Does Sun Wukong worship predate Journey To The West?
The worship of Sun Wukong is complicated. Fujian, China, the home of our hero's cult, is known to have worshiped monkeys in general as far back as the Tang Dynasty. A prime example is the "Spirit protecting hills and woods" (Bao shanlin shen, δΏε±±ζη₯). As the story goes, the enraged monkey-spirit was appeased with worship after its mortal body had been killed and taxidermied to make an idol.
A Song-era story mentions an evil monkey-spirit titled the "Great Sage Equaling Heaven" (Qitian dasheng, ι½ε€©ε€§θ; "GSEH" hereafter), just like Wukong. But he is portrayed as a fiendish, wife-kidnapping sorcerer, while Monkey's Song-era antecedent, the "Monkey Pilgrim" (Hou xingzhe, η΄θ‘θ ), from the 13th-century JTTW, is cast as a white-robed scholar immortal. (Interestingly, though, this precursor is given the title "Great Sage Steel Muscles and Iron Bones" (Gangjin tiegu dasheng, ιΌηι΅ιͺ¨ε€§θ) at the end of his story arc.) If the local Fujian people considered the Song-era GSEH a real threat, I could see them also attempting to appease him through worship.
Having said that, it's interesting to note that a Fujian shrine dedicated to both the GSEH and the "Great Sage Reaching Heaven" (Tongtian Dasheng, ι倩倧θ) appeared by the 14th-century. These two figures eventually appeared in Yuan-Ming zaju and puppet plays, by which time Sun Wukong had already become associated with the GSEH title. I'm not sure when the switch happened, though. This then raises the question: did the switch happen later, leading to Monkey being assimilated into the GSEH's cult and taking over the main focus of worship, or did it happen earlier and the GSEH title was just absorbed by Wukong and his already existing cult?
But either way, I can say with confidence that Monkey and the other pilgrims were venerated prior to the novel. This is because they are all described as Buddhas that have left the world in the Five Books and Six Volumes (Wubu liuce, δΊι¨ε ε; 1509), a sectarian Buddhist text by the amazingly influential Luo Menghong (ηΎ ε€’(ε)ι΄», 1442β1527). This religious work predates JTTW by 83 years! This might be one of the reasons why the pilgrims receive a promotion in spiritual rank in chapter 100.
