What novel is Journey to the West? Is it a magic novel? A satire? A monastic novel? A novel that tells a story?
I wrote it when I was in college in 2008. At that time, I was too lazy to modify it and directly posted it out of the four great Classical Chinese novels. In terms of artistic value and ideological value, the dream of Red Mansions is undoubtedly the highest achievement. I think it's Journey to the West. Journey to the West has long been regarded as a great novel with romanticism. It's a secular novel about the world, a political satire, a religious novel about zen. Let's just look at the third point, as non-religious novels, the idea of novels is the fusion of the three religions, what is the main idea? We can look at it from a mythological perspective. Myth is the imagination of the unknown world, and then the worship of the supernatural power. From the perspective of world history, myth often contains the code of a nation's cultural psychology. Journey to the West, as a magic novel, is a myth. China is not actually a country rich in myths. This is reflected in the absence of a complete and specific system at the beginning of the birth of Chinese mythology. In this respect, ancient Greece, Northern Europe, India and even Japan have a relatively complete mythology system. Since three generations, there have been two systems in Chinese mythology, one is kunlun Mountain system and the other is Penglai System. During this period, Taoism flourished, Buddhism was introduced, and the accumulation of folklore, so it can be said that the myth was ripe and fell naturally when the journey to the West was created. In other words, Journey to the West is the peak of Chinese mythological literature. At this time, the two mythological systems have been integrated into one, and the legends of the three religions are gradually unified. Journey to the West has constructed a complete mythological world and fairy and demon system for the first time. This is not only the creation of the author's genius, but also the result of the gradual maturity of traditional culture. Since it is a masterpiece of Chinese mythology, it must conform to the established pattern of Chinese traditional mythology and develop somewhat. In reading the philosophical Spirit of a Dream of Red Mansions, the author came to a point of view that all Chinese myths have the modes of "thinking about the World", "wandering about the immortal" and "realizing the Way". The author also analyzes the philosophical spirit of a Dream of Red Mansions on these three modes. We can also use this model to analyze the philosophical spirit of Journey to the West. The beginning of Journey to the West is "the root of the flower and Fruit Mountain", which together with the beginning of a Dream of Red Mansions have shaped the two most famous stones in the history of Chinese literature. The protagonist, Sun Wukong, became the Monkey King shortly after his birth, and later became the Great Sage of Heaven through practice and enlightenment. Later, he was a monk on his way to the Buddhist Scriptures, and finally he was sealed and defeated by The Buddha. This process of "king -- saint -- monk -- Buddha" just fits the mode of "wandering immortal -- thinking -- Realizing". In the analysis of the three models of A Dream of Red Mansions, Mei Xinlin came to the conclusion that "Si Fan -- Confucian secular philosophy", "Wu Dao -- Buddhist and Taoist religious philosophy", and "Wandering immortal -- Taoist life philosophy". What conclusions can we draw from the analysis of Journey to the West? After careful analysis, we will find that Journey to the West is actually a Confucian novel with a strong sense of saving the world. If we remove all the mythological elements of Journey to the West, we will find such a story, that is, a young man learns a skill, makes a mistake because he is not satisfied with the status quo, and after being punished, he starts a new career and finally succeeds. We can think of the previous story as Confucius' so-called "15 as to learning", the process of the following is the practice of Mencius' "heaven will be a great responsibility and then man must first suffer from his mind and will, labor his muscles and bones, starve his body and skin, empty his body, action and chaos of his actions, so that the patience, had to benefit his ability. People have, and then can change; Trapped in the heart, balance in consideration, and then do; Sign in color, hair in sound, and then metaphor." It can be said that the dominant ideology of the novel is Confucian, and we will analyze the specific exposition one by one. Traveling Immortals -- Realization of Self-Ideal We look at the first mode of Journey to the West, traveling immortals. That is, the transformation of the hero from vulgarity to divinity. The theme of wandering immortal has been widely used in literary creation. We're not going to go back to the source here, we're just going to review some of this literature. Earlier, mu Tianzi's Biography, later liu Xiang's Biography of Lie Xian, Liu Yiqing's Record of Shadows, Ren Fang's Records of Different Stories and Wang Jin's Ji Ji all have such stories. There are many more in Ming and Qing novels. What kind of mentality does this model reflect in ancient China? First of all, we can divide fairy travel into two modes. One is form travel, such as Liu Chenruan Zhao's tiantai tour and fairy combination, and the other is mind travel, such as Li Bai's "sleepwalking Tianmu Sing Farewell" in the account. The former has the distinctive consciousness of Chinese literati's obvious love for others, which is a kind of physical enjoyment of travel. The latter is inherited from Zhuangzi's "Happy Excursion" Taoist thought, is a kind of spiritual transcendence. After analyzing the two modes, we put them together, no matter form wandering or fugue, reflecting dissatisfaction with reality and longing for detachment. This kind of dissatisfaction is multifaceted, have to the political reality dissatisfaction, have to the short life lament, have to the pain, joy and impermanence struggle, still have some in the life profound body desire cannot satisfy. When all the dissatisfaction needs a hyperspace to release. By reviewing the theme of the immortal in the middle of literature, we can find that the immortal has these elements. 