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Welcome to
(1915 - 1941) The primary contents of this site are the journals of my grandfather,
Harold Abbott Rand Conant [HARC], who spent many years in the Far East. Although
they are of particular interest to family members, anyone interested in the
history and cultures of Asia, particularly China, will find them of
inordinate interest since HARC was widely traveled,
took a great interest in the history of the entire region, and, because of
his many friendships, had a rather comprehensive understanding of events
leading up to the beginnings of World War II. Edmund Conant Perry ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 10 Three Wise Little Monkeys Had I been wise this would never have been written.
The little scamps led me in diverse directions and had me scampering up and
down seemingly endless library steps. These ubiquitous little fellows with
their advice to See, Hear, Speak No Evil seemed to offer some possibility of
tie up with the Japan of today so I started to chase it. To save others from
following in my footsteps, these Three Apes are given this pen of their own
and are ''penned'' up (to the uninitiated, written up!) at some length.
Pose in a Million This newspaper photograph of three inmates of the
London Zoo was sent to HARC by his brother, Lawrence, in June 1955. Our miniature friends are often stamped ''Made in China,'' but I never
thought the prototype was Chinese and, in fact, I was once quite certain
their origin was Japanese, but am not now sure of anything in
connection with the Scamperers! Many friends from
the Far East had as many different ideas. The returned (and tired) business
man proving hopeless, I took many further steps in various libraries, but
feel sure even those would have been in vain had I not been guided by kindly
savants. The following cooperated in my search for enlightenment: Dr. John C. Ferguson (who spent 56 years in the Orient
and wrote much on Bronzes, Mythology, etc.); Dr.
L. Carrington Goodrich of Columbia (whose most interesting A Short History
of the Chinese People was published by Harper's in 1943); Mr. Langdon Warner of the Fogg
Museum of Art, Harvard (I recently enjoyed his Long Old Road in China
and beautifully illustrated Craft of the Japanese Sculptor); and Mr. Kojiro Tomita, Curator of
the Department of Asiatic Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Dr. Goodrich wrote that the
tiny preceptors ''are thought to have been launched by Dengyo Daishi (Saicho, 767-822 A.D., who brought the T'ien-
t'ai system of Buddhism from Chekiang, China, to
Japan) but may be connected with both Buddhism and Taoism, and so with both
India and China.'' Mr. Tomita wrote: In regard to your inquiry concerning the ''three monkeys'' I wish to
say that I have been unable to discover any new material. All the available
reference books here merely repeat what has been said by an earlier writer
(who was the earliest I have no means of learning). They all explain the
significance of the ''three monkeys'' by pointing out that the noun saru (monkey) is homonymous with the adverb saru (not) and hence the animal came to be used to
denote the negative. Dengyo Daishi is popularly regarded as the originator of
the ''three monkeys'' idea. Whether this is so or not, the idea appears to be
of Japanese origin, since there seems to be no prototype either in Indian or
Chinese sources. I may add that the Japanese words for the three ''don'ts'' are mizaru (see not), kikazaru (hear not) and iwazaru
(speak not). When the adverb saru is used as
the second word in a compound, the first consonant is changed phonetically
from ''s'' to ''z.'' Saru
(monkey) is one of the twelve signs of the Japanese Zodiac. There is a
Japanese festival known as the ''Day of the Monkey'' at which prayers are
offered at shrines. Joly's Legend
in Japanese Art refers to the little scamperers
as ''Three Mystic Apes,'' who see, listen to, and hear no evil, and who are
attendants of Koshin, the God of the Roads, but the book further states they
are also known as ''Monkeys of the Three Countries, viz., India,
China, and Japan,'' which rather complicates our subject! Joly
has another story about a legendary monkey that, together with a boar and a
demon, accompanied Sanzo Hoshi (Yuan Chwan) on his travels. This Chinese priest went to India
in 629 and returned to China in 646 A.D. with many Buddhist relics and
writings. Nikko guides say that the monkeys preach the obvious sermon, but priests
at mountain shrines tell the most generally accepted legend, which fits the
picture pretty well: In very olden days, a wise and good Monkey King lived on one side of a
mountain. A Great Evil was on the other. The King's councillors were three
very old, wizened and very wise monkeys. Only they, by tradition, knew about
the Great Evil. They also knew that if anyone heard or looked on It, his
heart would be hardened forever, and woe would befall the Monkey Kingdom.
