Secret Arts
The Secret Arts & Teachings
The complete catalogue of powers — every spell, every technique, every secret that Patriarch Subodhi passed to the Monkey King in the darkness of the Three Stars Cave.
Secret Arts
The complete catalogue of powers — every spell, every technique, every secret that Patriarch Subodhi passed to the Monkey King in the darkness of the Three Stars Cave.
Patriarch Subodhi taught Sun Wukong five core arts: (1) The 72 Earthly Transformations (地煞七十二变), (2) The Cloud Somersault (筋斗云) covering 108,000 li, (3) The Grand Heavenly Immortal Art (大品天仙诀) for true immortality, (4) The Method of Avoiding the Three Disasters — techniques to survive heaven's tribulations, and (5) the oral breathing secrets of immortality. Each was taught in a specific sequence over seven years, building Wukong from a mortal monkey into the most powerful being in the cosmos.
When Sun Wukong first arrives at the Cave of the Slanted Moon and Three Stars, he expects to learn magic immediately. He has crossed two oceans. He has spent nearly a decade searching. Every cell in his monkey body is eager for power. But Patriarch Subodhi does not teach him a single spell. Instead, the Patriarch assigns him chores. For seven years, Wukong sweeps the cave floor, carries water from the mountain stream, gathers firewood, and trims the meditation cushions. He does this without complaint — and this is the first test.
The text is explicit: "The Patriarch lectured daily on the Great Way, and Wukong listened in perfect stillness. He did not argue. He did not ask questions. He simply absorbed." This period of silence and service is one of the most overlooked elements of Sun Wukong's training. In the Taoist tradition, a master does not transmit esoteric teachings to a disciple who has not proven their capacity for patience. Power without patience is destruction. The 72 Transformations in the hands of an impatient student would be a catastrophe — as later events in Journey to the West would prove. Patriarch Subodhi was not delaying Wukong's education; he was preparing the vessel to receive what would be poured into it.
The seven-year waiting period also carries symbolic weight. In alchemical Taoism, seven is the number of completion — the seven apertures of the head, the seven stars of the Northern Dipper, the seven cycles of transformation. Wukong's seven years of service mirror internal alchemical processes: the refining of lead into gold, the transmutation of coarse energy into subtle spirit. When the Patriarch finally asks Wukong what he wishes to learn, the Monkey King responds simply: "I want to learn anything that leads to immortality." The answer is perfect. It shows that Wukong has understood the essential point — not fame, not power, not victory over enemies, but transcendence. Years later, Tang Sanzang will marvel at this same single-minded determination as Wukong protects him on the pilgrimage westward. The master begins to teach.
Patriarch Subodhi offers Sun Wukong a choice. The first path is the 36 Heavenly Transformations (天罡三十六变) — fewer in number but each transformation is vast and primordial, allowing the practitioner to assume the form of celestial forces. The second path is the 72 Earthly Transformations (地煞七十二变) — more numerous, more flexible, each transformation smaller in scope but vastly greater in versatility. Wukong, characteristically, asks: "Which one leads to immortality faster?" The Patriarch laughs and says: "All paths lead to immortality if you walk them to the end." Wukong chooses the 72, reasoning that more must be better. It is a very monkey decision.
The 72 Earthly Transformations, formally called 地煞七十二变 (Dìshà Qīshí'èr Biàn), operate by manipulating the body's qi (vital energy) to mimic the form of any living creature, object, or natural phenomenon. A transformed being is not merely disguised — they become the thing they have transformed into at the cellular level. Their bones reshape, their organs reconfigure, their energy signature matches the target perfectly. Wukong's mastery of this art becomes so profound that he can transform individual hairs from his body — plucking one, breathing on it, and creating an entire clone army with independent wills and abilities. He uses this technique during the Havoc in Heaven to create an army of identical monkey soldiers that confounds the celestial army.
The 72 Transformations prove essential in nearly every major battle Sun Wukong ever fights. When he faces Erlang Shen, the two engage in a legendary transformation duel — each matching the other's shapes shift for shift. Wukong becomes a sparrow; Erlang becomes a hawk. Wukong becomes a fish; Erlang becomes an otter. Wukong becomes a snake; Erlang becomes a crane. The duel showcases the full scope of the 72 Transformations and establishes Erlang Shen as one of the few beings who can match the Monkey King blow for blow. Without Patriarch Subodhi's teaching, the duel — and every battle that follows — would have ended before it began.
Next, Patriarch Subodhi teaches Wukong the 筋斗云 (Jīndǒu Yún), the Cloud Somersault. This technique allows the practitioner to flip through the air, and with each somersault, they travel exactly 108,000 li — approximately 54,000 kilometers, more than the circumference of the Earth. The cloud itself is not a physical object but a manifestation of the practitioner's will, summoned and shaped by thought alone. Wukong does not need to run, fly, or flap his arms. He simply visualizes his destination, performs a somersault, and arrives.
