Let's look at Tang Priest first.
According to The Journey to the West's records, the life story of Tang's monk is that his father is Chen Guangrui of "No.1 Scholar to Be Married", and his mother, Yin Wenjiao, is a good family and gave birth to Tang's monk. However, on the way to his post, the robbers Liu Hong and Chen Guangrui were killed, Yin Wenjiao was occupied, and the young Tang Priest was put into a wooden basin by his mother and escaped on the water. Later, he was saved by a monk and named Liu Jiang. Therefore, Liu Xiaojiang has the opportunity to enter Buddhism.
This is a superficial view of the novel.
In fact, the true identity of Tang Priest has another mystery.
At the beginning of the twelfth time in The Journey to the West, there was a poem saying that Tang Priest:
"Longji Zhenguan thirteen, Wang Xuan people talk about it.
Dojo performance is not limited, cloud light takes big wishes and small lives.
The imperial edict repaired the brake, and the golden cicada shelled the west culvert.
Giving good results is super heavy, and words and deeds are the top three. "
The so-called "golden cicada shelling" here means golden cicada.
Who is the golden cicada? According to Tathagata himself, Jin Chan is his second disciple. Because he slandered Buddhism in his last life, he was banished to the world and reincarnated as Tang Priest.
This statement comes from the centenary of The Journey to the West: The Tathagata said, "Holy Monk, you are my second disciple in my last life, and your name is Jin Chan. Because I didn't know Buddhism and despised my great religion, I fell into the true spirit and reincarnated in the East. "
This statement seems to make sense. Tang Priest was a disciple of Tathagata in his last life, and now he has become the captain of Buddhist scriptures.
However, there is a big doubt about this statement: how can the disciples of the Tathagata despise Buddhism?
There is no explanation in the novel, but we find that in The Journey to the West's novels, only the Monkey King really played some Buddhist jokes, and others didn't dare at all.
So do the two disciples dare to contradict Tathagata and despise his master?
As we have said before, the immortal system of Journey to the West comes from the Romance of Gods, in which Buddhism is also called "western religion".
The earliest founder of western religion is the Taoist Amitabha, and the other leader of western religion is Zhunti Taoist, who is on the same level as Yuanshi Tianzun, Tian Tong's founder and Taishang Laojun.
According to "Shen Feng", the quasi-Taoist and the Taoist have conflicts in Buddhist theory, so they left the western religion angrily and their whereabouts are unknown.
This is one of the few people in the deity system who have different views on Buddhism.
Judging from his identity and deeds, the true identity of Tang Priest in his last life may not be the so-called golden cicada in Tathagata's mouth, but it is very likely that he was a Taoist.
However, there are still doubts about this assumption.
Zhunti Taoist priest and Jieyin Taoist priest are great immortals of the same level. As we said in the last article, the Tathagata is a Taoist priest and a disciple of the leader of Tian Tong, which is one level lower than Taoist priest Zhun Ti and Taoist priest Jie Yin. How can we control Zhunti Daochang?
Is this impossible? It's possible.
Taoist priests treasure "Huahu" to go through customs and enter the Western Heaven. He was originally the founder of Hinayana Buddhism. Originally, the purpose of sending western religions was to share the blessings of Mahayana Amitabha. But later, he became a golden body, merging the size and multiplying it into one. Among them, the guide has actually formed an alliance with the Tathagata.
In other words, western religions actually combine the power of Tianshi Taoism, and their alliance also means the confluence of interception and interpretation.
Under the pressure of this fate, how did the Taoist resist?
If the Taoist priest is the Tang Priest, what role did the Monkey King play in the Buddhist scriptures, and what is the direct connection between his death and this grand plan?