Illustration:
ill. 6.36 (set: 6.34)
Author:
Zhao Hongben (1915-2000) 赵宏本
Date:
1972
Genre:
comic, comic book, comic strip
Material:
scan, paper, black-and-white; original source: woodblock print
Source:
SWKSDBGJ 1972: Sun Wukong san da baigujing孙悟空三打白骨精 (Sun Wukong thrice defeats the white-boned demon). Shanghai: Shanghai renmin, 1973:117.
Keywords:
hero, heroism, Sun Wukong, Journey to the West, Cultural Revolution, comic

Zhao Hongben: Sun Wukong thrice defeats the white-boned Demon 1972 (Zhao Hongben: Sun Wukong san da baigujing 赵宏本: 孙悟空三打白骨精)

The fact that he, Sun Wukong, is the only one who understands who is demon and who is human is mentioned in the text. It is made much more evident pictorially than before, by showing him in central advisory functions in additional panels as here. Monkey’s exclusive claim to enlightenment is specifically mentioned in the preface to the 1972 edition, which emphasizes that while the monk is ultimately “educated by reality” Monkey shows wisdom, bravery, resolution and a priori knowledge. Unlike everyone else, he knows that “when you see a demon, you must wipe it out.” The 1972 version of the comic teaches that only complete reliance and blind belief in Sun Wukong (that is, Mao Zedong) enables one to discover the demons; the more appealing a proposal or theory may seem, the greater the probability that it is nothing but a demonic device used by “revisionists” to subvert the Maoist line (see Wagner 1990, 195–96).