1. It should be done by ordinary people. 2. The place must be surreal, but the palace in the sky can be the immortal grottoes of immortal mountains on earth, or the immortal mountains of three islands overseas. 3. Just "swim", that is, there is a process of coming back after swimming, and divinity needs to return like vulgarity. Looking at the whole journey to the West based on these three elements, we can find that the mode of traveling immortal only takes place in the first seven chapters. In the later story, Sun Wukong went to the heaven and earth to help soldiers, which did not count, because at that time, Sun Wukong had actually completed the transformation from vulgar to divine nature, although he was not included in the celestial class, which will be discussed later. Sun Wukong's immortal tour is divided into two parts, the first is that he sought immortal worship on lingtai Fangcun Mountain, oblique moon Samsung hole, the second is that he twice on the heaven was sealed. The motive of wandering fairy is the confusion and dissatisfaction of reality. What is the confusion and dissatisfaction of the hero? First, his fear of death. When he visited the famous mountains and sought the magic of immortals, he broke through the origin of life and was extraordinary at this time. But at this time, he still did not have a name, that is, he was still a demon and only a fairy from its quantity. So in reality he's still not satisfied. "Four seas qianshan borrow for fu, nine secluded ten classes out of the name", the sky is his next natural target. Taibai Venus for the first time asked him to heaven, his first words is "I think of heaven these two days walk, but there are angels to please." After heaven was named Bi Ma Wen, this official position certainly can't let him be satisfied, Monkey King returned to the mountain of flowers and fruits, this is Sifan, we will analyze again later. On his second visit to Heaven, he was given the title of great Saint of Heaven, a position of fame and powerlessness, which was not enough for him, so he went back again. This makes both of them "wandering fairies". The wandering fairy is motivated by dissatisfaction, but the end result is still dissatisfaction. This seems to be a contradiction. It's not that special. We look at Cao Zhi's "Immortal" : "The immortal has six works, the team bo too mountain corner. Xiang e was wounded from the qin dynasty by playing the sheng and yu..." The poet fantasized about ascending to heaven and traveling to tianshan Fairy Palace, being warmly entertained by fairy fairy, how floating, how happy! But at the end, he writes, "Life is like a sojourn." Guo Pu's traveling fairy poems are also deeply lamentable at the moment of "hand on xi and brid, foot on 阊阖". What's more, li bai's "antique 19th in from the west on the lianhua" to "empty step Nie too clear" after some time, traveling is "bleeding with weeds, wolves do crown gall" voice of anger. These are both fairy common cynical in contrast, there are also common after comparison of sentimental. It can be found that Sun Wukong's travel to the immortal is actually the realization of his own ideal. We can also find that there is another difference between his fairy wandering process and other fairy wandering modes in other literature, that is, his thoughts and behaviors are all self-conscious, rather than other modes of fairy wandering actively in thought, but in fact, they are unconscious. Therefore, Wukong's behavior is not the Taoist life philosophy of mind transcending spirit and flesh separation. Actually wukong twice to heaven, and is fairy swim parallel to think of worldly pleasures binary mode, reflect the views are Confucianism and helpful. We further elaborated later. Think of worldly pleasures, self-worth struggle we said the Monkey King think of worldly pleasures and swim is almost parallel. There is a problem, since the heaven for the wu is empty, just swim, and no think of worldly pleasures? It exacts a contradiction. It should be pointed out that this is from a different perspective. We from the point of view of the entire sky the fairy world, now that came to heaven, to be bound by them. The wu is empty behavior is think of worldly pleasures lower bound, breaking the dogma. In fact, before the novel, the wu is empty, who return withheldest not is also a kind of think of worldly pleasures. We could think of worldly pleasures from the analysis of this model. We also review the origin of the think of worldly pleasures. In the early days of the Ancient Times, heaven and earth were interlinked, and there was no difference between god and man. As Gong Zizhen said: "At the beginning of the people, the world, people in general; heaven, evening to heaven, and heaven and people, have language, the evening have a language." however, with the progress of civilization, god will give to the separation. When eve as western Christian central Asia will be out of the garden of Eden. Hence the shanhaijing "mandarin" and so on contained ZhuanXu emperor another minister weight and li tong "jedi day". The original ancestors had a reorientations options: On the one hand, they are eager to get rid of the control of god toward independence; on the other hand, from time to time for god away from themselves and feel lost, and even confused about what to do. But the fairy also had a similar problem. On the one hand they want independence from all the world to maintain the divine dignity; but also for the life rich and colorful and has resulted in a desire not to release their inner space. From these two choices, we can get the root of immortal thinking, god in the sky, unsatisfied and thinking, motives are two, one is the concept of helping the world, the other