Download Lecture 15 (L15): Wu Cheng`en`s The Journey to the West (First Half)

Lecture 15 (L15): Wu Cheng’en’s The
Journey to the West (First Half)
This lecture focuses on Wu Cheng’en’s The Journey to the West. We will discuss some of
the basic features of the book’s plot and authorship, and then we will look at the role
religion played in this novel.
Contents:
I.
II.
III.
Filling in the Details: Plot Gaps and Other Useful Info
Authorship and Timeline
Buddhism in The Journey to the West
I. Filling in the Details: Plot Gaps and Other Useful
Info
In its unabridged form, The Journey to the West is a very long work totaling over 2,000
pages. You are probably glad that we’re only reading a few short excerpts from this text
in our class (totaling about 70 pages). But, one of the problems that comes with only
reading excerpts is that we miss a lot of the larger plot and it can be confusing to figure
out what happened in the original, longer version. I want to make sure that you have a
sense for the larger story in The Journey to the West, and to make sure that you
understand how the excerpts in our textbook fit in with the story as a whole.
Overall Plot of the Longer Version of The Journey to the West:
The novel begins with Monkey’s (aka Pilgrim’s) miraculous birth from a stone egg.
Monkey acquires magical powers and becomes ruler of other monkeys at the FlowerFruit Mountain. As Monkey becomes more and more arrogant, he makes trouble in
Heaven. None of the deities can subdue him until the god Erh-lang and his brothers
come, and with the help of the Daoist Sage Lao Tzu they capture him. Monkey has,
however, stolen Lao Tzu’s magic elixir; when they try to execute him, his body proves
impervious to everything. At last Monkey is subdued by the Buddha and imprisoned
underneath the Mountain of the Five Elements.
500 years later, the Bodhisattva Guanyin travels east to China in search of someone to
undertake the pilgrimage to India and fetch the Buddhist scriptures. Xuanzang (aka
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Tripitaka) is chosen for this task and he gathers 3 disciples: Pilgrim (aka Monkey), Bajie,
and Sha Monk. The majority of the novel involves the dangers encountered and
overcome along the way as they travel. At the end of the novel, the group reaches India,
acquires the scriptures, and is conveniently flown home to China by Buddhist magic.
They then return to India to be promoted by the Buddha.
Hopefully, knowing the overall story will help you to understand how the excerpts in our
textbook fit together.
Character names:
The character names used in The Journey to the West can also be a source of confusion
for readers. Often times, the same characters go by several different names. Here is a list
of the main characters and the various names by which they are known.




Pilgrim: Monkey, Wukong, the stone monkey, King of the Monkeys, Great Sage,
Sun Wukong
Bajie: Old hog, Idiot, Pigsy, Zhu Bajie, Coolie, Zhu Wuneng
Sha Monk: Shā Wùjìng, Sandy
Tripitaka: Xuanzang, master, Tang Sanzang
Locations:
Where are the travelers going in their journey to the “west”? India
Where do they begin their travels? China
Here is a map (see right) that should
give you a good sense for their travels.
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II. Authorship and Timeline
Authorship
We need to be careful when we say that The Journey to the West is “authored by” Wu
Cheng-en. While most scholars agree that Wu Cheng-en was responsible for the book’s
final form, he wasn’t responsible for coming up with the story on his own. In truth, The
Journey to the West is really the product of many retellings by many storytellers over
many years. In fact, prior to the eighteenth century, very few writers wanted to have
their names associated with prose fiction. Prose fiction, as a genre, was considered low
status. So, many authors opted to publish their work under pseudonyms instead of
under their real names. This poses a problem for literary scholars today, who have a
hard time figuring out which real-life author is associated with which pseudonym. In the
case of The Journey to the West, we still don’t know who should get credit for each of its
parts. Thus, when we say that Wu Cheng’en is the author of this novel, we really mean
that he is one of many authors of the novel, and that he probably authored the largest
part of it.
Timeline
Wu Cheng-en lived from approximately 1500 to 1582 CE. Yet, the novel focuses on past,
historical events from the time in which Xuanzang lived (596-664 CE). So, we need to
keep in mind that Wu Cheng-en was writing about historical events that took place
about nine centuries before his own era. Again, Xuanzang was a real person who
actually traveled from China to India to acquire Buddhist scriptures. That part of the
story is true. However, Wu Cheng-en invents much of the rest of the story, creating and
embellishing magical characters and deities who help Xuanzang along the way.
III. Buddhism
Buddhism Generally
Buddhism is often labeled a “philosophy” more than a “religion.” This is because
Buddhists do not believe in a personal god. Even the Buddha was not believed to be a
deity; he was believed to be a man who achieved enlightenment. He is thought to be
someone who should be emulated rather than worshipped. Siddhartha Gautama is the
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name of the man who came to be known as the Buddha once he achieved
enlightenment (he is also known by the name "Tathagata").
Buddhists believe in reincarnation. That is, when a person dies, that person will be
reborn as someone else. The person could be reborn as anything from a lowly ant to the
king of England. This endless cycle of birth and rebirth, into which all beings are born, is
called samsara.
So, how is it decided whether one is reborn as an ant or as a king? Well, Buddhists
believe that this is not a matter of chance or luck. Instead, our positions after rebirth are
determined by karma. Karma is the idea that if one lives a “good” life, then one earns
good karma, and one will be rewarded in their next life with more comfort or ease. On
the other hand, if one lives a wicked life, one will be demoted (so to speak), and one will
be reborn in a lower position. In fact, if you lead a very wicked life, you will move down
not just one or two stations in your next life, but you may be demoted so severely that it
would take hundreds of rebirths to return to your prior station. As a general rule,
Buddhists believe that one’s place in this world (for instance, as a rat, a deer, a beggar,
or a king) is a direct result of one’s behavior in previous lives.
In the West, we might think that this idea of samsara sounds exciting and positive. After
all, who wouldn’t want another chance at living after one dies? But, Buddhists believe
that life is suffering (since we can never fully satisfy our earthly desires), and they believe
that samsara is something we should all seek to escape. It is, thus, the ultimate goal of
Buddhists to escape samsara (to break out of the cycle of birth and rebirth). This
breaking of the cycle and escaping samsara is call reaching “nirvana.”
So, Buddhists follow the example of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) in their quests to
reach a state of nirvana (which breaks the cycle of reincarnation). In order to reach
nirvana, Buddhists emulate the Buddha: they lead highly-moral lives, they practice
meditation, and they cultivate wisdom.
Bodhisattvas
Where does the Bodhisattva Guanyin fit in with all of this? After all, she is a very
powerful figure in The Journey to the West. Has she reached nirvana? The answer is,
surprisingly, no. A Bodhisattva is a being that is so concerned with helping others, that
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s/he refuses to enter a state of nirvana until every other being has also entered a state
of nirvana. In other words, a Bodhisattva is so selfless that even though s/he could enter
a state of nirvana, she postpones doing so in an effort to help others attain nirvana.
Thus, Guanyin is a highly selfless and compassionate figure, and she is one of the most
well-known Bodhisattvas in the Buddhist tradition.
IV. Buddhism in The Journey to the West
Buddhism plays an important part in The Journey to the West. Notice all the places
where Buddhism is assumed or discussed. For instance,

