Nowadays, “Havoc in Heaven” is arguably the most famous and beloved story among the Monkey King’s numerous adventures depicted in the sixteenth-century Chinese novel Journey to the West (Xiyou ji 西遊記). What has been included in this TED lesson derives largely from Chapter 4-7 in the original novel. However, it is worth noting that the reception of this story and especially the characterization of Sun Wukong portrayed in this episode has undergone significant changes in China since late imperial periods.

Generally speaking, commentators in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties tended to regard the Monkey King as a symbol of mind and thus created a connection between the havoc in Heaven and a chaotic mind. Such a symbolic dimension was further integrated into a process of spiritual development often associated with one or more of the three major teachings in China, namely, Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. It underscored the need to discipline, calm, and cultivate one’s mind in order to achieve the spiritual advancement.

During the early twentieth century, Hu Shi (1891-1962) raised a strong objection to those interpretations and argued that the novel Journey to the West was “simply a book of good humor, profound nonsense, good-natured satire and delightful entertainment” (“Introduction to the American Edition,” Monkey, 1943, p.5). Despite his argument that Hanuman, a divine monkey from the Indian epic Ramayana, was the prototype of Sun Wukong, Hu Shi believed that the episode “Havoc in Heaven” largely derived from the novelist’s own creation. His interpretation highlights the dual function of this episode: a political satire and a literary masterpiece full of imagination and entertainment for children. 

The representation of Sun Wukong and this particular episode underwent a significant change from the 1940s to the 1960s. During that period, Sun Wukong had been increasingly portrayed as a revolutionary hero in China who frequently received praises for his rebellious spirit. The havoc he created in Heaven was interpreted as a bold resistance to the authority, and by extension, an act of people’s heroic revolt against the oppression of the ruling class. One of the most popular modern adaptations of this episode is Havoc in Heaven (also translated as Uproar in Heaven, in Chinese Daonao Tiangong 大闹天宫), a two-part animated film produced during 1961-1964. To learn more about modern adaptations of this episode, see Hongmei Sun, Transforming Monkey: Adaptation and Representation of a Chinese Epic, pp.63-86.

The story became widely known in the West due to Arthur Waley’s (1889-1966) abridged translation Monkey (first published in 1942). To learn more about Waley’s translation and its role in the canonization of the novel Journey to the West in world literature, see Ji Hao, “Bring the Monkey King to the World: A Case Study of Arthur Waley’s Monkey.” Waley’s translation reduces the story from one hundred chapters to thirty chapter and greatly alters its textual features. For a complete and more literal translation of the original novel including this episode, see Anthony Yu’s The Journey to the West (4 volumes). Yu’s abridged translation The Monkey and the Monk also includes this episode. To learn more about its differences from Waley’s Monkey and how those differences may affect English readers’ understanding of the novel, see Ji Hao, “A Comparative Study of Two Major English Translations of The Journey to the West: Monkey and The Monkey and the Monk.”

Next Section »