#celestial monkeys

so i ofc started with Sun Wukong

The first one is him when he was younger, he is a Rhesus Macaque and i made his fur darker cuz baby macaques usually have darker fur than adults

And I also wanted his appearance to change as he got older, kinda to symbolizing how his immortality and power changed him overtime but dunno

The second one is how looked at the start of the journey

Sun Wukong is like canonically extremely intelligent. His literal title or name is “The Intelligent Stone Monkey”. To me, that means that he’s a problem solver and he’s good at EVERYTHING relating to cognitive abilities.

Like for instance, he can put two and two together and somehow create an entirely new formula for solving the unsolvable. He can figure out loopholes and leave escape rooms like no problem. He can solve any critical thinking tests with a perfect 100/100. He’s innovative and he learns through mimicry, which means if you give him a long enough time he can essentially do and learn ANYTHING.

Meanwhile, Macaque is the knowledgeable intellectual. He plans and thinks and he just KNOWS information. If you ask him how many books there are in the world, he’ll know because he’s omniscient. He knows what will happen and probably can ace any trivia game show. Macaque hears everything and he retains information, both good and bad. He’s amazing at recreating what’s been done. He passes on any and every test, knows all there is to know in the world, and knows what the past and present and future hold (or at least parts of them).

However, that’s where it ends. The difference between their levels of intellect is that while Macaque might be “smarter” at the start, Wukong can EVOLVE.

Wukong’s strength lies in his originality. In his creativity and inventiveness. Even if he doesn’t know how many books there are in the library, he could probably figure out a way to count them and not waste time. He might not think things through but when he has to, he can think faster than anyone else and create the most insane strategies. (Such as when he was stuck in those golden cymbals and he figured out a clever way to escape).

Macaque might be able to create things or recreate the old, but he’s not able to make anything truly original. He needs a prompt so to say to write his essay. He can’t just create a novel without a starting point. He’s a smart cookie though and he can scheme and plan, but he’s not able to figure out a Plan B on the spot if his Plan A didn’t work.

But that’s not to say that one is smarter than the other. Both are intelligent and have their own strengths.

However, if we’re talking about the novel only, Macaque doesn’t have a strength because he’s the embodiment of Wukong’s flaws. So. The more you know.

(I didn't like the colors from the previous post so I went back and changed them)

Macaque sticks out from the rest of them, but I think it still works. It visually shows how he feels like he's the "black sheep" of the group, and yet still keep in theme with the others. His colors can either give off "nighttime" or "daytime".

I wanted Wukong to still have that sun theme colors while still looking kind of evil (since Wukong used to be a villain). I figured giving him "solar eclipse" colors would be fitting for him.

Gibbon has more "sun" colors. I imagine him being the goofball of the group, and I figured him having "sunny" colors would fit his sunshine personality. It also works for star colors, since the stars are something Gibbon is often associated with.

naw just kiddin,

here’s a fake LMK screenshot though! Featuring Bao in season 4 💕

i’m thinking yuán as in 猿 - 犭 = 袁

ape - animal radical = long cloth

like how 猻 - 犭 = 孫 = 孙 (simplified)

猻 is from 猴猻 hóusūn which means monkey

monkey - animal radical = grandson

孙悟空 • sūn wùkōng • grandson awakened to nothingness

袁巫支祁 • yuán wūzhīqí • long cloth great shaman/witch/sorcerer/wizard to support/bear/sustain

if you look at old chinese paintings of gibbons, they look like they have black bodies and white heads

btw i high recommend an evaluation of robert van gulik’s the gibbon in china and its place in modern sinological discourse on the academia app. it’s free and ripe with information about how gibbons were viewed and depicted in ancient china. robert’s book is damn expensive tho. i envy anyone who has their hands on it.

here’s an excerpt that surprised me:

The third theme is suggested in the following: “The gibbon is better than the monkey , the former is clean, gentle and recluse, the latter is dirty, noisy, greedy and vulgar” (“Mei yuan su hou”美猿俗猴) (TGIC 58). RvG thought this idea was pragmatic. Ancient Chinese literati like Wu Yun (“Poem of the Black Gibbon”) (TGIC 54-56), Li Deyu (“Poem of the White Gibbon) (TGIC 56-57), and Liu Zongyuan 柳完元 (773–819)21 (“Essay on the Hateful Monkey-breed” or “Zeng wangsun wen” 憎王孙文) (TGIC 54-56). Each compared the quarrelsome and volatile monkey with the aloof gibbon (TGIC 56). The lament is evidently directed against the people at court who caused their patron’s downfall (TGIC 57). Wu Yün, Li Deyu and Liu Zongyuan contrasted the violent and vulgar monkey with the high-minded and well-behaved gibbon. So the monkey is described as greedy, cruel and undependable, and ugly in appearance” (TGIC 57).

oh and the novel calls wūzhīqí great sage water ape… they were totally born from water. water egg? water womb?

and since it’s semi-popular in lmk fandom to make six-eared macaque a wind monkey due to the macaque king, that would leave red-buttocked horse monkey a fire monkey. red is the color of fire and the horse’s element is fire. in buddhism there are 4 great elements: earth, water, fire, and air so it all weirdly fits.

Oh damn you did such an AMAZING deep dive in both the language and history!! I adore it!!

I am aware the theory that Macaque King is the Six Ears is a common theory and with that the tie in with being the Great Sage of Ventilation, not just in LMK.

It would be cool if the Spiritual Primates had a connection to the elements, even if it is not the five. I actually forget that Buddism had its own elements that are technical since I always counted akasa/space.

But perhaps if the idea that each primate is also birthed from inanimate objects perhaps something like

Stone - Wukong

Pearl - Wuzhiqi / Gibbon

Magma - Baboon

Tree Root - Macaque (since air is also connected to wood in Chinese lore)

If they were ever to use the Gibbon as either the same Wuzhiqi from the Yuan Xiyouji she would be an amazing addition, or perhaps they could have used the Sage leaning background as well. In either case, there's so much history when it comes to both primate lore that I really think there can be a lot done with these findings