We previously roughly calculated Tang Monk’s age in the novel Journey to the West. Today, let’s examine how old Sun Wukong was. Unlike Tang Monk, Wukong was not an ordinary mortal; he was both a demon and an immortal, so his lifespan was naturally much longer than a human’s. Now, let’s attempt to calculate the Monkey King’s age, though it won’t be an exact figure.
Sun Wukong’s age is actually quite straightforward to calculate. He was imprisoned under the Five Elements Mountain around the time of Wang Mang’s usurpation of the Han Dynasty, approximately 8 AD. The pilgrimage began in the 13th year of the Zhenguan era, which is 639 AD.
Therefore, Wukong was actually imprisoned for about 630 years, not 500.
Before his imprisonment under the mountain, he was trapped in Laozi’s furnace for 49 days. Prior to that, he spent about half a year in the Heavenly Court as the “Great Sage Equaling Heaven.” Further back, he served as the Bimawen (Stable Keeper) for about half a month.
According to the conversion rule that “one day in heaven equals one year on earth,” his total time spent in heaven amounts to roughly 245 days, or at most 250 days.
Before ascending to heaven, it was recorded that his destined lifespan was 342 years in the Life-Death Book.
Therefore, based on these time periods, at the start of the pilgrimage, he was approximately 1,222 years old(342+250+630).
The pilgrimage itself took 14 years, so upon its successful completion, he was around 1,236 years old.
Leave a Reply