The Golden Monkey rises up with a thousand spears, and the Jade Universe clarifies thousands of miles. "These two lines of Mao Zedong's poetry depict the image of Sun Wukong, who dares to fight against all evil forces and sweep away all evil forces. When it comes to Sun Wukong, we cannot ignore one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China, Journey to the West.
Journey to the West mainly depicts the story of Tang Monk, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Sha Monk, and Little White Dragon's master and disciple who went to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures and went through ninety-nine and eighty-one difficulties. The emergence of Journey to the West opened up a new category of epic novels featuring gods and demons. Its content is the most complex among Chinese classical novels, integrating the thoughts and content of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism in traditional Chinese culture. The immortals of both Buddhism and Taoism perform simultaneously, and the solemn and sacred world of gods and Buddhas is also filled with the human emotions and social states of real society, appearing both grand and harmonious, full of wit and humor, making the book popular among readers of various cultural levels. Through the illusory world of gods and demons in Journey to the West, we can see the projection of real society everywhere.
Although Journey to the West is a mythological novel, Tang Monk's quest for scriptures is a historical fact. More than 1300 years ago, in the first year of the Zhenguan reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang (627), Xuanzang, who was only 25 years old at the time, left Chang'an and traveled alone to India to study. After departing from Chang'an, he overcame numerous difficulties and obstacles before finally arriving in India. Xuanzang studied at the famous Buddhist temple Nalanda in India for five years and was revered as one of the ten virtues of understanding the Three Tripitaka. In the 19th year of the Zhenguan reign (645 AD), Xuanzang returned to Chang'an and brought back 657 Buddhist scriptures. Later, Xuanzang orally recounted his observations on his journey to the West, which were compiled into twelve volumes by his disciples through debate. This book mainly tells the history, geography, and transportation of various countries he saw on the way. Later, Xuanzang's disciples Huili and Yancong wrote the "Biography of Sanzang Masters in the Great Compassion Temple of the Tang Dynasty", which added a lot of mythological color to Xuanzang's experience. Although they were still detached from the stories of taking scriptures, they inspired later authors to create more myths about taking scriptures. Journey to the West is not just a simple mythological novel, as Mr. Lu Xun pointed out in "A Brief History of Chinese Fiction", it "satirizes and ridicules the world at that time, and exaggerates the description".
The existing miscellaneous drama "Journey to the West" written by Yang Ne during the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties begins with the story of Tang Sanzang's birth as "Jiangliu'er", which is also an important content of later "Journey to the West" novels. As the story of taking scriptures gradually takes shape in the vernacular, similar operas are also constantly being created. It is on the basis of these folk literature that the representative work of ancient Chinese mythological novels, Journey to the West, emerged in the Ming Dynasty.
The book Journey to the West is roughly divided into three parts. The first seven chapters tell stories about Sun Wukong's background and the chaos he caused in the Heavenly Palace, providing background materials for his great power and later his pursuit of the Tang Monk to the Western Heaven to obtain Buddhist scriptures; The eighth to twelfth chapters introduce another protagonist of the novel, Tang Monk, and explain the reason for obtaining scriptures; The 13th to 100th chapters are the main parts of the book, telling the stories of Tang Monk, Sun Wukong, and their disciples who subdue demons and seek scriptures from the West. Sun Wukong is the first protagonist in Journey to the West. He has infinite abilities, fearless of heaven and earth, and possesses a strong spirit of rebellion. His biggest characteristic is his courage to fight, whether it's with the supreme Jade Emperor or with demons and monsters, he never retreats and bows his head. The image of Sun Wukong reflects the author's heroic plot. Zhu Bajie is also a literary figure worth mentioning. He is simple, honest, strong, and brave enough to fight against demons. He is the first capable assistant of Sun Wukong. But there are also many problems, such as overeating, taking advantage of small things, being promiscuous, fearing difficulties, and so on. The image of Zhu Bajie appears very real and cute. The image of Zhu Bajie reflects the complexity of human nature.