The Journey to the West, like The Water Margin, was compiled by the author of Confucian classics on the basis of history and legend. It is true that Xuanzang, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, went to Tianzhu to learn Buddhist scriptures. Later, Xuanzang's disciples wrote two biographies based on his dictation, The Story of the Western Regions in Datang and The biography of Master Sanzang in Datang. From then on, the legend about learning from Buddhism began to spread among the people. About the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, there appeared a poem "Learning from the Tang Dynasty" (there are different opinions about the time of the book's completion, which is taken from Li and Cai here), and this book has begun to take shape in The Journey to the West. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, there were many operas related to the story of learning from the scriptures. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, a relatively complete book The Journey to the West appeared (according to Mr. Lu Xun and Mr. Sun Jiedi), but only a few books were lost in the Yongle ceremony. The spread of The Journey to the West's version is complicated, which can be summarized as follows: Jinling Shidetang Edition in Ming Dynasty (the earliest existing version) and Li Zhuowu Edition-neither of these two versions has "Chen Guangrui working in disaster"; By the Qing Dynasty, The Journey to the West had been published one hundred times, the ninth time, and it became the final edition. As for the author of this book, first Qiu Chuji said, then Wu Cheng'en said, and then it was repeatedly questioned, and the author's ownership became an unsolved case. (For the above, see Shi's book Literature Research in Ming Dynasty. )
A version of Journey to the West
Countless copies: one hundred copies. The earliest block print is the block print of Jinling Shidetang in the 20th year of Wanli (1592), with a total of 20 volumes.
Engraving in Qing Dynasty: Wang's Certificate of Journey to the West, Zhen Jie of Journey to the West, Zhang Shushen's The Journey to the West and Liu's Original Purpose of Journey to the West. All Tang Sanzang were born for the ninth time.
Jane: There are two kinds. Tang Sanzang's Journey to the West, 10 volume, 69 volumes,1/400 pages, edited by Zhu, engraved in Wanli, with the story of the birth of Tang Priest; Yang's Four Biographies of Journey to the West, with four volumes of 465,438+0, is similar in length to Zhu Ben, and there is no story about the birth of Tang Priest. Generally speaking, the simplified version is an abridged version of the traditional version.
First, the six-year-old child, then Stephen Chow's A Chinese Odyssey, two films by Dicky Cheung, and an animated version. Japan seems to have made one.
There are three versions: movie version (new journey to the west, the old Journey to the West), animation version and storytelling version.