Wu Kong, The Monkey King(2) Poem by Perdita Young (Hanna Wang)

Part IBirth and Early Life（B）
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There in Star Cave, Wu-Kong was taught much,
Including human manners and speech.
In all subjects he eventually excelled,
And became much favored by his Master;
To him the magic arts secretly passed,
Magic arts sheer unavailable to any peer.
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The arts include a set of 72 skills, it was said,
With which he managed shape-shifts instead.
Cloud-traveling a fantastic dream that came true,
Hills and vales covered in a single somersault!
The great speed is said to be 108,000 Chinese li,
About 54,000 km in a single magic flip, I bet.
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Cloning of self and other beings, a ready trick,
Oft-practiced experiment, a piece of cake.
With his big source of 84,000 body hairs,
Any time, and at will, transforming things
Into varied shapes and forms, as one imagines.
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April 21,2009.(To be continued.)
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Sun Wukong(also known as the Monkey King) is a figure who features in a body of legends, which can be traced back to the period of the Songdynasty.He appears as a main character in the 16th century Chinese classical novel Journey to the West (西游记) .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 famous monk Tang Sanzang on a journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from "the West".