is to satisfy the desire, the xuan woman went down to teach the yellow Emperor the art of war, Hou Yi went down to shoot the sun, gun and water control, etc., all belong to the concept of helping the world. While the Weaver girl, the Seven Fairies and the Three Virgin Mary in the Cowherd and Weaver Girl, The Marriage of Celestial Beings and the Lotus Lantern are all driven by desire, let's take a look at wukong's thinking. Just as tongyuxian is the transformation from the vulgar to the divine, which is completed by ordinary people, so thinking is the transformation from the divine to the vulgar, which is completed by the gods. Why the swim fairy wukong and think of worldly pleasures is almost at the same time? We can borrow "spirit meat eset" point of view. On the shell body, the wu is empty is divine, surreal. But heart, in spirit, he is still common, all sex. He is still a feral besides, still all the emotions. Think of worldly pleasures is the motivation that wukong? Should be both. We can say the wu is empty first think of worldly pleasures because bi ma3 wen there is solid and nameless office this Monkey King a nominal title caused his insults, produce resistance. But you can't stay in this level. We need to see this is kind of saving their feelings. This author rather than the Monkey King wu chengen saving their ideal. Say that sun wukong has been celestial buried in a dream of red mansions "have no material to fill the sky" fizzled. In addition to saving their ideal will not be able to achieve, the wu is empty in the sky also suffered oppression. With seven fairies and mortals because the abstinence of chun oppression is different, the wu is empty of oppression is not free in the sky. He could in the sky on the surface "member of the spare time of palace, friends sworn. See sanqing said a word of "old", meet four emperor way "his majesty". With that nine obsidian star, five parties will, twenty BaSu, four major Kings and twelve yuan, five old five parties, putian astrology, galaxy group of god, only brother to treat each other, call each other. The east swim today, tomorrow around, cloud to cloud, furtive. "but he still want to receive the constraints. We can find from the book that Sun Wukong is a freedom worshipper from the beginning to the end. For this reason, he also got a tight collar. Under the dual motive, the result is to cause havoc in heaven. We see in a dream of red mansions "have no material to fill the sky, the waste into the world of mortals for many years." the treasure jade finally thought into the rebellious, super era. Similarly, monkey who can't fill days, eventually became the day day, fate. Monkey King shouted out publicly "emperor take turns to do, next to my house." this can be said is "princes and princes, ning has a body?" variation. Historically, our heroes can be divided into two kinds, is for day and day type style. The Monkey King is a hero, not being able to make up for the day type, that is Open Day type. He think of worldly pleasures became his of self-worth is sure to make struggle. Enlightenment - self mission adhere to start from "journey to the west" the eighth back into enlightenment mode until the last book. The basic body content is the whole story, and the main characters successively. So all previous dynasties comments "journey to the west" is often referred to as the book of enlightenment. We also review the enlightenment of the traditional model in Chinese literature. In zhuangzi respectively recorded two stories. "in the song dynasty" wide into sub attunements of yellow emperor, and fell to the lad attunements in "xu no ghost" the emperor. These two stories represent two patterns: One is that a fan of the world of mortals enters into a dream, experiences various tests of life and finally realizes the birth of enlightenment; the other is that a fan of the world of mortals, after experiencing various setbacks in life, suddenly comes to his senses under the guidance of an expert in extreme confusion and pain. And Tang Chaoshen both economic "pillow", Li Gongzuo's and south ko satrap, as numerous "cherry tsing yi" are in mo dao mode added "dream" this element, namely the feeling in my dream the world going then enlightenment. Later in the script, song dynasty and yuan dynasty of tang xianzu's "the satrap" handan, and renew the serial huang liang "arguably version of this form. Thriving, with Buddhism was introduced, the zen enlightenment mode is summarized as "fade" and "Epiphany". Now we come to the enlightenment of the journey to the west model. It is easy to find in the story of journey to the west, tang's monk teacher and pupil of enlightenment is certainly not insight, or just finished the story. First of all, tang's monk teacher and pupil in practice through all kinds of suffering in life. Sun wukong was town for big heaven in five lines below five hundred years; tang's monk past golden cicada son had been exiled the mortal world against the dharma, and was born after the destruction of tragedy; pig eight quit the preexistence of canopy was played two thousand hammer for molesting chang e wrong beast way; the sand monk past shutter general rod was played in eight hundred for fail to break the glass lamp, every seven days after the date of descent from suffering from the effects of the fly sword to wear body; The little white dragon was almost beheaded for setting fire to the pearl of the night. They had enjoyed great glory in their previous lives, but they also suffered countless sufferings in this one. According to the traditional story mode, they had already attained enlightenment when they converted to the Samana. In fact, they had attained enlightenment. Sun Wukong although the wild is difficult to break out, but no longer contend for the idea of the day, to take scriptures is also insist all the time. Pig eight quit looks like still mortal heart did not destroy, but he also cut off the world of mortals, although often shout "cent luggage", in fact, also just in the predicament of the complaint.
