Project: The Monkey King

This is a project that I have had in my back pocket for a while and every now and then I pick at it.  This is a piece I inherited from my grandparents.  As a small child he fascinated me.  As an adult, I want to know more about him.  Where did he come from and what does he represent?

As I remember, my grandparents told me that one of their relatives (no idea who) bought him back from 'the east' sometime after WWII.  I also believe he is a representation of the monkey king, but I could be completely wrong there.

One of my goals is to find out about him, where he came from and what he represents.

The Monkey King?

And here he is in all his glory.  My grandparents used him to prop open a door and I think he sustained some damage at some point although that must have been a long time ago as I don't remember him ever looking any different.

The damage is a little clearer in this pic.

I think he is identifiable as there are some characters on his back which may tell us something

Click to enlarge

They aren't too clear but someone did have a go at decoding this about a decade ago for me:

Click to enlarge

The problem is that I have no idea if this is right and I have no idea what some of this means.

I tried running this through some translate software but the letters don't stand out enough.  So I used the image edit function on my iPad to overwrite what I think the letters are and try the translate software again.

Click to enlarge

Google translate thinks this is Chinese (Simplified) and says (from top right to bottom left of course):

Wan Yangeng Shen Sui

Early Autumn Gengshen Day

Googling these phrases gets me not a lot to be honest.  The top phrase might be a name in which case it could be the name of the craftsman who made it.  The second is most likely the date of manufacture.

From what I have been able to figure out, mostly by reading Wikipedia, it seems that Geng-shen day is the 57th day of a 60 day cycle.

Oddly enough if you change the translation setting to Japanese, it will give you Metal Monkey which is also the 57th day of the 60 day cycle.  But it could also be the year (1920). 

If you know anything about this object, please drop me a line and let me know what you think.