Heaven and Earth pass through immense cosmic cycles before the world takes its recognizable form. The heavens rise, the earth solidifies, living beings appear, and the world is divided into four great continents: East Pūrvavideha, West Aparagodānīya, South Jambūdvīpa, and North Uttarakuru.

The story then turns to East Pūrvavideha Continent, where the country of Aolai lies beside the sea. Beyond its coast stands Flower-Fruit Mountain, an ancient sacred mountain formed after the creation of the world. It is filled with towering peaks, waterfalls, immortal peaches, rare plants, divine birds, long-lived animals, and extraordinary natural beauty.

At the summit of Flower-Fruit Mountain stands an immortal stone measuring thirty-six feet and five inches high and twenty-four feet around. Its height corresponds to the 365 cyclical degrees, while its circumference corresponds to the twenty-four solar terms. Nine perforations and eight holes reflect the Nine Constellations and the Eight Trigrams.

For ages, the stone absorbs the essences of Heaven, Earth, the sun, and the moon. Eventually, a divine embryo forms within it. The stone splits open and produces a stone egg, which transforms in the wind into a living monkey.

The newborn monkey immediately walks, runs, and bows toward the four directions. Golden beams shoot from his eyes and reach the Palace of the Polestar, drawing the attention of the Jade Emperor, who sends Thousand-Mile Eye and Fair-Wind Ear to investigate.

The stone monkey grows up freely among the animals and monkeys of Flower-Fruit Mountain. One day, the monkeys follow a stream to its source and discover a great waterfall. They agree that whoever can pass through it, discover what lies beyond, and return unharmed will become their king.

The stone monkey leaps through the waterfall and discovers an iron bridge leading to a hidden residence filled with stone beds, benches, pots, and other furnishings. A stone tablet identifies the place as the Blessed Land of Flower-Fruit Mountain and the Cave Heaven of Water-Curtain Cave.

He returns and leads the other monkeys inside. Remembering their promise, they bow before him and recognize him as their ruler. From that moment, the stone monkey becomes the Handsome Monkey King.

The Handsome Monkey King lives happily with his subjects for three or four hundred years, enjoying complete freedom on Flower-Fruit Mountain. Yet during a feast, he suddenly becomes troubled by the thought that even his carefree life must eventually end.

He realizes that old age and death will one day place him under the authority of Yama, King of the Underworld. One of the monkeys tells him that Buddhas, immortals, and holy sages can escape the Wheel of Transmigration and live as long as Heaven and Earth.

Determined to escape mortality, the Monkey King decides to leave his mountain and search for someone who can teach him the way of eternal life. His subjects prepare a farewell feast and build him a raft for the journey.

The Monkey King crosses the sea and reaches South Jambūdvīpa Continent. There he encounters human society, learns human speech and manners, wears human clothing, and travels through towns and cities in search of Buddhas, immortals, and holy sages.

Eight or nine years pass, but the people he encounters are concerned mainly with wealth, fame, status, and worldly ambition. Still determined to find the secret of long life, he crosses the Great Western Ocean and reaches West Aparagodānīya Continent.

In a remote mountain region, he hears a woodcutter singing words associated with Daoist cultivation. The woodcutter explains that the song was taught to him by an immortal living nearby and directs him toward the Mountain of Mind and Heart and the Cave of Slanting Moon and Three Stars.

The Monkey King reaches the Cave of Slanting Moon and Three Stars and is brought before Patriarch Subodhi. He explains that he has travelled across oceans and continents for more than ten years and that he came from the Water-Curtain Cave of Flower-Fruit Mountain.

When Subodhi asks about his parents, the Monkey King explains that he has none and was born when an immortal stone split open. Subodhi recognizes him as a being created by Heaven and Earth.

The Patriarch gives him the surname Sun. According to the naming order of his disciples, the monkey belongs to the generation associated with the character wu, meaning “wake-to.” Subodhi therefore gives him the religious name Wukong, rendered in this edition as “Wake-to-the-Void.” The once nameless stone monkey is now Sun Wukong.

Wukong remains with Subodhi for many years. He learns language, etiquette, scriptures, doctrines, calligraphy, and the everyday discipline of cultivation while sweeping the grounds, tending plants, gathering firewood, lighting fires, fetching water, and carrying drinks.

After six or seven years, Subodhi offers him several different systems of practice. Wukong repeatedly asks whether they can lead to true immortality and rejects those that cannot.

Subodhi appears angry, strikes Wukong three times on the head, folds his arms behind his back, and retreats inside. Wukong understands the hidden message: he must visit his master during the third watch of the night through the rear entrance. When he does so, Subodhi is pleased by his understanding and secretly transmits to him the wondrous way of long life.

After three more years of cultivation, Subodhi warns Wukong that attaining long life does not free him from every danger. Those who steal the creative powers of Heaven and Earth must still face three great calamities.

The first comes as thunder. The second is the Fire of Yin, which rises from within the body and can reduce the organs and limbs to ruin. The third is the Mighty Wind, which enters through the skull and can dissolve the flesh and bones.

To help Wukong survive these calamities, Subodhi offers him a choice between the thirty-six transformations of the Heavenly Ladle and the seventy-two transformations of the Earthly Multitude. Wukong chooses the larger number, and after receiving the secret formulas, he masters all seventy-two transformations.

Wukong also begins learning how to travel through the air. His first attempt at cloud-soaring is too slow for Subodhi, so the Patriarch teaches him a special technique suited to the monkey’s natural habit of jumping and somersaulting. With a single cloud-somersault, Wukong can travel one hundred and eight thousand miles.

Later, Wukong proudly demonstrates his transformation powers to the other disciples by changing himself into a pine tree. Their excitement attracts Subodhi, who warns that openly displaying supernatural abilities will invite envy, demands, and danger.

Subodhi orders Wukong to leave and return to Flower-Fruit Mountain. Before sending him away, he commands Wukong never to reveal who taught him. Wukong promises to keep his master’s identity secret.

Using the cloud-somersault, Wukong returns to Flower-Fruit Mountain in less than an hour. He discovers that during his absence the Monstrous King of Havoc has attacked Water-Curtain Cave, stolen possessions, and kidnapped many of the young monkeys.

Wukong tracks down the monster and challenges him. During the battle, he uses the power known as Body beyond the Body, transforming hairs from his own body into hundreds of little monkeys. Together they overwhelm the enemy. Wukong kills the Monstrous King, destroys his cave, rescues the captured monkeys, and brings them home.

Back at Water-Curtain Cave, his subjects celebrate their king’s return. Wukong tells them of his travels, the immortal master he found, and the secret of immortality he learned. He also reveals the name he now carries: Sun Wukong.