With thousands of years of recorded
history and a rich and varied literary tradition which draws upon one of the
world’s longest evolving written languages, it is no surprise myth and fantasy
are integral parts of Chinese literature, past and present. From this tradition, four works have been
chosen as the ‘four greatest novels in Chinese history.’ It is interesting to note that of these
epic-length novels, one contains light elements of Daoist fantasy—more mystical
than supernatural—while two others use stronger elements: the motifs of
super-human ability, pre-cognition, and supernatural connection with nature are
present in varying degrees throughout the works. Relatively unknown to the West, the fourth
novel, Journey to the West, is,
however, a ‘full blown fantasy of epic proportions’ in the most literal sense
of the expression. Suffuse with elements
of animal fantasy, ghost fantasy, magic-adventure fantasy, and the strongest of
all, mythopoeic fantasy, it is arguably one of the greatest fantasy novels ever
written.
First recorded on paper in the 16th century, there is much confusion as
to who the real author is, consensus falling upon Wu Chengen for lack of decisive
proof. Based on the true story of a Chinese
monk who was sent by the emperor to India to retrieve Buddhist sutras, Journey to the West is the literary result
of generations of street corner historical recollection, legend building, and tale
swapping—“a string of stories that developed over many hundreds of years,” sparking
the confusion over authorship (Journey
2322). In a country prizing their street
corner raconteurs, artistic license in making each episode more fantastic than
the next became the norm, and the story became a “collective creation by
professional entertainers” (2332). Taels
of silver traded for dexterity of tongue, it is perhaps no surprise the
centuries yielded a story 100 chapters long and more than 2,300 pages (W.J.F.
Jenner’s English translation). Passed on
orally in a predominantly illiterate population, it has since enjoyed immense
popularity by the educated in written form as well. Following the influx of Western technology in
China’s post-Mao years, a lengthy television series was filmed. Adhering closely to the book, it has maintained
its charm and continues to win the hearts of the Chinese, the series in heavy
rotation on several television stations at all times of the year. There is not a person in China who does not
know the name of the main character, Sun Wukong.
That being said, the story is overall light-hearted, and at other times
sad or dramatic, a diverse array of themes and subjects to be found. Key among them are religion, politics,
cosmology, and ethics, but perhaps most importantly, one of the main tenets of
Buddhism: the importance of patience through suffering. Shi Changyu, in his introduction to Jenner’s
translation, makes note of the avoidance of the material world: “the search for
the individual’s heart” as an important theme (8). Other premises he mentions are the
affirmation of both Daoist and Buddhist teachings, the “ideal cosmic setup” of
the Five Elements of Chinese cultural tradition, as well as the importance of
maintaining a free and innocent nature when confronting life’s problems (10). W.J.F. Jenner, in the “Translator’s
Afterword,” likewise makes note of the novels irreducibility to a single theme,
citing mismanaged government, understanding humanity, moral uprightness, and the
abandonment of the material world as among the wide variety of ideologies
available in the text.
As a whole, the novel can be roughly divided into two parts. The first
is the introduction of the main characters, their coming together to form a
group, and the reasons for their quest.
The Chinese emperor, when beheaded in a dream and sent to the lowest level
of the underworld, learns that a price for his soul has been set, and the only
way to eliminate the debt is to acquire an item hitherto non-existent in China:
a copy of the holy Buddhist sutras. Tang
Sanzang, the holiest of monks in the kingdom, is thus chosen to undertake the
perilous and lengthy overland journey to India from which it is doubted he will
ever return. However, while Tang Sanzang
is the undisputed leader of the group of disciples which comes to assemble, Sun
Wukong, a holder of many titles, among them the “Monkey King,” is undoubtedly
the main character in the story. (When
translating the novel into abridged form, Arthur Waley simply called it Monkey.)
Born from a stone egg split open at the peak of the Mountain of Flowers
and Fruit, the monkey-human Sun Wukong dominates the novel’s narrative. Clever and wiley—sometimes too much for his
own good—cheeky as well as having a seemingly infinite variety of supernatural
abilities, his first act upon being born is to start his own kingdom and submit
other monkeys to his rule. Dissatisfied with
the trivial nature of the mortal realm, he leaves after a time for greater
glory, consulting a Daoist priest on the means of bodily transformation,
flying, and a variety of other fantastic skills. Achieving these, he performs the famous
“somersault flying cloud leap” into heaven, where he proceeds to wreck havoc
amongst the holy Jade Emperor and his retinue, Daoist deities, which Laozi and
Zhuangzi are treated as, and a variety of Buddhas and Boddhavistas which all
live together in the vaults of heaven. None
seeming to escape the mischievous behavior of the Monkey King. He eats all the peaches from the Peach
Orchard of Immortality, drinks all of the Jade Emperor’s longevity wine, and devours
each of Laozi’s elixirs of immortality. Unsatisfied
with the title the gods grant him in hope of appeasement, “The Great Sage Equaling
Heaven,” he continues running rampant through the heavens before finally being subdued
by Buddha himself, who imprisons him under a mountain to prevent him from further
troubling the world of mortals and immortals alike. Thus the Monkey King’s limitations are
reached: more powerful than all other beings, he cannot usurp the wisdom and might
of Buddha, a theme which is arguably the strongest of the novel.
