Among China's classical novels, The Journey to the West, Water Margin, Jin Ping Mei and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are listed as four fantastic books in Ming Dynasty, which have been circulated among the people for quite a long time and are well-known masterpieces. The Journey to the West is the crystallization of myths, fables and comic novels. Its story is mainly about a group of anthropomorphic animals, escorting a monk to West India to learn Buddhist scriptures, and it also brings some fairy tale interest. These animals, all fairy fetuses with magical power, are playing with gods and demons in order to escort Buddhist scriptures.
The fantasy world created by the author Wu Cheng'en is absurd and vivid, implying different faces of human nature. The Monkey King, originally a stone monkey, has the dexterity and nifty of a monkey, and is good at subduing demons, while Pig Bajie has the heavy and unswerving character symbol of a pig, often making a fool of himself and making a lot of jokes.
Because people who want to learn Buddhism have to go through 8 1 difficulties and overcome the challenges of cattle, spider essence and white one by one in order to complete the task of learning Buddhism, which also symbolizes that everyone will encounter all kinds of difficulties and challenges in the pursuit of ideals. Journey to the West can be loved by ancient and modern readers, mainly because of the success of role-building. Readers can not only enjoy comedy, but also have a deep understanding of human nature and life.
On the surface, Journey to the West is a funny novel, a supernatural novel. Most readers think that the purpose of the author's writing is just to make you laugh, but in fact, the motivation and purpose of the author's writing are definitely not like this. Some people think that The Journey to the West is a religious novel that expounds Buddhism, which cannot be completely summarized. Journey to the West should be a profound satire novel. We should look at it from the perspective of literature, politics or sociology in order to understand the true meaning and literary value of this book.
To understand a literary work, it is best to understand it from the author's life and background. Wu Cheng'en, the author of The Journey to the West, is a well-read and talented person. However, his life experience is not good. At that time, the society was corrupt, and he wanted to take bribes in the exam. Because he had no money to bribe the scholar, he failed the exam and worked as a scholar until he was in his forties.
Regarding the historical background of Journey to the West, we might as well look at the official records of Tang Priest. There was a master Xuanzang in the Tang Dynasty, that is, Master Sanzang. He once crossed the desert and went to West India to learn from the scriptures. At that time, it lasted 19 years, and more than 600 Buddhist scriptures were brought back to China, which was the backbone of The Journey to the West's story. Of course, Tang Sanzang, the protagonist in The Journey to the West, is also a figure created by the author to cater to the folk psychology, and it is difficult to be associated with the great achievements of Master Xuanzang in the official history.
Tang Sanzang
Because although Tang Sanzang is a master whose duty is to learn from the scriptures in his book, in fact, he is weak in personality, hypocritical and afraid of death, and lacks transcendental understanding. Although he is kind, he can't tell right from wrong. Instead, I often listen to Zhu Bajie's provocation and misunderstand the Monkey King who can see through evil tricks. Keep shouting "Wukong, help me!" After falling into a trap.