The Journey to the west is a chinese classic novel about gods and demons. It was one of the 4 classical fiction (together with Red Chamber Dream, Romance of 3 kingdoms and Water Margin). In the novel, it describe the story of Tang venerable Xuan Zang's travel to the western land to obtain the buddhist scriptures. It displayed the traditional theme of punishing the evil while praising the good. The book was roughly written during mid Ming dynasty (16th century) and had been translated into many other foreign languages.
The characters in the novel such as Monkey "Sun Wu kong 孙悟空", Tang Seng 唐僧, Pig "Zhu Ba Jie 猪八戒", Sand Monk "Sha Seng 沙僧" etc as well as stories such as "Creating Havoc in the heavenly court (大闹天宫)", "3 times hitting white bone demon (三打白骨精)", "Fire Mountain (火焰山) are popular among the folks. The novels had been themes of chinese opera, movies, animation, comics etc.
Most regarded the author of the novel as Wu ChengEn (吴承恩)
Historical Origin of the novel
The character Tang Seng was based on a real historical figure Xuan Zang who lived during Tang dynasty. In the novel however his story had become fictionalized. In 629, Xuan Zang went on a pilgrimage tour to India to learn about the buddhism and obtain buddhist scripture. His disciple compiled a book called "Travel Records of Western Region (大唐西域记)". After Xuan Zang's death, his two other disciples Hui Li 慧立 and Yan Cong 严悰 compiled another book called "Biography of Compassion Monastery San Zhang Venerables (大慈恩司三藏法师传)" in order to honor their master's record. In the book, there are also some legendary aspects of Xuan Zang, which was regarded as the start of the legendary story in "Journey to the West". After that, his story began to be spread among the folks.
By late Tang and 5 dynasties period, there were various records of the story of Xuan Zang going to the west. Today's Dunhuang murals in which Xuan Zang obtained his scripture was originated during Western Xia period. It already indicated monkey's face. During Southern Song period, the published "Da Tang San Zang Qu Jing Shi Hua 大唐三藏取经诗话" also had a monkey. In other various opera of Song and Yuan dynasty such as "Er Lang Shen Shuo Qi Tian Da Shen 二郎神锁齐天大圣" all had origins of "Journey to the West". By Ming era, the Journey to the West was written.
Theme of the Novel
The essential theme of the novel is fantasy (about gods and demons). The main character Sun Wu Kong was a monkey. At the same time, the novel also reflect a combination of 3 religions as one, namely Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism. It combined the heaven of the Daoism, the deity system of hell and sea together with the western paradise of the buddhism. At the same time, it also projected the loyalty and filial piety of heavenly beings. Journey to the West also came up with the view "one should take turn to be emperor, next year will be my home", and at the same time, the heavenly deity system was a reflection of the Ming political society.
In his book "Chinese Novel Historical Overview (中国小说史略)", Lu Xun once commented that the Journey to the west was a reflection of one's life. When a person was young, he would be active and daring to rebel, he can disobey any form of rules and power. But once the person was fixed onto a leader, he would follow the rules and overcome all the temptations and obstacles in life (81 obstacles) and will finally achieve 'enlightenment'. This person is of course referring to the main character Sun Wukong who was later 'tamed'.
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