Woman claims to be a descendant of the legendary Monkey King
She has "monkey fur" and an "ancestral stone" that supposedly prove her lineage
PUBLISHED : Monday, 13 January, 2014, 6:26pm
UPDATED : Monday, 13 January, 2014, 6:33pm
Jeremy Blum [email protected]
The Weibo user known as "Mama's Concubine" (left) and an illustration of Sun Wukong (right). Photo: SCMP Pictures
A woman from Jiangsu province has claimed to be a descendant of Sun Wukong, the famous Monkey King from Journey to the West, a classic tale of Chinese literature.
The woman, who goes by the nickname “Mama’s Concubine” on her Sina Weibo microblog, is a native of Lianyunggang, a city in northern Jiangsu province commonly regarded in legends as the birthplace of the Monkey King.
“Mama’s Concubine” wrote a series of online posts earlier this month describing how her parents had given her “monkey fur” and an “ancestral stone” – two heirlooms that had been passed down from her ancestors, who had lived in Lianyunggang for generations.
An image of the so-called "monkey fur" and "ancestral stone." Photo: Screenshot via Sina Weibo
“I’m shocked,” the woman wrote on January 4. “Mother just told me that she is an offspring of the Monkey King, which makes me a descendant of him as well! Can this be true?”
In a series of follow-up posts, the woman wrote that she slowly began to believe her mother’s claims and decided to travel to the School of Life Sciences in Shanghai’s Fudan University to have the “monkey fur” and “ancestral stone” examined.
After studying the two heirlooms, researchers at Fudan University could not find anything directly linking them to Sun Wukong, and examination of the “monkey fur” could not confirm that it had even come from an actual monkey. According to internet news portal Guangming Wang, neither the fur nor the ancestral stone contained DNA that could be used for testing.
Despite these setbacks, the latest Weibo posts of “Mama’s Concubine” show that she is undeterred in her mission to discover the truth behind her ancestry, and has returned home to ask her elders more about their supposed link with the Monkey King.
One of the many English translations of 'Journey to the West.' Photo: SCMP Pictures
“My elders gave me this stone and this monkey fur,” she wrote. “I might have no way to prove [my ancestry] but nobody can stop my determination… I believe in science, but I also believe in my family’s words. As a descendant of the Monkey King, I feel that my own little universe has become so much stronger now!”
These latest Weibo posts have attracted thousands of comments from curious netizens. Many have called the entire saga “crazy” and an elaborate means of becoming famous by “cooking up a story tied to an ancient mythical novel.”
“Maybe some people think I am making up these claims to be famous,” the woman responded in one of her latest posts. “But all I can say is that if you encountered a bizarre mystery like this, you would want to investigate it too.”
Sun Wukong is one of the foremost figures of Chinese mythology and a well-known character in modern pop culture. In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong serves as a guardian to the monk Xuanzang, who is on a quest to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India.
According to legend, the Monkey King is born from a magical stone and makes his home behind a waterfall near Lianyunggang’s Huaguoshan Mountain. The area is a popular local tourist attraction today.
