Originally posted by: AkimichiChouji
Don't forget about the staff that the 4th used...now that has some legendary backgrounds as well [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]...i can't remember the exact name of the pole...but it goes to japanese/chinese legend of the person who holds it can be empowered with the abilities of a monkey/ape etc....(the ape he summons in ep ??) also the same staff was used in DB,Z the one goku uses...

I am missing pieces obviously but if anyone esle can clarify thanks!
From what I recall, the monkey summoning and staff is reference to Journey to the West, one of the most famous Chinese stories, about the Monkey King (Sun Wukong in Mandarin, Goku in Japanese). He's an immortal monkey born of a rock with a huge rebellious streak. The staff is an iron rod he took from the dragon king of the oceans, which was used to beat down river and ocean beds. The staff can change to any size, and the monkey typically stores it in his ear in miniature form when he's not swinging it around. Goku in the original story had a lot of other powers, like making clones out of his hair, flying around on clouds, breathing fire, that sort of thing.

Eventually, after pulling around the gods in heaven for a while, Goku ticks off Buddha, who imprisons him under a mountain for a couple hundred years. He gets pulled out by a Buddhist monk, who puts a sort of limiter on Goku's head, which tightens if he tries to goof off. The monk sets off with Goku in tow to India to retrieve some sacred scrolls, and Goku acts as his protector, along with some motley companions they pick up on the way, thus the "journey to the west".

In case you're wondering, the original Dragonball is very, very loosely based on Journey to the West, mostly the characters. Dragonball Z has no relation. The recent manga and anime Saiyuki is much closer in characters, although they take a lot of liberties (I doubt the Buddhist monk originally carried a gun and chain smoked).