The white monkey

Informant: my mother

Original Script: After the heaven was created, a book recorded the heaven’s secret was made. To prohibit human from discovering the secret of the heaven, a group of white monkeys was sent to guard the book. However, one of the monkeys was very curious so he looked at the book when there was no one around and learned some secrets of the heaven. As punishment, the monkey had to guard the book forever by himself, knowing the secrets but never able to tell anyone. The other white monkeys were set free and went down to the man’s world to discover knowledge from other sources.

Thoughts on this piece: Monkey plays a significant role in Chinese culture. The character of monkey is always curious and disobedient to the rules. One of the famous examples is the Monkey King, who rebelled against the heaven and then was imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha.