Why is the Monkey King ugly in the original novel?
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The Monkey King on TV is handsome; the one in the book is ugly. Open the original novel and see. In Chapter 36, he storms into a temple. Here's how the book describes him: a lumpy face with jutting cheekbones, two yellow eyes, fangs sticking out.
And then it adds: he's like a crab, flesh on the inside, bones on the outside. The old abbot took one look and slammed his door shut. And the book is full of lines like that.
The most common one is just a few words: hairy face, thunder-god beak. A face covered in fur, a mouth that juts forward, like the Thunder God painted in temples. He's small, too. A demon laughs at him: not even four feet tall, skinny and sallow, just a sickly ghost.
In Ming-dynasty feet, that's under 1.3 meters. When they ask to stay the night, a monk points at him and asks the Tang monk: that one leading the horse, what kind of creature is it? So why make the hero so ugly?
Some guess that people back then just had different taste. But the book writes good-looking people as good-looking: the Tang monk is dashing and handsome. The simplest reason: he really is a monkey.
A monkey born from a stone, with a monkey face, a monkey mouth, and fur all over. Then where did the handsome Monkey King we remember come from? He was acted and drawn into being, later on.
On stage, a real person plays him. The monkey makeup goes on a human face, and the actor's features stay. The 1961 cartoon Havoc in Heaven drew him from Peking opera masks and New Year prints, sharp and proud. The 1986 TV series cast an actor from a family of monkey-opera performers, four generations of Monkey Kings.
In fact, the title Handsome Monkey King is in the book's first chapter. He gave it to himself when he became king. But the book never changes his ugly looks, from start to finish, because they do a job. Everywhere he goes, people first find him ugly; once he acts, they're all won over.
At Gao Village, the old squire won't even bow to him. He shoots back: Old Sun may be ugly, but he's got skills. It's like the old iron wok in the kitchen: black and dented, guests frown at it at first, but once the food comes out, nobody cares how it looks. He also says: judge people by their looks, and you'll get it all wrong.
So his ugliness looks like it was kept on purpose. Where did you first meet the Monkey King?
In the book, he looks like a crab
Chapter 36 of Journey to the West describes him: a lumpy face with jutting cheekbones, two yellow eyes, fangs growing outward, "like a crab: flesh inside, bones outside."
The old monk at the temple took one look at him and hurried to shut his door.
The book calls him ugly again and again
It's not old-time taste in looks
Simply put: the book writes him as he is. A monkey looks like a monkey.
The handsome Monkey King came later
The title "Handsome Monkey King" is in chapter 1. He gave it to himself when he became king. Nobody else was praising his looks.
The old iron wok in the kitchen
but I can do things." Chapter 18: a rich old man at Gao Village finds him too fierce-looking to greet. This is his comeback. Sun Wukong is like the old iron wok in the kitchen: black and dented, guests frown at it, but once the food comes out, nobody cares how it looks. A wok can't talk back. Wukong can. He adds: judge people by their looks, and you'll get it all wrong.
So the book never changes his ugly face. Everywhere he goes, people first look down on him; once he steps in, they all come around.
Quick check
Why does the original novel make Sun Wukong so ugly?
Like the old iron wok: black and dented, but once the food comes out, nobody cares how it looks.
