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Behold the power of the Monkey King and behold one of the famous characters in Asian mythology. A really interesting character build - Wukong from the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. This was the end result :)
This moc is a long time coming and now it is finally finished.
Short Bio
Sun Wukong is a main character in the classical Chinese epic novel Journey to the West. Sun Wukong was born from a mythical stone from the primal forces of chaos, located on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. Early in life he joined a clan of monkeys and became their leader by finding the Water Curtain Cave. After the other monkeys honored him as their king he realized despite his power over the monkeys he was still only mortal. So determined to find immortality he traveled to civilized lands where he became a discipline of a Taoist immortal. There he learned all of the powers commonly associated to him in mythology. Sun Wukong is a famous character in Asian mythology and culture often being referenced in anime, manga and literature.
I like history, mythology and Wukong is one of my favourite mythology characters (there are others I like too).
There are really quite a good amount of interesting interpretations of the Monkey on internet and other sources, but I haven't taken any exact design, rather tried to make my own version of the character from my mind with the elements that randomly came in my head at the building process. And the thing is that, every moc that I have built before was just something from my imagination with absolutely no connection to anything, this time it was different, even thought that I was trying to come up with my own design, I still had to make sure that it has a primate-ish feel of a monkey king.
I must say this was a really interesting project, I must say I'm quite happy how the moc turned out in the end, but I think this character has much more potential, so in the future I will definitely build a companion monkey for the same reason - it has potential.
Fun fact
Sun is my first moc that has been built mainly with lego pieces, yes there are a few bionicle and technic pieces also (usually all my mocs contains bionicle and technic pieces) so this was a really great and new building experience for me.
That is it for now. Hope you like the creation. Please don´t hesitate with any comments, questions or criticisms, it means a lot to me :)
Behold the power of the Monkey King and behold one of the famous characters in Asian mythology. A really interesting character build - Wukong from the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. This was the end result :)
This moc is a long time coming and now it is finally finished.
Short Bio
Sun Wukong is a main character in the classical Chinese epic novel Journey to the West. Sun Wukong was born from a mythical stone from the primal forces of chaos, located on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. Early in life he joined a clan of monkeys and became their leader by finding the Water Curtain Cave. After the other monkeys honored him as their king he realized despite his power over the monkeys he was still only mortal. So determined to find immortality he traveled to civilized lands where he became a discipline of a Taoist immortal. There he learned all of the powers commonly associated to him in mythology. Sun Wukong is a famous character in Asian mythology and culture often being referenced in anime, manga and literature.
I like history, mythology and Wukong is one of my favourite mythology characters (there are others I like too).
There are really quite a good amount of interesting interpretations of the Monkey on internet and other sources, but I haven't taken any exact design, rather tried to make my own version of the character from my mind with the elements that randomly came in my head at the building process. And the thing is that, every moc that I have built before was just something from my imagination with absolutely no connection to anything, this time it was different, even thought that I was trying to come up with my own design, I still had to make sure that it has a primate-ish feel of a monkey king.
I must say this was a really interesting project, I'm quite happy how the moc turned out in the end, but I think this character has much more potential, so in the future I will definitely build a companion monkey for the same reason - it has potential.
Fun fact
Sun is my first moc that has been built mainly with lego pieces, yes there are a few bionicle and technic pieces also (usually all my mocs contains bionicle and technic pieces) so this was a really great and new building experience for me.
That is it for now. Hope you like the creation. Please don´t hesitate with any comments, questions or criticisms, it means a lot to me :)
The Magical Lantern Festival is visually spectacular, an artistic installation of beautifully sculpted life-size and giant lanterns designed in various forms from animals and birds to buildings and abstract lantern designs of all shapes and sizes.
To mark the Year of the Monkey 2016, a Mount Huaguo lantern with an illuminated waterfall will provide the fairytale setting for an intricate recreation of popular Chinese fable, The Monkey King.
