I am known in one small corner of the internet for being knowledgeable on the characters and events of the Chinese classic Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592, “JTTW” hereafter). As such, I receive a lot of questions across social media, but the single most frequent query put to me is: “How strong is Sun Wukong compared to [insert name of figure from myth or modern franchise]?” Comparing the power of mythic or fictional characters is a highly popular subject called “powerscaling” (a.k.a. “power scaling” and “power-scaling”).

This usually involves taking “scans,” or examples of feats from the respective literature, and using complicated physics to calculate not only a character’s power (e.g. strength and speed) but also their cosmic rank (e.g. any level inside or outside of a universe or multiverse). The higher up the chain a character sits, the more physical power they have, such as the ability to manipulate or destroy things broadly ranging from a car, a building, a city, a mountain, or a whole planet to a star/solar system, a galaxy/galaxy cluster, or even a universe/multiverse and beyond; and higher ranks can transcend “physicality,” with characters having such command over time and space that they can erase a given enemy or universe (and everything in between) from existence.

Having written the above, I dislike and do not participate in powerscaling for a number of reasons. But instead of typing the same thing over and over again, I’ve decided to create a standard response that I can just link to whenever I’m asked the aforementioned question.

My Response

No matter how precisely someone quotes from canon or calculates equations, anything written is going to be incorrect for one reason: a divine figure or philosophical concept removed from its original religio-mythological context and forced through the screen of a modern scientific worldview is no longer that thing. It’s an artificial construct that defies accurate measurement.

For example, among his many powers and skills, Sun Wukong is famous for his ability to travel 108,000 li (33,554 mi / 54,000 km) in a single leap of his somersault cloud. Powerscalers will naturally want to quantify this by somehow calculating a real world speed, but they are forgetting—or are not aware of—two key details: 1) The feat is actually an allegory for instant Buddhist enlightenment (see section III here); and 2) JTTW doesn’t happen in our own universe; it happens in a realm based on the Buddhist disc world system (see here). How then are any calculations going to be correct if allegorical feats happening in a specific religious cosmos are forced to fit the structure and scientific laws of our universe?

I’m ok with quantifying feats for small scale, personal use, like for figuring out the dynamics of a fanfiction. But I draw the line when entire websites and/or online communities are dedicated to pitting religious figures against one another or (worse) against fictional characters to see who is the strongest, fastest, deadliest, etc. And then wiki articles are written and presented to the world like the contents are gospel. The very idea of pitting pantheon against pantheon or a pantheon against a modern franchise is offensive, even to a non-religious person like myself.

Also, even if we disregard the religio-mythological nature of Sun Wukong, how is it fair to pit him against modern fictional characters that have benefited from building upon thousands of years of world mythology, as well as have enjoyed decades of iterations? There is only one Monkey King (from the standard modern version of JTTW), while Superman, for instance, has benefited from nearly 90 years of innovation and power increases.

Powerscalers need to remember that the 1592 edition of JTTW was published almost 435 years ago, with a story cycle going back further to roughly the 11th-century. It wasn’t written like modern Shonen comics or video games, where franchises try to one up the other by creating characters that are more and more powerful. The novel is basically a cultural encyclopedia of Chinese history, religion, myth, and folklore, with some fanfiction thrown in. And it’s important to recognize that the story itself serves as an allegory for the journey towards Buddhist enlightenment. Therefore, any of the feats performed by the Monkey King, especially during the pilgrimage, should be read as a service furthering that goal, not as an action requiring measurement.