The Monkey Master Fable Analysis

The ‘Monkey Master Fable’ follows that an old man named “Ju Gong” enslaved a group of monkeys, forced them to give him a portion of their collections of fruit, and flogged them if they did not submit to his demands. After the monkeys became “enlightened” as a result of youthful influence, they rebelled against the Monkey Master and abandoned him (after destroying his properly and stealing stored fruit), which consequently lead to his death via starvation. It is clear that the Monkey Master is the victim in the case of this fable, but in order to identify why the Monkey Master is the victim, we must define the monkeys as the victimizer. It will be easiest to do this if we first explain why the monkeys are not the victims of the Master, if at …show more content…
This does not however, explain why the monkeys destroyed the property of the Master (the stockade). Certainly this is a case of retributive justice, due to the fact that the monkeys felt the need to destroy the Master’s property as a result of their previous “oppression.” But this calls to question: Is committing an action that leads to someone’s death equal to taking one-tenth of someone’s earnings? If one were to examine a hypothetical rebellion against the medieval Catholic Church, which operated under similar functions, would the burning down of churches and stealing of sacramental objects by dissenters be justified? Is destruction of property and state the only way to end a dictatorship? These are questions that challenge the morality of the monkeys, with special consideration of the fact that they were characterized as “enlightened.” An “enlightened” individual is capable of reason, and it is quite possible that the monkeys could have reasoned with the Master for freedom. In fact, it is the “enlightened” condition of the monkeys which makes it difficult to understand why they used destructive ends to achieve