Monkey is the most popular figure in all Chinese literature, loved for centuries by young people and adults alike. His story is found in a classic sixteenth-century novel, The Journey to the West (Xi You Ji or Hsi Yu Chi), as well as in countless later adaptations, from Chinese opera to comic books.The novel, written anonymously but often attributed to the humorist Wu Cheng’en, is an epic comic fantasy of 100 chapters. My retelling covers only the first seven chapters, which form a kind of prelude. The bulk of the novel recounts the journey of the Buddhist monk Sanzang to collect sacred scriptures from Buddha in the Western Paradise, aided by Monkey and several other magical creatures.Though The Journey to the West is considered the final word on these adventures, it draws on a tradition going back nearly a millenium. Sanzang—or Tripitaka, by his Buddhist name—was a real seventh-century monk who made a perilous journey to India to study with Buddhist masters and to gather scriptures. His story was picked up first by Buddhist preachers, then by professional storytellers and authors, who improved on it, added characters, and created new episodes over the course of centuries. As with today’s most popular comic, TV, and movie series, new adventures were always welcomed by the public.No one knows for sure when the character of Monkey was added to the story or where he came from—though he may be an adaptation of Hanuman, the monkey king of India’s epic the Ramayana. In any case, Monkey showed up in printed versions by the thirteenth century. By the sixteenth century, when The Journey to the West was written, he had taken over as lead character, overshadowing the Buddhist monk.There is good reason for the popularity of Monkey among the Chinese. Perhaps every culture has a folk hero who represents the rebel, the troublemaker who defies authority. Stories of such heroes are needed to help work off people’s resentment toward real authorities not easily defied. And nowhere has this need been greater than in China, with its tendency toward overblown bureaucracy and its strict ethical training of obedience to “superiors.” Yet that strict training itself makes it difficult for the Chinese to accept a rebel as hero.The solution to this problem is Monkey. By making the rebel an animal, the Chinese can laugh at his antics without guilt, while subconsciously admiring his defiance of the powers that be. After all, no one expects a monkey to know better—especially one with no parents!Monkey’s adventures provide a breathtaking, whirlwind tour of Chinese mythology. But some elements of this tour may at first puzzle a Western reader. For example, the rulers and officials of heaven and hell may conveniently be called gods, but they are not gods as found in Western mythologies. All were born human, then gained supernatural power by promotion to divine status. In fact, each of these deities is due to be reborn on earth, at which time the position left vacant will be filled by someone else.We may also be perplexed by the way competing mythologies all seem jumbled together. In Western culture, people generally take their beliefs from the one religion they belong to. But only a small minority of Chinese have ever belonged to any of the three most important named religions of China—Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Most Chinese instead practice an unnamed and unofficial “folk religion” that has adopted elements of all three.The mythology of this folk religion draws especially from Taoism and Buddhism, and it is this fabulous world that is portrayed in The Journey to the West. So we find a Taoist Heaven coexisting with a Buddhist Western Paradise, while Taoist venerables like the Jade Emperor and Lao Tzu hobnob with Buddhist luminaries like Kwan Yin and the Buddha himself. Buddhism, brought to China by Indian missionaries in the first few centuries A.D., is today fairly familiar in the West. Taoism, on the other hand, is less well known and little understood. Tao (pronounced “DOW,” rhyming with “cow”) means “the Way”—a poetic description of the harmonious guiding force of the universe, as well as of the path to attunement with it. Taoism developed as an organized religion in the second century A.D., with all the popular trappings of priests, temples, and ceremonies. But long before that—since at least the middle of the first millenium B.C.—it existed as a spiritual discipline similar to the yoga systems of India. Like the Patriarch Subodhi in the story of Monkey, the followers of this branch of Taoism were ascetics living in mountain hermitages. The Journey to the West presents ascetic Taoism in the Chinese popular conception—in other words, greatly simplified and literalized. For example, according to the Taoist ascetics, the final stage of spiritual discipline was to become an Immortal. This was done by developing and strengthening a conscious “spirit body” that either left the physical body before death or absorbed the physical body by transforming it into pure energy. But all this was simplified in popular legend, and Taoist masters were believed to develop physical bodies that lasted forever.Most Chinese were also a bit confused about another element of Taoism. Like some other spiritual traditions, ascetic Taoism cloaked its descriptions of spiritual practices in the language of alchemy—and as with those other traditions, outsiders often took the descriptions literally. So while the ascetics created metaphoric Elixir of Life through meditation, others tried to create it chemically, in hopes of producing “pills of immortality.” As reflected in popular legend, most Chinese saw this alchemy as part of authentic Taoist practice.Ascetic Taoism survived and evolved alongside organized Taoism, and it exists to the present day. What’s more, offshoots of ascetic Taoism—like tai chi, acupuncture, and the healing art of Chi Kung—enjoy widespread use in China and have become increasingly popular worldwide. But under the Chinese Communist government, many Taoist masters were killed, while others went abroad or into hiding. So ascetic Taoism has now almost vanished from China itself.
