Journey to the West Is Basically Ancient Pokémon

A classic tale can turn into a story about a gang stealing someone's property before you know it.

Here is what happened.

Yesterday morning, my sons dragged me out of bed because they wanted a story. On weekends, my wife and I never manage to sleep past 7:30.

My younger son brought me a picture-book edition of Journey to the West. I had never read this one to him before, so I sat up, took the book, and began. His older brother immediately jumped over and sat beside us.

It was a textbook-style picture book for elementary school children, packed with phonetic annotations, explanations of idioms, and little facts. The story was adapted from the episode about the Flaming Mountain, but the farther I read, the more something felt off.

Wait—That Is Not How You Ask to Borrow a Fan

At the beginning of the story, the monk Tang Sanzang and his three disciples are traveling when the weather becomes unbearably hot. Sun Wukong knocks on the ground and summons the local earth god, who tells them, "There is a Flaming Mountain ahead."

Wukong immediately assures everyone that it will be fine: if there is a fire, they can simply fan it hard enough to put it out.

At this point, I thought the book was about to turn into a science lesson. Perhaps a friendly firefighter would jump out from the corner of the page and explain that blowing air onto a fire only makes it burn more fiercely, and that we should use a fire extinguisher instead.

That did not happen.

Wukong declares, "I know who can help." He hops onto his cloud and flies to the home of Princess Iron Fan. The moment he arrives, he blurts out, "Hey, lend me your Plantain Fan."

The request was so rude that I almost could not bring myself to read it aloud. Besides, my children did not even know who Princess Iron Fan was.

She refuses to lend him the fan. This seems perfectly reasonable to me. Who shows up at someone's door without warning and immediately asks to borrow their belongings?

Princess Iron Fan waves the fan and blows Wukong away.

Deception, Theft, and a Whole Crowd of Deities Joining the Fight

Everyone knows what comes next, so I will fast-forward.

Wukong refuses to give up. First, he shrinks himself into a pill, tricks Princess Iron Fan into swallowing him, and causes chaos inside her stomach until she hands over the fan. It turns out to be a fake: instead of extinguishing the Flaming Mountain, it makes the flames even stronger.

So Wukong resorts to another trick. He disguises himself as the princess's husband, the Bull Demon King, chats with her, and swindles her out of the real fan.

On Wukong's way back, the real Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan catch up and try to reclaim it. Wukong and the Bull Demon King begin to fight. The two of them—or rather, the two animals, one monkey and one bull—grow to enormous size and battle so violently that they attract the attention of nearby deities. Nezha, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, and several others all show up.

In the end, the Bull Demon King surrenders. With help from the gods, Wukong finally takes the fan and extinguishes the Flaming Mountain. Tang Sanzang and his companions cross the now-fireless mountain and continue their journey.

I closed the book.

Well…

"Dad, why did they all gang up to steal her fan?" asked my older son, who had just finished his final year of kindergarten.

I did not know how to answer.

This Is Basically a Story About Gangsters Robbing Someone

Let us set aside the question of how fanning a fire is supposed to extinguish it—the friendly firefighter would surely have something to say about that. Let us also set aside the fact that they apparently never return the fan.

The whole episode is basically about a gang of thugs robbing an innocent woman. They use force, they use deception, and then they call in their friends to beat her husband half to death.

I tried to explain it to my children:

"First, this story is fictional. Someone in ancient times made it up. It is like the Pokémon stories you love. Yes, exactly—Pokémon. Modern stories have people catching Moltres and Zapdos; ancient stories had people capturing monsters such as spider demons and the Bull Demon King. The Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan, whose property was taken, are actually demons. They may look pitiful in this part of the story, but in the complete tale they hurt people, eat people, and do terrible things."

As I said this, another thought occurred to me: even if someone is a villain, surely that does not justify mob violence and vigilante justice.

I could not explain my way out of it.

Conclusion: Even Familiar Classics Deserve a Preview

The point is that classic stories are not automatically suitable for kindergarten children.

Parents should always read a story before reading it aloud to their kids—even when it is an old tale they think they know well.

Consider this a public service announcement.