The number 108,000 is no accident. In Buddhist cosmology, 108 represents the number of earthly defilements (kleshas) that bind beings to the cycle of suffering. The 108 beads of a Buddhist mala. The 108 prostrations of repentance. The 108,000 li of the Cloud Somersault carries the symbolic meaning: the practitioner transcends all defilements in a single bound. The distance also mirrors the total length of the pilgrimage journey from the Tang capital to the Buddha's temple in the West — a subtle hint that the journey is identical to the transcendence it seeks. Every time Wukong somersaults, he reenacts the entire pilgrimage in microcosm.
The Cloud Somersault becomes Wukong's signature mobility technique and proves indispensable during the Havoc in Heaven. No celestial soldier can catch him. No formation can contain him. He somersaults out of the Peach Garden, out of Laozi's alchemical furnace, out of the heavenly prison itself. When Taishang Laojun throws him into the Eight Trigrams Furnace, Wukong survives not only because of his immortality arts but because his grounding in Patriarch Subodhi's teachings is so complete that even the furnace cannot shake his essence. Later, during the pilgrimage, the Cloud Somersault allows Wukong to scout ahead, retrieve allies, and deliver urgent messages to Guanyin and the Buddha. Without it, the pilgrimage would have taken a thousand years.
The 72 Transformations and the Cloud Somersault are impressive, but they are secondary techniques. The core teaching of Patriarch Subodhi — the true foundation of Sun Wukong's power — is the 大品天仙诀 (Dà Pǐn Tiān Xiān Jué), the Great-Grade Celestial Immortal Art. This is not a skill or a spell; it is a complete system of internal alchemy (内丹, nèidān) designed to transform the practitioner from a mortal being into a fully realized celestial immortal. Through a combination of controlled breathing, concentration exercises, and the circulation of qi through the microcosmic orbit, the practitioner gradually refines their physical body into pure spirit.
The process works in stages. First, the practitioner must open the energy channels of the body — the Governing Vessel and the Conception Vessel that run along the spine and the front of the torso. Then they must gather the primordial qi from the lower elixir field (dantian) and circulate it upward through the spinal column to the crown of the head, where it is refined in the upper elixir field. The refined spirit then descends through the front channel, completing the cycle. Each circulation purifies a layer of mortal karma, replacing coarse physical energy with increasingly subtle spiritual radiance. After enough cycles, the practitioner's spirit becomes so refined that it can exist independently of the physical body — true immortality.
Sun Wukong masters the Grand Heavenly Immortal Art in just three years — an astonishing speed that stuns even the Patriarch. When the judges of the underworld come to claim Wukong's soul after his death at age 342, they find nothing to claim. Wukong's soul has already been refined beyond the reach of the underworld's jurisdiction. His name is still in the Book of Life and Death, but his spirit no longer matches the pattern. He tears the page out, but the act is almost redundant — the underworld had already lost its power over him the moment Patriarch Subodhi's teaching was complete. This is why Wukong's immortality is different from the borrowed immortality of the heavenly peaches or Laozi's elixirs: it is authentic, earned through spiritual discipline rather than consumption of celestial substances.
Immortality is not without cost. Patriarch Subodhi warns Wukong that the universe does not permit beings to transcend its laws without consequence. Every 500 years, a celestial disaster descends upon immortals who have not achieved the highest level of transcendence. There are three such disasters, and each is more terrible than the last. The first is the Thunder Disaster — a bolt of heavenly lightning that strikes the immortal, not from the sky above but from within the earth beneath their feet. The second is the Yin Fire Disaster — a fire that burns not from wood or coal but from within the immortal's own body, ignited by accumulated karmic residues. The third is the Wind Disaster — a gale that enters through the crown of the head and scatters the immortal's consciousness across the cosmos like dust.
When Wukong learns of these three disasters, he is terrified. He begs Patriarch Subodhi to teach him the method of avoidance. The Patriarch agrees, but on one condition: Wukong must receive the teaching in complete secrecy. In a private midnight session — the cave dimly lit by a single oil lamp, the other disciples asleep — the Patriarch leans close to Wukong and whispers the oral formulas. The Method of Avoiding the Three Disasters consists of a series of esoteric hand seals, breathing patterns, and internal visualizations that render the practitioner invisible to the heavenly tribulation mechanism. It is the most closely guarded teaching in the Taoist canon, traditionally transmitted only from master to disciple in person, never written down.
The oral transmission of this teaching is significant because it mirrors the relationship between Patriarch Subodhi and the larger narrative of Journey to the West. The Patriarch gives Wukong exactly the tool he needs, but he cannot guarantee that Wukong will use it wisely. In fact, the Patriarch predicts that Wukong will cause unimaginable trouble. But he teaches him anyway. This paradox — teaching a dangerous student the most dangerous arts — is the central tension of the master-disciple relationship in Taoism. The master cannot control the disciple. The teaching, once given, is irrevocable. Patriarch Subodhi understands this perfectly, and his willingness to teach despite his foresight is perhaps the most profound statement about the nature of spiritual transmission in the entire novel. He gives Wukong everything, knowing exactly what will happen next.
Dive Deeper