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The Lord of the Heavens

The Stone ape has been causing trouble throughout the earth. He never had any ill intent but as one can imagine an ape with magic powers who is completely made of stone might cause a few issues. Some of the gods in heaven have received complaints and they had had enough. They journeyed up to the heavens to make a complaint to the Lord of the Heavens.

The Lord of the Heavens heard these complaints and began to deliberate what the best course of action to take is. He decided that it would be best to send a God down to earth and take the Stone Ape as a prisoner back to heaven. The Evening Star god came forth and said this ape is a magic and immortal ape, maybe instead of a prisoner we could take him willingly and give him a job here.

So as it was told, the Evening Star descended upon earth to find and take the Stone Ape back to heaven. She found him and explained that the Lord wanted the Evening Star to punish the ape but instead, she suggested that she ask you nicely to come with. The ape replied with "I thought it was about time for me to go, I'm ready." So they both jumped on a cloud and ascended into heaven.

Once they got there everyone was very wary about the ape, the gatekeeper almost didn't let him in! They came to the Lord of Heaven's chamber. The ape acted as usual and all of the gods were surprised and angry that the ape didn't bow. The Lord of the Heavens said "He is not from here, he does not know our rules." So his manners were dismissed.

For the rest of his days, the Stone Ape was assigned to clean the heavenly stalls and he did so with great honor and persistence. He took pride in his job and was happy to do it.

Bibliography: This story is part of The Monkey King unit. Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

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