www.aaronshep.com/extras/MonkeyKing_note2.html
Monkey King is an allegorical rendition of the journey, mingled with Chinese fables, fairy tales, legends, superstitions, popular beliefs, monster stories, and whatever the author could find in the Taoist, Buddhist, and Chinese popular religions. While average readers are fascinated with the prowess and wisdom of the Monkey King, many reviewers agree that the protagonist embodies what the author tried to convey to his readers: a rebellious spirit against the then untouchable feudal rulers.The monkey is indeed rebellious. He was, according to the story, born out of a rock, fertilized by the grace of Heaven and Earth. Being extremely intelligent, he has learned all the magic tricks and gongfu from an immortal Taoist master. Now he can transform himself into seventy-two different images such as a tree, a bird, a beast of prey, or an insect that can sneak into an enemy's body to fight him or her inside out. Using clouds as a vehicle, he can travel 108,000 miles at a single somersault. He claims to be The King in defiance of the only authority over the heaven, the seas, the earth and the subterranean world -- Yù Huáng Dà Dì, or "The Great Emperor of Jade." That act of high treason, coupled with complaints from the masters of the four seas and the Hell, incurs the relentless scourge of the heavenly army. In fact, the monkey has fought into the ocean and seized the Dragon King's crown treasure: a huge gold-banded iron rod used as a ballast of the waters. Able to expand or shrink at his command, the iron rod becomes the monkey's favorite weapon in his later feats. The first test of its power came when the monkey stormed into hell and threatened the Hadean king into sparing his and his followers mortal life so that they all could enjoy eternity.,After many showdowns with the fearless Monkey King, the heavenly army have suffered numerous humiliating defeats. The celestial monarch has but to give the dove faction a chance to try their appeasement strategy—to offer the monkey an official title in heaven with little authority. When he has learned the truth that he is nothing but an object of ridicule, the enraged monkey revolts, fighting all his way back to earth to resume his original claim as The King.Eventually, the heavenly army, enlisting the help of all the god warriors with diverse tricks, manages to capture the barely invincible monkey. He is sentenced to capital punishment. However, all methods of execution fail. Having a bronze head and iron shoulders, the monkey dulls many a sword inflicted upon him. As the last resort, the emperor commands that he be incinerated in the furnace where his Taoist minister Tai Shang Lao Jun refines his pills of immortality. Instead of killing the monkey, the fire and smoke therein sharpened his eyes so that he now can see through things that others can not. He fights his way back to earth again. At his wit's end, the celestial emperor asks Buddha for help. Buddha imprisons the monkey under a great mountain known as Wu Zhi Shan (The Mount of Five Fingers). The tenacious monkey survives the enormous weight and pressure. Five hundred years later, there comes to his rescue the Tang Monk, Xuan Zang, whom we mentioned at the beginning of the story.To make surethat the monk can make for the West to get the Sutras, Buddha has arranged for Monkey King to become the monk's escort in the capacity of his disciple. soon on their way to the west, two more disciples, also at the will of the Buddha, join their company. One is the humorous and not uncourageous pig transgressed from an inebrious celestial general for his assault against a fairy; the other a sea monster who also used to be a celestial general now in exile for a misdemeanor.The party of four was further reenforced by a horse, an incarnation of a dragon's son, start their stormy journey to the West -- a journey packed with actions and adventures that brought into full play the puissance of the monks' disciples, Monkey King in particular.