Buddhas are mentioned as immortal beings in chapter 1;

the conflict between Buddhism and Confucianism is debated in chapter 12;

the divisions within Buddhism (between “Little Vehicle” and “Great Vehicle”
Buddhism) are discussed in chapter 12;

the conflict between Buddhists and Daoists is the focus of chapters 44 and 46;

the Buddha is encountered as a character in chapter 98;

and Pilgrim and Tripitaka are promoted to being Buddhas themselves in chapter
100.
There are many more examples of Buddhism being promoted and discussed in this
novel, and you should be able to point them out as you read.
Conflicts between Buddhism and Confucianism
At the time Wu Cheng’en was writing, China had three major religions: Buddhism,
Daoism, and Confucianism. These religions were not mutually exclusive. That is, one
could practice more than one of them or even all three. Thus, many Chinese respected
and practiced more than one. Other times, however, there were conflicts between two or
more of the three major religions, and this is precisely what we see in chapter 12.
In order to understand the nature of the conflict seen in chapter 12 between Buddhism
and Confucianism, we need to understand the basics of Confucianism. Like Buddhism,
Confucianism is sometimes labeled a “philosophy” rather than a “religion.” This is
because Confucianism doesn’t discuss gods, supernatural beliefs, etc. On the other
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hand, the reason it is often called a religion is that even though these beliefs don’t
involve gods or deities, they have become sacred over time. People have worshipped
Confucius and his teachings, and there are many Confucian temples in China. Thus,
because Confucius’s teachings are seen as sacred, many scholars classify Confucianism
as a religion.
Confucianism is based on the teachings of Confucius, who lived in China from 551 to
479 BCE. Confucius laid out some very practical advice about how one should live one’s
life. In a nutshell, Confucius argued that we should all aim for a moral/virtuous life,
intellectual understanding, and harmony with people around us. As one scholar (Kelley
L. Ross) puts it, “Confucius himself had a simple moral and political teaching: to love
others, to honor one’s parents; to do what is right instead of what is of advantage; to
practice ‘reciprocity,’ i.e. ‘don’t do to others what you would not want yourself’; to rule
by moral example instead of by force and violence; and so forth.”
Confucius also claimed that it was very important for everyone in society to know their
place within the social hierarchy. For instance, he thought it was important for children
to obey their parents and for wives to obey their husbands. Here are the five key
relationships that Confucius emphasized in his teachings:

Father – son

Elder brother – younger brother

Husband – wife

Friend – friend

Ruler – subject
The only one of the above relationships that is equal is the “Friend – friend” relationship.
All of the other above relationships give more power to one party. However, we
shouldn’t misunderstand Confucius. He certainly didn’t believe that a father had the
right to abuse his power over his son, or a husband over his wife. Instead, Confucius
claimed that both people in the relationship have responsibilities to the other. It is the
father’s responsibility to be compassionate toward his son and to lead his son to moral
action. According to Confucius, people must know their place within each relationship
and within social order.
Exercise: Now that you know a bit about Confucianism, take a look back at the
beginning of chapter 12 of The Journey to the West in our book, rereading pages
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436-438. Then articulate what the conflict is between Buddhism and Confucianism.
What is it that the court officials are debating? Can you clarify each side?

You should be able to find an example of where Buddhism is said to reject some
of the Five Key Relationships advocated in Confucianism.

You should be able to find a place where Buddhists are accused of trying to
“escape” the cycle of birth and death.

You should be able to find a place where Buddhism is accused of being a
“foreign” religion that wasn’t present during some of the most successful eras in
Chinese history.

You should be able to explain how some of the court officials defend Buddhism
from the above accusations.

You should be able to name some of the accusations leveled against the Buddha
personally (and against the way he lived his life).

You should be able to explain how this debate is resolved. What does Taizong
decide in the end?
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