03 Securing the Realm


high-definition creative commons posters depicting Securing the Realm from The Journey to the West, together with further information.

After training his monkey army with toy weapons, Monkey acquires real arms from a human city. He then visits the Dragon King, obtaining a magical wishing staff and golden armour. Next, after being dragged to the underworld in a dream, Monkey defiantly erases his and his subjects’ names from the Register of Death to secure true immortality. Consequently, the Jade Emperor summons him to Heaven to receive an official appointment.

This chapter highlights the irony of Monkey’s claim to Illumination. Though he boasts of being beyond birth and destruction and no longer compounded of the Five Elements, his reliance on violence, weapon-grabbing, and intimidation reveals he remains bound by earthly attachment and ego. Instead of seeking true spiritual transcendence, he uses cosmic magic to forcibly disrupt the Underworld’s natural balance of life and death.

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