About the novel
A myth told from the filing room.
Wei Mingzhen, Celestial Scribe Sixth Class, has spent four hundred years producing documents that correspond exactly to the events they describe. He is ordered to write the Comprehensive Account of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven Incident and file it within forty days.
The soldiers describe weather that looked at them. A sergeant three hundred yards away says the light became interested. A records officer timed the pills being eaten. The Chancellor who designed the official version tells the truth at every point and still misses the thing that matters. And the being sealed under Five Elements Mountain answers through stone, conversationally, as if being interviewed by a scribe is one of the more interesting things to happen in centuries.
The Havoc in Heaven has been shown as spectacle many times. This novel shows the paperwork that came after, and the scribe who found the seam where the record and the truth come apart.
Read the narration, picture by picture13 lines
0:01 Four hundred years ago, a stone on Flower-Fruit Mountain cracked open, and something small stepped out.
0:08 The Court made him Great Sage Equal to Heaven, then left him off the guest list for the Peach Festival.
0:15 Eleven years ago, he went anyway. He ate the peaches, emptied the elixirs, and passed through Heaven’s armies as if they were weather.
0:25 The Buddha sealed him under Five Elements Mountain, for five hundred years.
0:31 Now the Court wants the final word: a Comprehensive Account, in forty days.
0:37 The commission goes to Wei Mingzhen, Celestial Scribe Sixth Class. Four hundred years in the Archive. Never an incorrect document.
0:47 But no two witnesses saw the same event. Soldiers say the weather looked at them.
0:53 A guard says the light grew interested. A records officer timed him eating five hundred and twenty-two pills of immortality, in perfect order.
1:03 Then a letter comes from the Bodhisattva Guanyin. One word. Come.
1:10 Beyond the edge of Heaven’s map, Wei learns the difference between ranking a being and recognizing one.
1:17 And at the mountain, through the stone of the seal, a voice answers him.
1:22 The Court wants one account. The evidence gives him two.
1:28 Sun Wukong. The Comprehensive Account. Part One is free to read.
Before you read
Walk through the investigation.
- Part One · The System and the StoneThe archiveVisited
- Part Two · The Havoc in HeavenThe testimonyVisited
- Part Three · The MountainThe journeyVisited
- Part Four · The Pilgrimage as ProcessThe western roadVisited
- Part Five · The Two DocumentsThe mountainVisited
- Part Five · The Two DocumentsThe filingVisited