They were gathering rare wild flowers for the King one day. They peered
through some bushes and unwittingly gazed upon the Great Evil, hearing Its
awesome shrieks. One covered his eyes, but he could hear. One covered his
ears, but he could see. One could both see and hear, but covered his lips and
pressed back the dreadful secret deeply within himself. They stole back into
the forest knowing their own hearts were spoiled forever. They huddled
together on a drooping willow branch. All their wrinkles were shaking. They
chattered and whispered dolefully for hours. By nightfall they had decided to
follow the counsel of the one who had seen and heard all but would not talk
about it and, by emulating him, keep the horrible secret from becoming known,
and thereby spare the King and his people a terrible fate. There are many variations and embellishments, and story tellers have
even grafted the three imps onto the well known
tale of ''The Silly Jelly Fish'' (making all sound a little too
fishy!) which could then run somewhat as follows: In olden times Jelly fish had a hard shell which was both beautiful
and a protection against enemies. One such was the proud retainer of the
Dragon Queen of the ''World Under the Sea.'' He was the playmate of the
Dragon King. The Queen grew very sick. The whole Underworld moped, the clams
shut up, and skates lay flat and still. Only a live monkey's liver could save
the Queen! A tortoise, commanded to get one, arrived under a tree full of
monkeys, and lay quietly, sticking only his tail out. The simians, having
only two inch stumps for tails, formed a hand-to-hand chain for monkeyshines.
They swung to and fro like a pendulum until finally the lowest monkey was
able to grab the tail of the tortoise. This was what he had been waiting for.
He stuck out his head for a look-see and grasped the monkey, intimidating him
into riding pickaback through the water to the
Dragon Queen. (It is at this point that the three monkeys are said to have
scampered back to the limb and sat eating monkey nuts whilst lugubriously
chattering and sorrowing for their lost comrade.) The Queen felt sorry for
the monkey, and had him well fed. The Jelly fish had qualms and warned the
monkey as to what was in store. The monkey thought and thought and finally
wept salty tears in front of the tortoise, saying he couldn't eat as he had
left his liver on the tree to dry. The tortoise was in a quandry
and carried the monkey back for the liver, the monkey of course taking good
care to disappear where the tortoise couldn't follow. The Jelly fish was
found out and stripped of his shell, leaving him naked and ashamed, and then
all his bones were broken with a coral switch. His descendants were cursed
and condemned to exist in similar naked and flabby state for all eternity. There is another pitiful little yarn about a hunter who shot a monkey
and hung him in front of the fire to dry. The monkey's children never again
wanted to hear, see, or speak of such an Evil Thing. The hunter was awakened
during the night by a pattering of little feet and saw three baby monkeys trying
to warm themselves, and then their parent, from the dying embers. (The hunter
shot no more monkeys.) I wanted light as a prelude to writing this in unfamiliar
surroundings. Bang! Damn!! It must have been Iwazaru!
He was clinging, as a weight (but acting like a pendulum!) on an electric
light pull. Even now nothing seems too clear regarding Wynken,
Blynken, and Nod. Three Blind Mice might have laid
the trail I tried to follow. The research finally found me chattering and
jabbering to myself. The tension wasn't relieved when I came across a story
called ''Momotaro, the Story of a Son of a Peach''!
The Japanese are good at telling fairy stories. If Three Wise Little
Monkeys point a moral, maybe it is that we should guard against monkey tricks
now - and forever afterwards?
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