The Mythopoeic Fantasy of Journey to the West: China’s Monomyth - Part II

(The following is the second part of the essay "The Mythopoeic Fantasy of Journey to the West: China’s Monomyth".  Part I can be found here.)

Campbell, an advocate of Freudian symbolism and Jungian archetypal theory, believed that myth, folktales, legends, and all other manner of lore and tales are the poetics of the imagination, “the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation” as he states in his treatise on the subject, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (3).  Produced naturally by the psyche, symbols and archetypes reveal themselves in the colors of the culture they are associated with, customs, dance, music, visual arts, and stories included.  Greek mythology remains a unique sub-genre of stories, for example, but if one strikes at their core they will find elements, symbolism, and archetypal patterns common to world mythology.  At this degree of commonality, myth and mythology are thus creative manifestations of humankind’s universal need to explain psychological, social, cosmological, and spiritual realities, and as such “[h]umanity lives in one shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story.”

The constancy of this “one story” cannot be underestimated, according to Campbell, who writes it is “a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation-initiation-return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth.” (Hero 30).  While he extends his argument to elaborate upon seventeen individual steps, the first phase, “separation or departure,” is the severance of the hero from their relative group, or as he states it in more psychological terms: “the retreat from the world scene of secondary effects to those causal zones of the psyche where the difficulties really reside.” (30). Taken from their zone of comfort, the individual faces the unknown within themselves.  The second phase, “the trials and victories of initiation,” is the struggles of the hero in their new found predicament and subsequent triumph over the problems encountered: the “clarification” and  “eradication” of difficulties.  Facing the unfamiliar, the individual is thus tested and succeeds in overcoming the difficulties.  The third phase, “the return and reintegration with society,” is the transfigured return of the hero to his respective group and his acceptance by them.  Thus in Jungian terms, the result can be expressed as “individuation,” or the individual’s “break through to the undistorted, direct experience and assimilation of […] archetypal images”: the universal human (Hero 17).  Campbell sums up the monomyth with the following:

The Mythopoeic Fantasy of Journey to the West: China’s Monomyth - Part I

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.

Review of "Journey to the West" by Wu Cheng’en

One of the four great novels of Chinese classical literature, Journey to the West is also one of the greatest fantasy novels the world has ever known.  The story rooted in real history, promulgated and perfected on street corners, and finally put into written form sometime in the 16th century by Wu Cheng’en, the novel is as much a cultural record of Buddhism’s transition to China as it is a delightful adventure of humorous and imagination proportions impossible to conceive in the West.  There is simply no comparing Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.

Journey to the West is the story of the monk Tang Sanzang, his small band of loyal disciples, and the journey the group takes to Vulture Peak in India to obtain a copy of the holy Buddhist sutras for the Chinese emperor.  This premise is only an umpteenth fraction of the story, however.  Implied in the title, it’s the getting there that’s of utmost importance.  One adventure happening after another, the five “man" band of Sanzang, Sun Wukong, Pig, Friar Sand, and their faithful horse get into scrapes and escapades like no other.   

Review of "Thief of Time" by Terry Pratchett

Thief of Time is, according to Wikipedia, Terry Pratchett’s 26th official entry into the Discworld series.  Published roughly six months after The Truth and six months before The Last Hero, Thief of Time finds Pratchett in good form, extemporizing on the scientific quest to put time in a bottle versus more transcendental ideologies revolving around passive regard to the great clock of life (pun intended for those who’ve read the book!).

Thief of Time opens at a monastery where the History Monks keep the spindles of time greased and spinning eternally.  Lobsang Lud, a common monk, averts a major disaster one day and earns himself an apprenticeship with the master, Lu-tze.  Meanwhile in Ankh-Morpork, a down-on-his-luck clockmaker, Jeremy Clockson, is commissioned by an Auditor-in-disguise to build the world’s first glass clock, and is not told that the giant mechanism will in fact stop time rather than measure it.  Seeking the stoppage of time to have the time to account for all the matter and molecules in the world, the Auditors send one of their own, Myria Lejean, to ensure Jeremy performs his commission, little knowing the effects and influence of mortal life will have on her.  When Lobsang and Lu-tze learn of the secret plot, they rush to Ankh-Morpork to stop the end of time.  All hell breaking loose—literally and figuratively—when they arrive in town, it seems everyone on the Disc is a stakeholder in the moment.  

