Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Sun Wukong (Monkey King) trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is the star of the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West and one of the most-adapted characters in the world. This quiz covers his whole story: birth from a stone on Flower Fruit Mountain, the Taoist training that gave him immortality and 72 transformations, the size-changing staff he stole from a Dragon King, the drunken Havoc in Heaven, the bet with the Buddha that ended with 500 years under a mountain, and the pilgrimage west with Tang Sanzang, Pigsy and Sandy. The easy questions are the ones any fan of the legend can answer. The harder ones dig into the novel's real history: the Song-dynasty prompt-book where the Monkey Pilgrim first appears, the Yuan play that first used the name Sun Wukong, the scholars who argued about Hanuman, and the 1592 Nanjing edition. There is also a spread of adaptation questions, from Arthur Waley's Monkey and the 1961 animated Havoc in Heaven to the Japanese TV series Monkey, Dragon Ball's Son Goku and the 2024 hit game Black Myth: Wukong. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel, its characters and its adaptations, and each question carries a citation you can follow. If you enjoy this one, try our Chinese Mythology and Greek Mythology quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01According to Journey to the West, what is the Monkey King born from?
A magical stone
The stone develops a womb that breaks open to reveal a stone egg, and the wind turns the egg into a monkey.
Q 02How far can Sun Wukong travel in a single somersault?
108,000 li
That is roughly 54,000 km, and the trick needs a hand sign, a spell, a fist clench and a body shake.
Q 03How many Earthly Transformations does Sun Wukong master?
72
He was offered a choice between 36 heavenly changes and 72 earthly ones and picked the larger set.
Q 04Where does the Monkey King keep his staff when he is not using it?
In his ear
He shrinks the weapon to the size of a needle first; only he is strong enough to wield it at full size.
Q 05How much does the Ruyi Jingu Bang weigh in the novel?
13,500 jin
That is about 7,960 kilograms, and the staff can change size, extend, fly and attack on command.
Q 06Which Dragon King originally owned the staff Sun Wukong takes as his weapon?
Ao Guang
The other Dragon Kings chip in a golden chain-mail shirt, a phoenix-feather cap and cloud-walking boots.
Q 07According to the novel, who originally used the iron pillar that became Wukong's staff, and for what?
Yu the Great, to measure the flood
The dragon queen suggests giving away the pillar because it had started glowing days before Monkey arrived.
Q 08How did translator Anthony C. Yu render the name of Wukong's staff, Ruyi Jingu Bang?
The Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod
W. J. F. Jenner went with "As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel" instead.
Q 09What lowly job is the Monkey King given when Heaven first invites him in?
Keeper of the heavenly horses
Once he learns it is the lowest position in Heaven he frees the horses and storms home.
Q 10Why were monkeys traditionally kept in stables, the pun behind Wukong's title Bimawen?
To keep the horses from illness
His enemies keep using the title to mock him for the rest of the book.
Q 11What does Wukong's self-proclaimed title Qitian Dasheng mean?
Great Sage, Heaven's Equal
Heaven grudgingly recognises the title and then attaches a real job to it: guarding the peach garden.
Q 12The peaches Wukong eats as garden guardian include a variety that blooms only every how many years?
9,000
Eating that variety makes one "eternal as heaven and earth, as long-lived as the sun and moon".
Q 13Which deity, the Jade Emperor's nephew, fights Wukong to a standstill during the Havoc in Heaven?
Erlang Shen
The two keep shape-shifting into stronger forms until a third party intervenes from behind.
Q 21What happens when Tang Sanzang chants a certain sutra at the magic band on Wukong's head?
It tightens and causes a headache
Once he is tricked into putting the band on, it can never be removed.
Q 22How many tribulations do the pilgrims face before completing their mission?
Eighty-one
Demons chase Tang Sanzang because eating his flesh is said to grant immortality.
Q 23What title does the Monkey King receive when he attains Buddhahood at the end of the novel?
Victorious Fighting Buddha
Q 14Whose thrown Diamond Jade ring finally knocks Wukong senseless so he can be bound?
Laozi's
He had just single-handedly beaten 100,000 celestial warriors, all 28 constellations and the Four Heavenly Kings.
Q 15How many days is Wukong locked in the eight-trigram crucible to be distilled into elixir?
49
He survives by hiding in the corner marked by the wind trigram, where there is less fire.
Q 16What new power does the furnace's samadhi fire give the Monkey King?
Fiery eyes that see evil
His huoyan-jinjing let him see 1,000 li by day and see through magical disguises.
Q 17What does Wukong do at the five "pillars" he finds at what he thinks is the edge of the universe?
Signs and urinates on the middle one
The pillars are the Buddha's fingers, and the hand becomes a mountain that pins him to earth.
Q 18For how long is the Monkey King imprisoned under the mountain?
500 years
Only his head and hands protrude from the base of the mountain.
Q 19What mantra is written on the paper talisman that seals Wukong under the mountain?
Om Mani Padme Hum
The Buddha writes it in gold letters before the monkey can lift the mountain off.
Q 20What is Wukong given to eat when hungry during his imprisonment?
Iron pellets
When thirsty he gets molten copper, which is not much better.
The name still comes up in traditional Chinese Buddhist evening services during the eighty-eight Buddhas repentance.
Q 24What does the given name Wukong mean?
Awakened to emptiness
His first master, Patriarch Bodhi, chose the surname Sun as a pun on husun, a word for monkey.
Q 25The name Sun Wukong first appeared in a play by which writer?
Yang Jingxian
In that play it is Guanyin who names him, in the same scene where a golden band is placed on his head.
Q 26In his earliest Song-dynasty prototype, the Monkey Pilgrim first approaches Xuanzang disguised as what?
A white-robed scholar
In that 17-chapter text his weapon is a golden-ringed monk's staff rather than the famous rod.
Q 27Which Hindu deity did scholar Hu Shih suggest may have influenced Wu Cheng'en's Monkey King?
Hanuman
Lu Xun and most scholars countered that the Ramayana was not available in Chinese until the 20th century.
Q 28Which 9th-century Chinese deity did Lu Xun propose as the Monkey King's inspiration?
Wuzhiqi
Older Yuan-dynasty stories even make that deity a sibling of Sun Wukong.
Q 29How many hairs can the Monkey King transform into clones and objects with the command "Change!"?
84,000
He boasts that a single hair can be multiplied into millions and even billions of copies.
Q 30The three life-saving hairs given to Wukong for his duties as guardian were made from what?
Willow branch leaves
They are distinct from his own magic hairs and reserved for dire emergencies.