Hu Shan Lin Shen (護山林神, “Spirit Protecting Hills and Woods”) was a minor nature deity worshiped around Yongfu county (永福), Fujian province, China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The Yijian zhi (夷堅志, “Record of the Listener”, c. 1160 ) describes how a female rhesus macaque monkey was captured near the Nengren Temple (能仁寺). Her body was then covered in clay to make a Hu Shan Lin Shen statue, which the locals came to call Houwang (猴王, “Monkey King”). The animal’s vengeful spirit gained power from years of worship and began to inflict sickness and madness on the community, leading to throngs of devotees attempting to assuage its wrath day and night with blood sacrifices. Various witches and Nengren Temple monks even tried to expel her by force via ritual attacks with knives and banging gongs, respectively. Yet the plague continued. Finally, the religious master Zongyan (宗演) asked the spirit to leave because she had already punished her killers but the plague was now affecting innocent people, including children. He then soothed her by chanting the Da Bei Zhou (大悲咒, “Great Compassion Mantra”). That evening, Zongyan was visited by the spirit in the form of a monkey-footed woman with hands bound in chains at her waste. She held a baby monkey beneath a bloody left armpit and grasped a small (human?) girl in both hands. The monkey bowed to the religious master and asked him to remove the chains so that she could be reborn in heaven. He recited a gatha (religious verse) and she disappeared. The next day Zongyan realized the monkey’s wound was caused by the witches’ attacks. The plague stopped once the Hu Shan Lin Shen statue and those of its attendants (made from the bodies of birds) were destroyed.
Scholars do not believe that this “Monkey King” has any direct relationship to the worship of Qitian Dasheng, a.k.a. Sun Wukong the Monkey King, as his worship postdates the Tang dynasty by many hundreds of years. However, this shows a historical monkey cult existed in Fujian centuries prior to his adoration.
Further reading:
(English)
https://journeytothewestresearch.com/2018/06/05/archive-1-suen-wu-kung-hanumat-the-progress-of-a-scholarly-debate/
An English translation of the story appears on pp. 694-695.
(Chinese)
https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=437573&searchu=猴王
The original story from the Yijian zhi.