Review of "The Wisdom of India" ed. by Lin Yutang

Originally coming off the press as The Wisdom of China and India, publishers have since chosen to split the 1,100 pages of fine print into its natural two halves.  For the Indian half, Lin Yutang, editor of the anthology, chooses to focus on the philosophy of Hinduism and Buddhism.  Thus, readers looking for a practical outlay of the day to day ritual and ceremony of Hindu and Buddhist worship should be aware that the book’s focus is the wisdom, mythology, and mysticism of the two Eastern worldviews instead, save ancient words on yoga and meditation.  As a result, perhaps no better introduction to Indian perennial philosophy exists in one book.

The Wisdom of India contains a profound selection of texts from the Indian canon.  Representing Hinduism are the complete Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, and Ramayana, as well as selections from the Rigveda and yoga aphorisms of Patanjali.  Representing Buddhism are the Dhammapada, three sermons by Buddha, Edwin Arnold’s Life of Buddha, the Surangama Sutra, and a selection of Buddhist parables and legends.  Topping off the book is a selection of fables from the Panchatantra and the Enchanted Parrot that have a egalitarian feel similar to 1001 Arabian Nights.  Giving free rein to the texts to speak for themselves, Lin acts solely as editor.  His introductions brief (a handful of pages for each text) and his commentary almost non-existent, he forgoes the technical or academic approach and allows the reader to form their own thoughts.

A milestone at its publishing in 1942, The Wisdom of India has since become one of many books attempting to bring the mindset of the East to the West.  Born and raised in China, Lin offers something that most scholars of European descent cannot, however.  His own culture influenced and in turn influencing Indian’s,  the parallels of Chinese and Indian thought run much closer than any of the West’s big three: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Thus Lin’s introductions and commentary to the selections offer nuggets of insight typically not available to the Western mind.  Secondly, that Lin is very selective, using translations of the texts by Indian writers when available, a more in depth view of perennial Indian philosophy is presented.

In the end, the reader would be hard pressed to find a better compilation of the Indian canon in a single volume.  Analysis light, readers should not expect an academic text loaded with footnotes and commentary, nor a look into the daily practices of each religion.  Unfortunately, for reasons of length in the original edition, Lin was unable to include the Mahabharata, which remains the lone blemish on the book.  However, that what remains is considered the most important and sacred of Indian texts should speak for itself.  At turns wise, satirical, philosophical, sacred, spiritual, and funny, the greatest quantity of not only Indian but universal wisdom can be found in the book--bar locating the individual texts themselves.  Anyone looking for an introduction to Indian philosophy or a place where nearly all the most important texts are gathered under one roof should look no further.  (As a side note, the other half, The Wisdom of China, is equally good.)

Review of "Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything" by Ervin Laszlo

Metaphysical phenomena, such as the earth’s biosphere behaving like a massive cybernetic system or the wave-particle paradox of physics, have been interpreted in a variety of ways as humanity becomes increasingly aware of its existence.  In recent decades these and other phenomena have been utilized in combination with other less scientific but more theological and pedagogical ideas to formulate concepts regarding the fundamental nature of reality - as Bohm and Lovelock have done.  Another example of such an amalgam is the work of Ervin Laszlo, especially as expressed in his 2007 Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything.

Based on the anomalies discovered in the fields of physics, biology, and psychology, Laszlo extrapolates on the Buddhist idea of an Akashic field, utilizing it figuratively in combination with relative scientific knowledge to explain the indeterminate fashion in which life exists.  According to Buddhism, the Akashic field permeates all things and forms “the womb from which everything we perceive with our senses has emerged and into everything will ultimately re-descend” (xi).  Primarily a metaphor for the lack of language to describe the interconnected, cyclical harmony Laszlo sees the earth and life as existing within, the Akashic field, much like Bohm’s implicate order, serves as an omnipresent field, a suffuse, indeterminate substance through which reality is ordered into a totality of life.  

In the end, Laszlo’s book will interest readers who enjoy the work of Fritjof Capra, David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake, James Hillman, and other researchers, scientists, and scholars who incorporate less rational ideas into conventional scientific research and writing.  Laszlo’s style is smooth and easy to read, and offers evidence from physics research to support those claims for which intuition is not needed.  An interesting read in the least.