Appreciation and Commentary of Chapter 1 of Journey to the West
Introduction to the first chapter of "Journey to the West"
Chapter 1: The source of spiritual root nourishment flows out of the mind and practices the great path to be born?
Dongshengshen There is a mountain of flowers and fruits in the sea of Zhou Aolai. A fairy stone on the mountain gave birth to a stone monkey. The stone monkey found a stone cave called "Water Curtain Cave" at the source of the stream where he lived, and was hailed as the king by the monkeys. Three to five hundred years later, the stone monkey suddenly cried sadly because life was unpredictable and he would not live long. According to the instructions of an old monkey, Stone Monkey traveled from Nanfanxunzhou to Xiniuhezhou, went up Lingtai Fangcun Mountain, entered Xieyue Sanxing Cave, paid homage to the Patriarch Subhuti, and was accepted as his disciple, named Sun Wukong.
In the first chapter of "Journey to the West", "The source of spiritual roots flows out, and the mind and nature are cultivated and the great path is born." It tells the story of the Monkey King being born, exploring the Water Curtain Cave, and becoming the Monkey King. Then he went through the cold and heat, visited immortals to seek the way, and got the name Sun Wukong.
In front of the Huaguoshan Waterfall, the monkeys said that whoever could go in and come out without any damage would be the Monkey King. Everyone was watching and waiting. It was he who jumped into the waterfall and found out. Water Curtain Cave, and then led the monkeys into the cave. When the monkeys were happy to get this blessed land, he stood up and asked the monkeys to fulfill their promise and became the Monkey King.
This is not so much an adventurous spirit as an enterprising spirit. If he, an alien monkey, wants to gain a foothold in the monkey group and become the monkey king, he must take a leap into the unknown world. This leap may lead to glory and wealth, or it may lead to eternal disaster, but he jumped out and he succeeded.
After that, the monkeys lived freely and freely, visiting the Huaguo Mountain in the morning and staying in the Water Curtain Cave in the evening. But even so, the Monkey King was still worried. He felt that if he died in the future, he would have to be controlled by the King of Hell. He was very sad and even shed tears. The monkeys on the left and right said that the Monkey King was not satisfied. They said that now they lived in the blessed land of the fairy mountain, feasted every day, and were free. It was an immeasurable blessing, so there was no need to think too much.
But the Monkey King is not willing to give in. He wants his soul to be immortal, he wants to not enter reincarnation, and he wants to learn the magic of immortality. Is this dissatisfaction? It seems so, but more importantly, he is not satisfied with the status quo. It is the determination to make progress that motivates him to move forward.
So after more than ten years, the Monkey King traveled across mountains and rivers to Lingtai Fangcun Mountain and Xieyue Sanxing Cave, where he met Patriarch Bodhi. When Patriarch Bodhi asked him his name, the Monkey King replied: "I have no sex. If people scold me, I won't be angry. If people hit me, I won't be angry either. I just want to apologize. I have no sex in my life."< /p>
The Monkey King understood the "surname" of "name" as the "sex" of "character". After saying this, the Monkey King turned out to be a good-tempered man. He beat and scolded him. , he even apologized to you, do you believe it? But the first chapter of Journey to the West is written like this.
It’s not that the Monkey King has no personality, it’s that he didn’t have the strength to show his personality at that time! And since he came to study, of course he had to lower his stature, and of course he had to talk about his easy-going personality. In the final analysis, the root cause still lies in his enterprising spirit, because he wants to learn the magic of immortality, and because he wants to progress and improve himself, so he can He endured beatings and scoldings, and was able to persist in wandering alone for more than ten years to seek immortality.
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. He studied there for more than two years and served as a keynote speaker at a large-scale debate on Buddhist scriptures, receiving 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. But this book mainly tells the history, geography and transportation of the countries seen on the road, without any stories.
When it comes to the "Biography of Master Tripitaka of Daci'en Temple in the Tang Dynasty" written by his disciples Huili and Yancong, it adds a lot of mythological color to Xuanzang's experience. From then on, the story of Tang Monk's Buddhist scriptures began It is widely spread among Chinese people.
The Southern Song Dynasty has "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty's Searching for Buddhist Scriptures", the Jin Dynasty version has "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty", "Peach Club", etc., and the Yuan Dynasty dramas include Wu Changling's "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty's Searching for Buddhist Scriptures from the West", and the unknown person's "Erlang Shensuo" "The Great Sage Qi" and so on, all of which laid the foundation for the creation of "Journey to the West". It was on the basis of Chinese folklore, scripts and operas that Wu Chengen completed this great literary masterpiece through painstaking re-creation.
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Wu Chengen (disputed), 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, with the rise of Enlightenment ideas and the rise of thoughts on the liberation of human nature, citizen literature has been developing increasingly vigorously. The creation of novels and dramas has entered a period of comprehensive prosperity, and economically, the germination of capitalism has emerged.
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