Gender Masculine Usage Literature Scripts 悟空(Chinese) Pronounced Pron. /u.kʰʊŋ/(Chinese) Meaning & History Means "awakened to emptiness", from Chinese 悟 (wù) meaning "enlightenment, awakening" and 空 (kōng) meaning "empty, hollow, sky". This is the name of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.