First published in the mid-1500s, the story has established itself as one of China's great novels and is available in a rather handsome four-volume set translated by W. J. F. Jenner and published by the Foreign Language Press. The book could be a good gift this monkey year, as it retains a surprising degree of contemporary relevance.
It is of passing interest that in some Buddhist texts, the human mind, as opposed to the ideal of a Buddha-mind focused on the seeming eternity of the Dharma, is described as the "monkey mind." In Hindu mythology, the god Hanuman is one of the greatest of the minor deities and -- while never specifically lauded in Buddhist or Taoist cosmology -- the monkey retains our respect because it is one of our closest relations within the animal kingdom.
In Taiwan, our simian representative is the Formosan macaque, which has already been up to all kinds of high jinks this year, causing grief to farmers in Taitung County, where -- according to one CNA report -- they were found plucking the feathers off roosters and placing hens high in treetops from which they couldn't escape. A goat ranch owner in Fuyuan even claimed macaques sexually assaulted his ewes. The Formosan macaque is protected by law and unfortunately for the farmers, they seem to know it, and are generally unresponsive to threats.
With all that the monkey represents, we can clearly all look forward to an eventful year. The astrologers tell us that this year will be best for people born under the sign of the snake, for the unpredictable monkey stimulates the intellectual snake, whose common sense balances out the exuberance of the monkey. The other zodiac signs don't do so well. While rats and dragons are expected to deal reasonably well with the complexity of a monkey year, tigers, pigs and dogs are all in for a hard time, for they are too straightforward and up-front to deal with the subtlety and guile of a monkey year.
Basically, with the upcoming Year of the Monkey, we are fated, as the Chinese imprecation goes, to "live in interesting times." How we deal with it, is up to the monkey in ourselves.
RSS