people.wku.edu/haiwang.yuan/China/tales/monkey.html
Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, is a main character in the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West. Sun Wukong is also found in many later stories and adaptations. In the novel, he is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices. After rebelling against heaven and being imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha, he later accompanies the monk Xuanzang on a journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India. Sun Wukong possesses an immense amount of strength; he is able to lift his 13,500 jīn (7,960 kilograms (17,550 lb)) staff with ease. He is also extremely fast, able to travel 108,000 li (54,000 kilometres (34,000 mi)) in one somersault. Sun knows 72 transformations, which allow him to transform into various animals and objects; however, he is troubled in transforming into other forms, due to the accompanying incomplete transformation of his tail. Sun Wukong is a skilled fighter, capable of holding his own against the best warriors of heaven. Also, each of his hairs possess magical properties, capable of being transformed into clones of the Monkey King himself, and/or into various weapons, animals, and other objects. He also knows spells that can command wind, part water, conjure protective circles against demons, and freeze humans, demons, and gods alike.One of the most enduring Chinese literary characters, Sun Wukong has a varied background and colorful cultural history. For example, Sun Wukong is considered by some scholars to be influenced by both the Hindu deity Hanuman from the Ramayana and elements of Chinese folklore.According to the legend, Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, was born from a magic stone that sat on the top of a mountain, that had been receiving the powers of the heavens and the earth since the beginning of time and had thereby gained miraculous powers. The stone stood 36 feet and 5 inches representing the degrees of the heavens and 24 feet round representing the division of the solar calender. With nine hole in it for the nine trigrams. The stone developed a magic womb, which burst open one day to produce a stone egg about the size of a ball. When the wind blew on this egg it turned into a stone monkey, complete with the five senses and four limbs. When the stone monkey came out, he already had the ability to crawl and walk. He then bowed to each of the four quarters. As his eyes moved, two beams of golden light shot towards the Pole Star palace and startled the Supreme Heavenly Sage, the Greatly Compassionate Jade Emperor of the Azure Vault of Heaven, who was sitting surrounded by his immortal ministers on his throne in the Hall of Miraculous Mist in the Golden-gated Cloud Palace. When he saw the dazzling golden light he ordered Thousand-mile Eye and Wind-accompanying Ear to open the Southern Gate of Heaven and take a look. The two officers went out through the gate in obedience to the imperial command, and while one observed what was going on the other listened carefully. Soon afterwards they reported back: “In obedience to the Imperial Mandate your subjects observed and listened to the source of the golden light. We found that at the edge of the country of Aolai, which is East of the ocean belonging to the Eastern Continent of Superior Body, there is an island called the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. A magic stone on the top of this mountain produced a magic egg, and when the wind blew on this egg it turned into a stone monkey which bowed to each of the four quarters. When he moved his eyes, golden light shot towards the Pole Star Palace; but now that he is eating and drinking, the golden light is gradually dying.” In his benevolence and mercy the Jade Emperor said, “Creatures down below are born of the essence of heaven and earth: there is nothing remarkable about him.” On his mountain the monkey was able to run and jump just when he came out, feed from plants and trees, drink from brooks and springs, pick mountain flowers and look for fruit. He made friends with the wolves, went around with the tigers and leopards, was on good terms with the deer, and had the other monkeys and apes for relations. At night he slept under the rockfaces, and he roamed around the peaks and caves by day. As the saying so rightly goes, “There is no calendar in the mountains, and when winter's over you don't know the time of year.” On hot mornings he and all the other monkeys would play under the shade of some pines to avoid the heat. After playing, the monkeys would go and bathe in the stream, a mountain torrent that tumbled along like rolling melons. There is an old saying, “Birds have bird language and, animals have animal talk.” All the monkeys said to each other, “I wonder where that water comes from. We've got nothing else to do today, so wouldn't it be fun to go upstream and find its source?” With a shout they all ran off, leading their children and calling to their brothers. They climbed up the mountain beside the stream until they reached its source, where a waterfall cascaded from a spring. The monkeys clapped their hands and explained with delight, “Wow! So this is where the stream water comes from!” Then one monkey made a suggestion: “If anyone is clever enough to go through the fall, find the source, and come out in one piece, let's make him our king.” When this challenge had been shouted three times, the stone monkey leapt out from the crowd and answered at the top of his voice, “I'll go, I'll go.” He then shuts his eyes, crouches, and springs, leaping straight into the waterfall. When he opened his eyes and raised his head to look round, he saw neither water nor waves. A bridge stood in front of him, as large as life. He stopped, calmed himself, took a closer look, and saw that the bridge was made of iron. The water that rushed under it poured out through a fissure in the rocks, screening the gateway to the bridge. He started walking towards the bridge, and as he looked he made out what seemed to be a house. It was a really good place. The other monkeys were all so delighted to hear this that they said, “You go first and take us with you.”The stone monkey shut his eyes, crouched, and leapt in again, shouting, “Follow me in, follow me in.” The braver monkeys all jumped through. The more timid ones peered forward, shrank back, rubbed their ears, scratched their cheeks, shouted, and yelled at the top of their voices, before going in, all clinging to each other. After rushing across the bridge they all grabbed plates and snatched bowls, bagged stoves and fought over beds, and moved everything around. Monkeys are born naughty and they could not keep quiet for a single moment until they had worn themselves out moving things around.An old monkey soon said, “Monkeys, you all agreed and said that if anyone was clever enough to come in here and get out again in one piece, you'd make him king. Well, the stone monkey has come in and gone out, and gone out and come in. He has found you monkeys a cave heaven where you can sleep in peace and all settle down to live in bliss. Why haven't you made him king?” On hearing this all the monkeys bowed down to the king.They lined up in groups in order of age and paid their homage as at court, all acclaiming him as the “Great King of a Thousand Years.” The stone monkey then took the throne, made the word “stone” taboo, and called himself Handsome Monkey King.
