‘Sun Wukong’ Monkey King Inkwell

Believed to be the sitting ‘Sun Wukong’ Monkey King. Wearing an open sleave robe with some filigree on the sleeves and some honeycomb print on the side and back of the robe.

There is no maker’s mark, however, when you flip over the figurine, you are presented with an anatomically correct sitting monkey. Nice patina and age to this item.

Sun Wukong also known as the Monkey King (and the trickster god), is a literary and religious figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel ‘Journey to the West’. In the novel, Sun Wukong is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices. After rebelling against heaven, he is imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha. Five hundred years later, he accompanies the monk Tang Sanzang riding on the White Dragon Horse and two other disciples, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing, on a journey to obtain Buddhist sutras, known as the West or Western Paradise, where Buddha and his followers dwell.