Sep 15, 2021
Real Religious Generation Names
Sun Wukong's master Subhuti has 12 generation names (zibei, 字輩) used to name the students in his religious lineage. Monkey is part of the 10th generation:
1) Guang 廣 2) Da 大 3) Zhi 智 4) Hui 慧 5) Zhen 真 6) Ru 如 7) Xing 性 8) Hai 海 9) Ying 穎 10) Wu 悟 -> Wukong (悟空) 11) Yuan 圓 12) Jue 覺.
This means that all of Subhuti’s students taken in around the same time would all have Wu (悟) in their name. What’s interesting is that at least three of these religious names were historically used in Daoism. I’m sure the author-compiler of the standard Ming edition of Journey to the West had access to a list of real generation names.