“Journey to the West,” published in the 16th century and considered one of the greatest Chinese novels of all time, tells the story of a monkey named Sun Wukong, better known as the Monkey King. Born from a stone, Sun Wukong acquires supernatural powers and rebels against the Celestial Court. After a lengthy imprisonment, he is freed and set to work by the Buddha, who orders him to escort the Chinese monk Tang Sanzang — sometimes called Tang Seng — to India to obtain Buddhist sutras. After completing 81 tribulations, they and their traveling companions obtain the scriptures, and Sun Wukong attains Buddhahood.

Set after the events of “Journey to the West,” “Black Myth: Wukong,” the hit game released last month by Chinese developer Game Science, tells the story of the “Destined One” (not to be confused with his simian predecessor, despite their striking resemblance). As the Destined One, players must collect six relics representing Sun Wukong’s “eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind,” scattered around the world after he was again punished for disobedience.

China’s first globally successful “AAA” game, “Black Myth,” has received high praise both domestically and abroad. However, the game’s take on “Journey to the West” irked some players, who feel that Game Science’s depiction of Sun Wukong subverts the image of this beloved character. To many Chinese, Sun Wukong is an immortal god-like figure; his experiences retrieving the sutras are nothing to be vulgarized.

Game Science’s choice to depict Sun Wukong’s relationship with the monk Tang Seng as a reluctant partnership undertaken only to free himself from divine punishment does seem to undermine the nobility of motives. More importantly, the Sun Wukong of the game is not the mature warrior who has grown out of his rebellious streak by the end of “Journey to the West,” but a juvenile monkey who still wants to rebel.

There’s just one issue: the “noble” Sun Wukong the game’s critics seek to defend has little textual basis. Bai Huiyuan, an academic at Beijing Normal University and the author of “Hero Declension,” which traces the history of the Sun Wukong myth, argues that the Monkey King is far more complex than some readers might care to admit.

Indeed, “Journey to the West” was a hybrid from the very outset. In the original novel by Wu Cheng’en, the figure of Tang Sanzang is clearly based on the monk Xuanzang and his historical journey west during the Tang dynasty (618–907). Sun Wukong’s origins are murkier, but may lie in the Taoist concept of “mind-monkey” as well as legends associated with the Tang dynasty ape-deity “Wuzhiqi.” Some scholars have also speculated that the monkey-god Hanuman in the Indian epic “Ramayana” could have been one of Wu’s inspirations. Regardless, the mythology of Sun Wukong and the story of the monk Tang Seng’s pilgrimage to the west first existed as two independent streams, which were not brought together until the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). In other words, the rebellious Sun Wukong who is punished for causing an uproar in heaven and the saint-like Sun Wukong who loyally escorts Tang Seng west to obtain the Buddhist scriptures were originally not one and the same.

This explains the contradictions in Sun Wukong’s image in the original “Journey to the West” novel — contradictions that never fully went away. In the years following the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, for instance, Sun Wukong’s rebellious side was emphasized as part of revolutionary ideology. The 1961 classic animated movie “Havoc in Heaven” focuses on Sun Wukong’s defiance of the establishment, and in literature and official narratives of the period, he is a symbol of liberty and a leader of class revolution. His “rebellion” was not misbehavior, but a calculated decision to pursue violent revolution in pursuit of freedom and equality. By contrast, religious elements of the story, such as Sun Wukong being pinned beneath Five Elements Mountain by the Buddha and joining the pilgrimage to obtain the sutras, were downplayed in public discourse.

After the reform and opening-up period in the late 1970s, China Central Television was inspired by film and TV adaptations of William Shakespeare’s plays to bring China’s four great classical novels to the small screen. The first of these was the 1986 TV adaptation of “Journey to the West” directed by Yang Jie. The television series, probably the definitive interpretation of the story, at least as far as modern audiences are concerned, does not explore in depth the contradictions inherent in Sun Wukong. Instead, it faithfully retells Wu’s novel and lets audiences decide. In the story of uproar in heaven, for instance, the Celestial Court suppresses the rebellion and upholds the established order, while in later parts of the story, the Court is depicted in a positive light as it assists Tang Seng and his disciples.

This ambiguous depiction of Sun Wukong remains the template for most Chinese to understand the original story. But later adaptations continued to toy with the formula. Around the year 2000, adaptations of the Sun Wukong story reached something of a fever peak, including Jin Hezai’s novel “The Legend of Wukong” and Stephen Chow’s series of movies “A Chinese Odyssey.” These adaptations also present the Celestial Court, Buddhist and human establishments as defenders of unjust, oppressive institutions and hierarchies, and celebrate individual freedom. However, unlike the emphasis on violent rebellion found in works from the revolutionary era, freedom in these stories is mainly expressed through an acceptance of earthly desires and a resistance to the religious boxing-up of emotions: Sun Wukong, Tang Seng, and other characters are given love interests, and good and evil are not opposites, but emotionally entangled with one another.

This more “humanized” portrayal of the original characters is also reflected in the fact that the creators devoted time to letting these characters frankly express their doubts about their faith and confusion about their fates, rather than present them as simply silent and loyal ascetics.

Having come of age around the year 2000, the creators of “Black Myth” would naturally have been influenced by these adaptations, and it shows in their approach to the game’s story. What they may not have foreseen is the way European and American players would embrace the character’s rebelliousness. At least for some players, “Black Myth” became a rallying cry, whether for anti-woke culture or against subscription-based “always online” games. On social media, the failed launch of Sony’s online shooter “Concord” offered a stark comparison. While “Concord” was an online game designed as pure entertainment, “Black Myth” is a single-player game and a work of singular vision. The politics of the launch only grew more muddled, as characters in “Concord” were criticized as manifestations of “woke culture,” while “Black Myth,” although hardly Western, was placed in the tradition of Western single-player games, helping it cash in on a wave of nostalgia. Even Elon Musk, a self-anointed icon of alt-right politics and the boss of SpaceX and Tesla, got in on the act, posting a face-swapped version of the “Black Myth” poster on X.

In the original “Journey to the West,” Sun Wukong has the power to shapeshift into almost any form. From leftist revolutionary to anti-woke warrior, that’s as true today as it was 800 years ago.

Translator: David Ball.

(Header image: Visuals from Game Science, Cabinet Library/National Archives of Japan, and VCG, edited by Sixth Tone)