After Sanzang has been introduced and begun his quest to India, he
quickly encounters the Monkey King trapped under the mountain. Knowing
the only way he can be saved is to “give up evil-doing, and return to Buddha’s
law,” Sun Wukong is then freed, provided he promise to serve Sanzang on his quest
(322). As a means of ensuring he
behaves, Buddha places a gold band around the Monkey King’s head and gives Tang
Sanzang an incantation to recite, a Band Tightening Spell, which tightens the
band and causes pain if he misbehaves.
They next encounter a pig-man who was banished from heaven for his
“drunken flirtation with an immortal maiden at the Peach Banquet,” and as he
too promises to do only good if he’s allowed to assist the quest, joins the
unlikely group. Greedy, fun-loving, and
foolish, Pig represents all that is laughable and boorish in humanity. In his innocent stupidity, he also provides
the foil for the majority of the Monkey King’s practical jokes, a sidebar to their
encounters with monsters and demons. After
Pig, the fourth and fifth members of their entourage are found, Friar Sand and
a horse-dragon, respectively, and the band of journeyers is set. Except for the final three chapters, the
remainder—roughly 1,800 pages—is the group’s journey west. Trials and tribulations abound, they must overcome
each to continue the journey to fetch the holy Buddhist scriptures.
A total of one hundred and eight trials and tribulations are encountered. The number sacred to Buddhism, all test the band’s
moral integrity, belief, and determination.
Individual episodes rather than stories which build toward something
larger, at every stage obstacles and impediments are placed in their path which
need overcoming, calling the group’s mettle and persistence into doubt. Handsome and innocently kind, Tang Sanzang’s
innate fears are his worst enemy. With
each monster and demon springing from the forests, he is sent shaking to his
knees, crying and in desire of abandoning the quest for home. As the only mortal amongst the band of
disciples, he is also often tempted to deny the vows he took as a monk,
predominantly regarding indulgence in women, wine, and meat. Pig exemplifies greed in its purest sense, as
everywhere he goes, either his hunger for food and women or love of fun seem to
lead the way—astray from Buddhist teachings.
And the Monkey King, for all of his magical powers, including his seventy-two
transformations which he performs by plucking a hair from his body, chewing it,
and spitting it out into whatever shape or creature he desires, as well as his
ability to use his signature weapon, the “as as-you-will cudgel,” which he can
shrink and increase in size at will, cannot nonetheless control himself, the
conceit in his own cleverness and trickery likewise getting him into
trouble. The success of the quest never
in doubt, however, it is the variety of means the group uses in overcoming the
impediments they encounter which provide the heart of the novel.
Sun Wukong, the most powerful of the group, is always in the middle of
the trouble they encounter, of which there are three basic kinds. The first is a problem he is able to solve
himself, whether through luck, wit, or physical prowess, particularly his
ability to transform and fight in myriad fashions. The second is a situation wherein his
over-confidence leads to trouble and he himself is in need of rescue. Whether it be by other members of the group
who naturally want him to continue with them in their quest, or by lesser
deities from heaven, beings such as heavenly warriors, planets, as well as
dragon kings. Each occasionally do his
bidding in order to avoid his troublesome nature should he be freed by someone
else. (They remember well the havoc he
wrecked in heaven before becoming a monk and do not want the acts repeated.) The third situation is one wherein he is
trapped but cannot be helped by any of the above. As the quest is predestined to succeed—and no
doubt is left of this by the narrator throughout the novel—it is in times like
these that he must appeal to the Buddhist deities for rescue. The novel ends in the final three chapters when
the group has overcome the requisite hundred and eight trials, acquired the holy
Buddhist scriptures, and are thus able to return to China.
More than picaresque, Journey to
the West is incredibly imaginative and richly detailed, and full of an
unknown amount of features and accents, poetry and songs accumulated from the street-corner. The story is thus truly the work of a culture
rather than one individual. Due to the
broad imaginative sweep, cultural importance, and position in history, both literary
and actual, the novel is open to a variety of interpretations from a
mythological standpoint. Loosely based
on recorded history and resulting oral stories, the euhemerist reading is strong. Also, that the band of disciples return to China
with Buddhist scriptures for the common people lends credence to Mircea Eliade’s
conception of the introduction of the “sacred” into a culture and society. The story’s transcendence of time—four
centuries and counting—further attests to this.
Another theory which lends itself strongly to the novel is
Levi-Strauss’s structuralism. The incredible
breadth and variety in the story, in terms of cultural symbolism, history,
setting, and characterization, opens a floodgate of possible oppositions and subsequent
mediations to be interpreted. However, as the novel can be seen to represent
a person’s journey through life and the suffering they will encounter before
attaining nirvana—the quest element being the strongest of the novel—Joseph Campbell’s
theory of the monomyth, that all stories are variations of a single story, seems
best and will be used to analyze Journey
to the West.
(This is the end of Part I. For Part II, please click here.)
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