Reading Notes: Laotze, Part A

• The Great Saint = Monkey King
• Heard this story before...so many names to keep up with
• Maybe he will be a different King; King on Earth or a leader in space! 
• One afternoon, turned himself into peach-worm to take a nap
• That's different...maybe I'll keep this in the story
• Or if it is different, he will just be napping
• 7 Fairies interrupted his wake because of Queen-Mother inviting people to feast
• She can actually be his mother or even his wife/ex-wife
• The Fairies will be less in # and more so random people that he hears walking by
• All Gods & Goddesses of Earth & Under were invited, but not him
• I'll keep this as his curiosity will unfold; instead of Gods/Goddesses, maybe leaders of council
• He casts the fairies to stay & then takes his cloud to fly to Queen-Mothers palace
• her palace will be a chamber; he won't fly but he will ride a hover-board
• Runs into Bare-Foot God on the way there - peach banquet
• Runs into a fellow council mate
• He lies to the Bare-Foot God that by the Lord of Heavens all Gods/Goddesses go to Hall of Purity to practice rites.
• Rather than she being the head of council, someone else is & he still lies about something else happening
• He turned himself into Bare-Foot God to enter the palace; He drugged cup-bearers with pulling his hair & turning it into sleep worms, so he can drink all the wine & feast as much as he wants
• Each of them still with magical powers; he can still change into people
• Drunk, he wanted to go home to nap; stumbled upon Laotze's home but Laotze is in God of Light's home, speaking to servants
• He will get drunk and possibly cause a disruption
• The Great Saint enters the empty place & goes in the room where Laotze's brewing the Elixir of Life; finds 5 gourds w/pills of life already rolled; pours out content & takes them in because he had been looking for them forever so it is by fate to find them.
• if he doesn't cause disruption, he will find this place and steal some type of potion, not an elixir of life but something that can have side effects
• He realized he had done wrong, so he decided to take himself back to Earth to be as an Ape King.  He passed all as invisible.
• He won't get away with it though this story shows that he did
• He told all of his stories and even of the peach-nectar/wine
• The story will go around as rumored by others; maybe a witness who wants to learn from him
• The apes wanted eternal life, so he went back for them & stole 4 more barrels.  He brought them back & they lived well, enjoying the nectar together
• the young-in that wants to learn from, he denies; so the young-in will rat him out and he will be sent to prison or worse, exile out of the ship?

(Statue of Laozi/Laotze at Tai Lake. Wikipedia Commons.)

This can be relatable to 'The 100' or another show.  Exiled in a sense that he will die in space or sent to Earth where he knows nothing of.  It will be a mystery....

Bibliography:  The Ape Sun Wu Kung in The Chinese Fairy Book: Laotze by R. Wilhelm.