Adapting A Myth - The Tao of Immortality (Part A)

This blog post and the next are centered around adapting the Chinese myth The Tao of Immortality. Today (Part A), I am giving a simple analysis of the myth and some things I will plan to integrate into my adaptation. Part B will be my written adaptation. 

This is a separate adaptation from my blog post last week called Adapting the ILIAD as a Children’s Picture Book?. I will be sharing story updates on that adaptation in a couple of weeks, as it is still in progress.

This myth tells how the monkey king Sun Wukong learned the Tao of immortality. It focuses on his journey to and training under the immortal sage Puti Zushi. The Monkey King arrives at Puti Zushi’s place and Puti Zushi renames him Sun Wukong and agrees to teach him. Sun Wukong learns many things.

Finally, after 7 years, Puti Zushi starts teaching his students various taos, but not the tao of immortality. But when Puti Zushi tests Sun Wukong with a secret code, Sun Wukong passes and Puti Zushi agrees to teach him the Tao of Immortality. Puti Zushi also teaches him 72 other shapeshifting abilities to protect him from the gods. Another few years later, Sun Wukong shows off to Puti Zushi’s students and Puti Zushi ends up sending him home. 

My adaptation will tell the story of the fire dragon prince Pyrrake Kildar who is seeking the Way of the Immortal Flame. It follows his story as he travels through the mortal realm and hears a song sung by a maiden about the immortal flame. After learning who taught this maiden the song, Prince Pyrrake travels to Mount Ralrrak to learn from the great sage (phoenix) Fiere Ashi.

Through his journey, he overcomes his fear and fights for his desires. After many years he masters the knowledge of the Way of the Immortal Flame and heads back to his kingdom to step up to the throne. 

For my adaptation The Way of the Immortal Flame, the original elements from the myth that I will draw on are Sun Wukong’s thirst for knowledge and immortality, the overall plot structure, and the main character archetypes within this story.

Prince Pyrrake thirsts for the knowledge of eternal life. He wants this knowledge to become immortal so that he can secure glory and power for himself and his kingdom. I will maintain the overall story arc with many similarities, but make some slight changes to better fit my world.

Some of those are changing the shepherd who points Sun Wukong to the sage into a maiden, and making Prince Pyrrake choose to go home instead of being sent home.

The original Sun Wukong story has the strong story archetypes of hero and mentor, shown in Sun Wukong and Puti Zushi. These two archetypes are parallel with my main character prince Pyrrake Kiladar and his mentor Fiere Ashi.

This adaptation was quite a lot of fun to write. My goal was to create a legend for the Fire Dragons that I could use in my greater fantastical world Oenne. They would use it to encourage a thirst for glory in their children and inspire them to fight for their desires.

#24

10 Oct 2025