The Magical Lantern Festival is visually spectacular, an artistic installation of beautifully sculpted life-size and giant lanterns designed in various forms from animals and birds to buildings and abstract lantern designs of all shapes and sizes.
To mark the Year of the Monkey 2016, a Mount Huaguo lantern with an illuminated waterfall will provide the fairytale setting for an intricate recreation of popular Chinese fable, The Monkey King.
Wielder of the Monk's Spade, Sha Wujing ("Friar Sand" or "Sandy" in most english translations) is one of Xuanzang's disciples in the classic Journey to the West. You may know this story as the one where the Monkey King is an ass to absolutely everybody for like half of the story, but then becomes part of an ensemble cast of ancient chinese superheroes. Including a shapeshifting pig. Parts of it randomly got adapted into Dragon Ball.
ANYWAY... Sha Wujing was originally a general in heaven before he destroyed a valuable vase in a fit of anger, and was punished when the celestial powers turned him into a monster, and then sent magic swords to stab him every day. Sha Wujing soon learned that the swords couldn't reach him if he were under water, so he set up shop in a river, and turned to a life of killing and eating travelers. Notably, his necklace of nine skulls came from a group of monks he waylaid - and when bored, he'd play with them a bit, juggle them, bowl with them, or whatever it is that crazy monsters do. After a fight with the shapeshifting pig, Sha Wujing chose to help the heroes of the story in order to earn his redemption, which he does by the end. Despite his monstrous history, Sha Wujing is actually the most polite and logical of the group, only very rarely squabbling. He doesn't do as much in the story as the others, but his coolheaded personality helps hold the team together.
Featured on Life In Plastic: nerditis.com/2013/01/23/life-in-plastic-obscure-toys-you-...
Featured on Nerditis's Figure Photo of the Day: nerditis.com/2013/02/05/figure-photo-of-the-day-sha-wujing/
Hanuman (หนุมาน), the magical god king of the apes in Rama’s Simian army, is the best known monkey character in Ramakien. He is featured in several episodes and has become a hero especially for Thai children who recognize him instantly in any artistic representation.
Ramakien (รามเกียรติ์) is Thailand's national epic, derived from the Hindu Indian Ramayana epic. A number of versions of the epic were lost in the destruction of Ayutthaya in 1767. Three versions currently exist, one of which was prepared in 1797 under the supervision of (and partly written by) King Rama I. His son, Rama II further adapted his father's edition of the Ramakien for the khon drama, a form of theater performed by Thai dancers with elaborate costumes and masks. This version differs slightly from the one compiled by Rama I, giving an expanded role to Hanuman.
Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, may be a supporting protagonist of The Journey to the West, the classic piece of Chinese literature, but really, he's the main hero. The story begins with him, and focuses on him as he solves nearly every puzzle!
Born from seaside rocks, Sun Wukong soon became the mighty Monkey King! His exploits gained the friendship and enmity of gods and demons alike, until he grew so powerful that Heaven began to get worried about him! He gained the ability to change into 72 different forms, flying somersaults that could take him anywhere in the world, the ability to pluck any of his hairs and transform them into whatever he wished, and the legendary Ruyi Jingu Bang extendable staff! And golden chain mail, a phoenix-feather cap, cloud-walking boots... and yeah, everything.
So Heaven brought him in, gave him a title, and some meaningless busywork. Sun Wukong responded by eating peaches and pills of immortality and rampaging, beating up people in heaven. They stuffed him in a heavenly crucible to try to melt him down, but it just made Sun Wukong stronger! So eventually, the Buddha Himself had to intervene, and tell the Monkey King that if he could somersault off from the palm of the buddha's hand, he could do whatever he wanted - and be imprisoned if he failed. Sun Wukong LEAPT... and landed on what he thought was one of the five pillars of heaven itself! So he scrawled his name on it and peed on it, only to learn that he was pissing on one of the buddha's fingers, like a moron. Oops.
