On the Aesthetic Significance of the Banshee Image in The Journey to the West
Qiao Zhou (School of Literature and Media, Heilongjiang Suihua University? Suihua 152000)
The Journey to the West is the most accomplished ghost novel in the history of China literature. In order to set off the piety and sureness of Tang Priest's study of Confucian classics, Wu Cheng'en specially arranged eighty-one difficulties. There are 4 1 stories, and each story is the core of the story. 4 1 There are many images of gods and demons in the story. The most striking feature of Wu Cheng'en's image-building of ghosts and gods is that "all ghosts and gods are human beings, and they are all refined, and the success of the image-building of banshee highlights this feature.
Keywords: Journey to the West Banshee image analysis aesthetic significance
The banshees in Journey to the West all have the source of "prototype", but they are all processed and transformed, which is very different from "prototype". For example, the shadow of white is found in many ancient books. In Duan's Miscellanies of Youyang, there is a story that a dead bone becomes a prostitute, and in Ji Yi Ji, there is also a story that a scholar's golden wife is a dead bone, which is an earlier source. For example, the shadow of the fox appears in various classics, "Shan Hai Jing? "Nanshan Jing" records: "There is a sale on Qingqiu Mountain, which looks like a fox and Kyubi no Youko. It sounds like a baby, eats people, and eating people is not awkward. " "Wu yue spring and autumn? It is recorded in The Legend of the King of Yue that "the nine-tailed white fox was made in", which is the earlier origin of Wang's mother "the nine-tailed fox" and Niu's concubine "the jade fox". Therefore, the banshee in Journey to the West is not out of thin air.
First, the banshee image under the patriarchal culture
Women have been put on the coat of "contempt" by men since ancient times. The so-called "beauty has been a disaster since ancient times." Confucius said, "Only women are difficult to raise. If you are near, you are inferior. If you are far away, you will complain." Yang Yi put forward in the history of China's classical novels that "women are the root of human evil". Similarly, foreign women are also in a position of discrimination. To this day, women who believe in Islam still have to cover their faces with veils ... In China, especially in the Ming Dynasty, the phenomenon of discrimination against women is more serious, and the patriarchal ideology is deeply rooted: women are enslaved by men, distorted and discriminated by men. "Neo-Confucianism of Cheng and Zhu" was valued and respected by the rulers in the early Ming Dynasty, and was designated as the ruling thought of the Ming Dynasty [1]. Under the tyranny of neo-Confucianism, the persecution of women by male chauvinists is becoming more and more serious. "Chastity" was the highest honor given to women by men at that time, and strongly advocated the chastity concept of "hunger is the extreme, dishonor is the great". The banshee image in The Journey to the West is created by the author from a male perspective under the background of patriarchal culture. Combined with the characteristics of the times, they are a true portrayal of distorted women in Ming Dynasty. Wu Cheng'en grew up in such a social background and cultural atmosphere and was more or less influenced by male chauvinism. The Journey to the West's view of women is the author's view of women, which is actually the view of men on women in Ming Dynasty.
The appearance of a banshee. The male and female monsters in The Journey to the West look very different, and the male goblins are hideous and extremely ugly. The twenty-eighth time, Huang Paoguai looked like "indigo face, white teeth and big mouth." The messy manes on both sides are stained with rouge; Three or four purple whiskers are towering, which are suspected to be litchi buds. The nose is arched like a parrot's mouth, Shu Xing's eyes babble, two fists, a monk's alms bowl, a pair of blue feet, a cliff ... and almost all goblins are shy with their eyes closed. Wu Cheng'en's description of the beauty demon is mainly to set off the sincere will and firm belief of Tang Priest to learn from the scriptures. Therefore, the author knows that the more incisive Wu Cheng'en's description of banshee is, the more it shows that women are not respected by men. Wu Cheng'en described in the 27th chapter: A woman was born in jade bone with ice muscles and a crisp shirt collar. Liu Mei accumulated Cui Dai, and his almond eyes shone with silver stars. The moon is very handsome and has an obvious natural character. Body like a swallow and willow, sound like a warbler. This is the coquetry when Bai turned into a "beauty" and the first beauty test of Tang Priest. It can also be seen that women serve to portray male images, and the discrimination and distortion suffered by banshees are also vividly displayed. Wu Cheng'en tested the Tang Priest's will to learn from the scriptures through the beauty of banshee. The more beautiful the banshee, the more discriminated against by men.
② The image of banshee. The female images in The Journey to the West are rarely portrayed as precious qualities of women and their bodies, such as tenderness, generosity, kindness and propriety. Women are in the position of being abused, scolded, played with and discriminated against, which are all symbols of evil, especially in two aspects. On the one hand, the banshee is portrayed as a woman with cruel, vicious, obscene, despicable, dissolute and cunning qualities; On the other hand, through men's attitude towards banshees-they hate banshees and scold and abuse banshees at will, we can see how much men despise women. In the fifty-fifth episode of Tang Sanzang erotic drama, sexual integrity is not harmful to the body, there are rude words about scorpion essence: "evil beast, splash cheap", especially pig Bajie scolds: "bitch! You trapped my master. Dare not insist! You will cheat my master into a husband in the future. Send it out quickly and spare you! Dare to say' no' again, even the mountain will fall down with an old pig! " Even though the scorpion essence was dead, Pig took a step forward and stepped on the monster's chest, saying, "Evil beast! I can't poison the horse this time! " As the saying goes, "the dead are the biggest", but Pig Bajie still does not forget the old enmity and still tramples on the banshee.
