In the world before
Monkey Primal chaos reigned,
Heaven sought order, but the
Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown.
The four worlds formed again and yet again,
As
endless aeons wheeled and passed.
Time and the
pure essences of Heaven,
The
moistures of the Earth,
And the powers of the
Sun and the
Moon
All worked upon a certain rock - old as Creation,
And it became
magically fertile.
That first egg was named
Thought,
Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, Said
'
With our thoughts we make the world'
Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch,
from it then came a
Stone Monkey.
The nature of Monkey was irrepressable!
Monkeeeeeeee!!!
Born from an egg on a
mountain top,
Funkiest Monkey that ever popped,
He knew every
magic trick under the sun,
Tease the Gods and everyone and
have some fun.
Monkey magic, Monkey magic,
Monkey magic, Monkey magic,
Monkey magic,
Monkey magic ooh!
(the above is the
introduction to series 1 & 2)
The
TV series "
Monkey" is based on one of the
great quest stories, a
16th century Chinese epic called
Hsi Yu Chi (= "
Journey to the West"). The title
Monkey is probably from
Arthur Waley's English translation. The tales, set in
630 AD, describe the
demons and monsters who try to stop the
Tang Priest Hsüan Tsang (
Tripitaka) from reaching a
Buddhist monastery in India to retrieve
Buddhist scriptures. The whole series recounts the exploits of the resourceful, brave, and humorous
Monkey, the real hero of the fantasy, as he escorts
Tripitaka, the pig monster
Pigsy, and the water monster
Sandy, on their
perilous mission.
Hsüan Tsang apparently actually lived and really did go to India in 629 A.D. to get
Buddhist scriptures.