Sun Wukong's Lifting Strength

[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan]

As a Hong Konger, I am very familiar with Sun Wukong, as we already read about him in kindergarten.

His lifting strength is "unknown". He did easily lifted the stick he uses, which is 13 500 jin, or 6750 kg.

Class 10

 

[PrettyFearMachine]

I think "At least '''Class 10'''" should be fine here.

 

[ShiroyashaGinSan]

I used to read Journey to the West and this is fine.

 

[InfiniteBlack123]

But isn't the Ryu Jingu Ban also the staff the held the celestia river under the sea, which is the milky way galaxy or the universe in chinese mythology.

When Wukong first picked it up, it was a Giant Pillar underneath the palace of Ao Kung, and it according to Ao Kung held all of heaven.

Wukong easily picked it up and changed it's shape to that of a needle and put it in his ear.


I have read a good portion of Journey to the West. The Universe has a lot of esoteric concepts like how characters are different worlds themselves in heaven.

And it crosses over between multiple pantheons Buddhist and Chinese and Hindu.


Accordingly Wukong was destined to used the Heavenly pillar, kinda like how Thor can lift Mionjnir, or Aurther can pull out Excalibur.


This is why his lifting strength may be unknown.

 

[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan]

He did claim the other weapons were "too light".

At least Class 5?

 

[Heatforce]

I thought he lifted something like a galaxy? Sorry don't know the full story. Off topic which movie addaption do you like more:

The Monkey King & The Monkey King 2

Journey to the west & journey to the west: the demons strike back

 

[InfiniteBlack123]

The cudgle is the Pillar that held the world in place. But Wukong could control in as he wills it.

Infact the name of the cudgle is the as 'you-will-it' staff. Its magical in nature.

 

[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan]

bump

 

[Crzer07]

if u seen Wu Kong, it got more insane feats. it would be like island class or something, theres a calc on that somewhere

 

[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan]

Dude...this is lifting strength.

 

[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan]

He did claim the other weapons were "too light".

At least Class 5?

At least Class 5, likely far higher

 

[Antvasima]

Shouldn't his lifting strength be far greater at the end of his story? If so, unknown statistics in this area seems better.

 

[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan]

I thought he lifted something like a galaxy? Sorry don't know the full story. Off topic which movie addaption do you like more:

The Monkey King & The Monkey King 2

Journey to the west & journey to the west: the demons strike back

Hmmn he lifted a galaxy?

 

[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan]

Bump

 

[Ghostexorcist]

Hi, I happened upon this thread by accident. I'm actually a scholar of Journey to the West. Wukong does not lift the weight of a galaxy every time he picks up his staff. I believe this idea is linked to a mistranslation in the W.J.F. Jenner edition. The far more accurate Anthony C. Yu translation (revised 2012 edition) reads: "That...was the measure with which the Great Yu [Yu the Great] fixed the depths of rivers and oceans when he conquered the [World] Flood" (Vol. 1, p. 135). It says nothing about the Milky Way Galaxy. The bodies of water he refers to are those on Earth and the ocean in which the column resides is that of the East. The Eastern Ocean is not the Milky Way.

Sun Wukong's greatest feat of strength that I know of happens in chapter 33 when he holds up the weight of two mountains! A demon disguises himself as an elderly Daoist to get closer to Tripitaka. The monk forces Monkey to carry the imposter on his back, and it is during this time that Sun tells the demon he can see through his disguise and plans to throw him off a cliff. In retaliation the demon summons mountains in an attempt to crush the immortal:

"Knowing how to summon mountains, he resorted to the magic of Moving Moutains and Pouring Oceans. On Pilgrim's back he made the magic sign with his fingers and recited a spell, sending the Sumeru Mountain into midair and causing it to descend directly on Pilgrim's [Monkey's] head. A little starteled, the Great Sage bent his head to one side and the mountain landed on his left shoulder. Laughing he said, 'My child, what sort of pressing body magic are you using to pin down old Monkey? This is all right, but a lopsided pole is rather difficult to carry.'

