star came into the story. It was said that no one was a match for Sun Wu Kung.

After the Lord and the Evening, star confessed they decided they would have to take in Sun Wu Kung another way. They had to be smarter than he was since they couldn't beat him in battle. They came up with the idea to give him an empty title of Great Saint.

After reading this story I was left wondering what would happen left. Most of the other stories kind of mellowed out and they just started back up into a new story. This story though left you with a hook at the end. It made me jump into the next story to find out what would happen. I was left asking myself, what was the master plan? Where are they going to capture him? Or would Sun Wu Kung be too powerful and take over the Heavens?

The Heavens: Wikipedia

Story Scourse: Part of The Monkey King Unit. Story source: The Ape Sun Wu Kung in The Chinese Fairy Book, by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).