Chapter Thirty-six: Heart Ape is in the midst of various obstacles and breaks through the side door to see the moon. Tang Monk and his disciples left Pingding Mountain and continued westward. They passed Baolin Temple, a national temple in Wuji Kingdom, and wanted to stay in the temple.
The monks in the temple bullied them as wandering monks and refused to take them in, humiliating Tang Monk. Wukong showed his power and frightened the monks to greet them in a hurry. The four masters and apprentices stayed in the temple at night, watching the moon and talking about scriptures. The three apprentices took a rest, leaving only Tang Monk to read the scriptures at night.
Extended information:
Creative background:
In the first year of Zhenguan (627), Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, the 25-year-old monk Xuanzang traveled to Tianzhu (India) on a walking study tour. After setting off from Chang'an, he passed through Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, going through many hardships and obstacles, and finally arrived in India.
Study there for more than two years, and served as the keynote speaker at a large-scale debate on Buddhist scriptures, and received praise. In the 19th year of Zhenguan (645), Xuanzang returned to Chang'an and brought back 657 Buddhist scriptures, which caused a sensation. Later, Xuanzang's oral account of his journey to the West was compiled into twelve volumes of "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" by his disciple Bianji.
Wu Chengen, the author of "Journey to the West" from the Ming Dynasty, lived in the middle and late Ming Dynasty and went through five periods: Xiaozong Hongzhi, Wuzong Zhengde, Shizong Jiajing, Mu Zonglongqing, and Shenzong Wanli.
The social situation in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was very different from that at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Politically, class contradictions, ethnic contradictions, and contradictions within the ruling class were intensifying and becoming increasingly acute; ideologically and culturally, the Enlightenment thought was rising. , the idea of ????liberating human nature was rising, citizen literature was developing increasingly vigorously, the creation of novels and dramas entered a period of comprehensive prosperity, and the sprouts of capitalism emerged economically.