Sun Wukong got imprisoned under a mountain for five hundred years until the monk Tang SangZang needed his help to travel to the West and retrieve the original Buddhist scriptures. Poor SUn Wukong had a special restraining headband on his head to keep him from further rampaging, and he became the best god-moding overpowered sidekick EVER! After everything ended, he was rewarded with Buddahood.
I totally understand how this guy inspired Dragon Ball Z.
Bust of the legendary figure Sun Wukong, a main character from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, a great literary work which Monkie Kid was based on. First displayed at China AFOL Festival 2025.
Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, may be a supporting protagonist of The Journey to the West, the classic piece of Chinese literature, but really, he's the main hero. The story begins with him, and focuses on him as he solves nearly every puzzle!
Born from seaside rocks, Sun Wukong soon became the mighty Monkey King! His exploits gained the friendship and enmity of gods and demons alike, until he grew so powerful that Heaven began to get worried about him! He gained the ability to change into 72 different forms, flying somersaults that could take him anywhere in the world, the ability to pluck any of his hairs and transform them into whatever he wished, and the legendary Ruyi Jingu Bang extendable staff! And golden chain mail, a phoenix-feather cap, cloud-walking boots... and yeah, everything.
So Heaven brought him in, gave him a title, and some meaningless busywork. Sun Wukong responded by eating peaches and pills of immortality and rampaging, beating up people in heaven. They stuffed him in a heavenly crucible to try to melt him down, but it just made Sun Wukong stronger! So eventually, the Buddha Himself had to intervene, and tell the Monkey King that if he could somersault off from the palm of the buddha's hand, he could do whatever he wanted - and be imprisoned if he failed. Sun Wukong LEAPT... and landed on what he thought was one of the five pillars of heaven itself! So he scrawled his name on it and peed on it, only to learn that he was pissing on one of the buddha's fingers, like a moron. Oops.
Sun Wukong got imprisoned under a mountain for five hundred years until the monk Tang SangZang needed his help to travel to the West and retrieve the original Buddhist scriptures. Poor SUn Wukong had a special restraining headband on his head to keep him from further rampaging, and he became the best god-moding overpowered sidekick EVER! After everything ended, he was rewarded with Buddahood.
I totally understand how this guy inspired Dragon Ball Z.
I believe this was a gift drawn by Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy. On display at the Shanghai Film Museum.
This view shows part of the interior of the roof of one of the four pavilions that divide the Covered Walkway, along with part of the walkway itself.
The Painting Walkway, more commonly known as the Covered Walkway, is one of the most important structures in the Summer Palace. It is also the longest walkway in the gardens. It is 728m long and it is divided into 273 sections. On the beams and crossbeams of the walkway, there are altogether over 14,000 traditional Chinese paintings. Some of them are birds, flowers and landscapes, the others are from famous ancient poems, dramas or other literary classics, such as "Monkey King", "The Tales of Three Kingdoms", "The Dream of Red Mansion" and so on. Most of the stories here are regarded as the essentials of ancient Chinese classics. Visitors test themselves or their friends to see how much they know about Chinese history and literature while appreciating those figure paintings.
In the 1750s, Emperor Qianlong travelled to the South on six of his inspections, and so loved the beautiful scenery there that he asked the best painters to sketch them down and later he had them copied on the beams and crossbeams of the walkway. Even the Summer Palace itself was modelled after a famous garden in Suzhou, a garden city near modern-day Shanghai. The original walkway was burnt down by Allies during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. The reconstruction was carried out by Emperor Guangxu later.
There are four pavilions along the walkway, representing the four seasons of the year. They play an important role in the construction of the walkway which travels along the undulating terrace of the hillside. The pavilions were built on each of four promontories, thus helping add to the illusion of a single straight structure.
Utilising a typical Chinese gardening method, the walkway serves as a partition between the different landscapes offered by Kunming Lake on one side of it, and Longevity Hill on the other. In summer, the walkway provide a pleasant shade. Emperors and Empresses used to stroll along the walkway, enjoying the refreshing coolness and the beautiful scenery.
Day 4: Las Vegas Chinatown Plaza
Las Vegas, Nevada
The Journey To The West by Xuan-Chang Guo
fiberglass, fiberglass over metal base
10' x 12' x 10'
base: 15' x 12' x 10'
A sculpture depicting he Monkey King and his companions on their journey to escort the monk Xuanzang to the west to retrieve the Sutra, a holy book of Buddhist scriptures.