The demon said to himself, 'One mountain can't hold him down.' He recidted a spell once more and summoned the Emei Mountain into the air. Pilgrim again turned his head and the mountain landed on his right shoulder. Look at him! Carrying two mountains, he began to give chase to his master with the speed of a meteor! The site of him caused the old demon to perspire all over, muttering to himself, 'He truly knows how to pole mountains!'" (p. 108-109)

The demon eventually succeeds in pinning Monkey down with the weight of a third mountain. However, he survives and later escapes. I think it's awesome that Monkey can run super fast with the weight of two mountains ontop of him. If that isn't OP I don't know what is.

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you for the information. Would you be willing to change the Lifting Strength information in our Sun Wukong (Myth) page to "Class T", with a compressed explanation beside it within a parenthesis?

 

[Ghostexorcist]

This is my first time on the site and I don't know anything about power scaling. What does Class T mean? I imagine a regular user could provide a condensed explanation of that provided above.

 

[Antvasima]

Okay. No problem.

Is anybody else willing to change the lifting strength statistic based on the above explanation?

Also, see here for an explanation of our system:

https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/Lifting_Strength

 

[Ghostexorcist]

By the way, this episode takes place before Monkey achieves Buddhahood. Does this site make a distinction between these two states? Also, I think it should be pointed out that Sumeru Mountain is literally the universe in Hindo-Buddhist cosmology. And holy mountains like Emei are considered to be heavenly realms. The third mountain that actually pins him down is Kunlun, which is also a heavenly realm. So do you look at the mountains as earthly mountains or heavenly realms? I'm just interested in the scaling.

 

[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan]

We have 3 keys (different versions/states), yes.

 

[Ghostexorcist]

Awersome. Thank you both for the information. I won't be taking part in any discussions over what character is stronger than another, but members are free to ask me questions about Sun Wukong.

 

[Blahblah9755]

If the Sumeru mountain was considered to be the entire universe, would that mean Wukong has universal lifting strength in this, or was the universe considered smaller in the Hindu/Buddhist cosmology?

 

[Ghostexorcist]

The problem is that the novel is very inconsistent with cosmic geography, as well as Monkey's strength. The novel describes the earth being comprised of four continents: East Purvavideha, West Aparagodaniya, South Jambudvipa, and North Uttarakuru (2012 revised edition, Vol. 1, p. 100). These continents surround Sumeru Mountain in Hindo-Buddhist geography. The following image comes from the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (2013), p. xxix:

https://imageshack.com/a/img923/6149/arp5XJ.png

The same source describes Sumeru as: "The central axis of the universe in Buddhist cosmology; also known as Mount Meru. Mount Sumeru stands in the middle of the world as its axis and is eight leagues high."

However, having looked at the next chapter, Sumer Mountain is said to have a mountain god who freaks out when he sees he has inadvertently crushed an immortal known for beating the crap out of heavenly beings. So the book appears to treat it as an earthly mountain and not as the pillar of the cosmos.

Regarding Monkey's strength, one minute he can easily lift the weight of two mountains and the next he can't bash open the door to a mountain stronghold because it's "locked". Being the product of oral storytelling going back to at least the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Monkey is as strong as the plot requires him to be.

 

[Antvasima]

Okay. We usually tend to use the greatest feats to scale from in situations such as this though.

 

[Blahblah9755]

Okay, so in that case his lifting strength should likely be worded as: "At least Class T, possibly far higher (Capable of lifting multiple mountains that represent large portions of the world or universe in Hinduism and Buddhism, however they seem to be treated as regular mountains within the story.)"

Does this seem alright?

 

[Ghostexorcist]

Sure, but I would note the inconsistancy of the source material since it's based on centuries old oral tales

 

[Antvasima]

@Blahblah

That is probably fine, yes. Thank you for the help.

 

[Blahblah9755]

Would you mind unlocking the page so I can make the revision?

Sun Wukong (Myth)

 

[Antvasima]

Yes, of course. Tell me here when you are done.

 

[Blahblah9755]

Thank you. I have completed the edits.

 

[Antvasima]

No problem. Should we close this thread then?

 

[Blahblah9755]

Yes, I guess so.

 

[Antvasima]

Okay.