(3) Banshee's "disaster theory". In China, traditional history often pushes some disadvantaged women to the front of history. China has long circulated the view that "beauty is a disaster". Women are always regarded as the root of evil, and they all play a tragic role. The fuse of the demise of the dynasty was pushed to the beauty. According to legend, Su Daji, a sinner who helped others to abuse prisoners, praised The Last Month Of Summer, Wen Jiang, Shi and Tao Hua in the Zhou Dynasty, Yang Guifei in the Tang Dynasty and Chen Yuanyuan in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Their similarities are all beautiful, but they are also accused of bringing disaster to the country and the people, thus forming the "disaster theory" [2]. There is a similar example in The Journey to the West. For example, Bai teased Tang Sanzang three times in the 27th episode of "The Corpse Demon Three Plays Tang Sanzang, Monks Hate Chasing the Monkey King", and only made a little trick, which led to disagreement between Tang Priest and his disciples. Wu Cheng'en created Bai mainly to prove the cunning and tricks of banshee, thus degrading and distorting the female image. Therefore, Wu Cheng'en thinks Bai is a disaster. From here, we can easily see the patriarchal culture in the patriarchal society, where men are protected and women are controlled and manipulated by men. Usually, male writers distort men's pursuit of women's sexuality into women seducing men and push all possible consequences on women, which shows how much men hate women. From the ending of the white-faced fox, the author deeply realized the unfortunate fate of the banshee [3].
Second, the social attribute of banshee
The reason why The Journey to the West can become a wonderful flower in China's classical novels is that the humanity of the banshee image plays an indispensable role. Banshees actively pursue love while pursuing independent marriage, which is different from the marriage under the social background at that time-"parents' orders, matchmakers' words", and they boldly broke the invisible spiritual shackles that bound women for a long time [4]. Women grew up under the shackles of decadent feudal ideas such as "three obedience, four virtues, three cardinal guides and five permanents" and basically obeyed the requirements of men. Even if they have their own unique opinions, they all obey the requirement that "silence is golden" and dare not speak. However, in The Journey to the West's ninety-third lecture, "Encountering by chance because of Tianzhu country, asking the ancient in a lonely garden", it is mentioned that Yutu Jing is a fake Tianzhu princess, throwing hydrangea to choose a mate, which is novel. Throwing hydrangea broke the old "women can't show their faces" imprisonment, and it tends to modern free marriage. The banshee's human nature is also reflected in her affection, especially the image of Princess Tiefan. Her love for her husband is tolerant and precious, but it is also deeply influenced by feudal ethics. She said, "Men don't have women's wealth, and women don't have their husbands' bodies." This shows her dependence on her husband, so she did not show great dissatisfaction with her husband's concubines, which led to the separation of husband and wife. She just raised a glass to offer a tea ceremony: "In order to save her husband, she would rather trade her treasure fan for her husband's life, which shows that she is deeply imprisoned by the ethical thought of" husband first "; The mother's love for her son is full, and she is full of anger and resentment towards the Monkey King, which stems from "the pain of bereavement". Hong Haier was accepted as an auspicious boy by Guanyin Bodhisattva, "immortal, impure, living with heaven and earth, and living with the sun and the moon", which is a rare fate for practitioners and the ultimate goal of his eating Tang Priest-immortality. This move will not affect the great event of learning the scriptures, nor will it affect the fate of Hon Hai 'er, but the rogue said, "Although my life was not injured there, how can I win again?" When can I see you? "The great maternal love is undoubtedly revealed, which makes people move.
Third, the aesthetic significance of banshee
Aesthetic activity is a unique life activity, which is manifested in two aspects: first, it touches the truth of life and people's hearts in the most abundant and comprehensive way; Second, not only that, it also promotes people. In aesthetic activities, people who live in one-sidedness and heterosexual state are liberated, and their essential strength is highlighted. With the acquisition and progress of aesthetic realm, people's living realm has also been improved. In the above sense, aesthetics itself is a kind of "cultivation" of life, and the value and foundation of aesthetic education are deeply rooted here [5].
Since ancient times, people's evaluation of women has been one-sided. They always think that beauty is born to set off heroes, just as Wu Cheng'en created a banshee to verify Tang Sanzang's piety and firm belief in the cause of learning Buddhist scriptures. In fact, banshee has its unique literary aesthetic value. Tang priest is dull and dull; Although the three apprentices often bicker, it also adds a lot of fun to the work, but if there is no banshee, it is just a noisy and boring job between men. It is precisely because of the existence of women, especially the vivacity and eccentricity of banshee, that the work breaks this situation and makes the work full of interest and comedy. Beauty is invisible and intangible, a positive value concept and the most authentic, profound and fully realized aesthetic relationship. Banshees are not all evil performers. Their beauty is the truest beauty, revealing the most sincere feelings. It also shows the most emotional side of human beings and touches the truth of society-the fact that men try their best to belittle and suppress women. Banshees boldly and freely reveal their true feelings and do some behaviors and actions that women did not dare to do at that time: pursuing free love, independent marriage and so on [6]. This is an improvement. The aesthetic significance of banshees also lies in their excellent virtues, especially the great maternal love and marital affection of Grand Theft Auto Princess, as well as the deep brotherhood of Spider Essence ... This is an intangible beauty that deserves praise. Wu Cheng'en's banshees are full of aesthetic significance because they provide a model and foundation for later writers to boldly create new female images, and at the same time, they have made great progress and innovation.