Journey to the West Read online

  Timothy Richard traveled to China in 1868 as a Baptist missionary. When other missionaries were attempting to stamp out the popular local tales of gods and heroes such as Journey to the West, Timothy Richard championed them for the universal messages of spiritual challenge and growth they contain. He is also the author of Forty-five Years in China.

  Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offi ces at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, Vermont 05759 USA and 61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12, Singapore 534167

  Copyright © 2008 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

  Cover illustration by Chang Huai Yan

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Wu, Cheng’en, ca. 1500-ca. 1582.

  [Xi you ji. English]

  Journey to the west: the monkey king’s amazing adventures / By Wu Cheng’en;

  translated by Timothy Richards.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-8048-3949-5 (pbk.)

  I. Richards, Timothy. II. Title.

  PL2697.H7513 2008

  895.1’34--dc22

  2007045249

  ISBN 978-0-8048-3949-5

  ISBN 978-1-4629-0218-7 (ebook)

  Distributed by

  North America, Latin America & Europe

  Tuttle Publishing

  364 Innovation Drive

  North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436 U.S.A.

  Tel: 1 (802) 773-8930; Fax: 1 (802) 773-6993

  [email protected]

  www.tuttlepublishing.com

  Japan

  Tuttle Publishing

  Yaekari Building, 3rd Floor

  5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku

  Tokyo 141 0032

  Tel: (81) 03 5437-0171; Fax: (81) 03 5437-0755

  [email protected]

  www.tuttle.co.jp

  Asia Pacific

  Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd.

  61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12

  Singapore 534167

  Tel: (65) 6280-1330; Fax: (65) 6280-6290

  [email protected]

  www.periplus.com

  First edition

  12 11 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

  Printed in Singapore

  TUTTLE PUBLISHING ® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

  Contents

  Introduction vii

  1. Monkey Gets Restless and Seeks Immortality 1

  2. Monkey Studies Magic 13

  3. Monkey Visits the Dragon King 21

  4. Monkey Declines Being a Stud Master 35

  5. Monkey Upsets the Peach Banquet 48

  6. The Great Sage Captured 60

  7. Imprisoned For 500 Years 71

  8. Guanyin Recruits the Disciples 83

  9. The Emperor Goes to Hell 87

  10. Xuanzang Starts Out on His Mission 103

  11. The Mandrake 122

  12. The Lotus Cave 132

  13. The Baolin Temple 137

  14. The Red Child Demon 141

  15. Buddhists and Taoists Compete 145

  16. The Demon of the House 152

  17. True Monkeys and False Monkeys 157

  18. The Flaming Mountain 164

  19. The Demon of the Thunder Temple 169

  20. Sun Becomes a Doctor 175

  21. The Spider Women 179

  22. The Golden-Nosed White Rat 186

  23. Sun Shaves a Village 193

  24. The False Princess 200

  25. The Mortal Body Cast Aside 205

  26. The Mission Fulfilled 216

  Introduction

  (1) THE RECORD OF THE WESTERN REGIONS

  THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST is based on a true story of a Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, and his pilgrimage to India to acquire the “true scriptures.” Buddhism had entered China from India during the Han dynasty, mainly as the religion of foreign merchants. It spread amongst the Chinese population after the fall of the Han, during the so-called Period of Division, when China was in a constant state of chaos, war, and misery. “I teach suffering,” said the Buddha, “and how to escape it.” This was very different message from the statecraft of Han Confucianism or the mixture of mysticism, magic, and local religion Taoism had become, and one which found a deep response in the anarchy China had disintegrated into at that time.

  Xuanzang’s youth coincided with the reunification of China under the short-lived Sui dynasty. He was a precocious child, and received a scholarship (to use the modern idiom) to study in the Pure Land Monastery. When the Sui collapsed in 618, Xuanzang fled to Chang’an, where the new Tang dynasty had been proclaimed. He moved on to Chengdu in remote Sichuan where hundreds of monks had taken refuge. He later travelled throughout the country, learning from the local monks whatever he could about their understanding of Buddhism. He discovered they differed greatly amongst themselves, and came to realise the confusion and limitations on Chinese Buddhism due to a lack of authoritative, canonical texts. The Buddhist scriptures in China had been translated at different times and places, by translators of different levels of ability and understanding of Buddhist doctrines, even translations of translations of translations through the various languages of India and Central Asia. Xuanzang could see that beyond the confusion there was great Truth, but that that Truth could only be found in the original and genuine scriptures of Buddhism. That would entail going to India to get them. He had predecessors: the monk Faxian had visited India between 399 and 414, and had left a record of his travels. Xuanzang was already aware of the various schools of Indian Buddhism, and was particularly interested in acquiring the Sanskrit text of the yoga sastra, which taught that “the outside does not exist, but the inside does. All things are mental activities only.” That was the basis of the Consciousness Only School of Buddhism, founded in China by Xuanzang. Metaphysical and abstract, it did not become a popular school, but its influence persists. One of the major Chinese philosophers of the twentieth century, Xiong Shili, attempted a fusion of the precepts of this school with Confucianism, and this has influenced several generations of students of Chinese philosophy. On the popular level, anyone who has taken a course in meditation (of any variety) over the past few decades would have heard something along the same lines.

  Xuanzang was 28 when he started on his pilgrimage to India. It was a pilgrimage with a purpose, altruistic and not personal: to bring the “true scriptures” to China for the salvation of lost souls. He spent sixteen years away, travelling from what is now Xi’an through Gansu, and from there through the oasis cities around the Taklamakan desert, into Central Asia, then through what is now Afghanistan to India. After his return to China he wrote a detailed geographical description of the lands he had passed through, with notes on the peoples, their languages and beliefs. This book is called Record of the Western Regions, in Chinese Xiyuji. The Chinese title of The Monkey King’s Amazing Adventures is Xiyouji, a deliberate and direct reference to Xuanzang’s records of his travels. In the early twentieth century the Record of the Western Regions became a guidebook to many of the “foreign devils on the silk road.” Sir Aurel Stein was one of these, who convinced the curator of the secret library of Dunhuang that Xuanzang was his patron saint, thus persuading him to hand over large quantities of thousand year old manuscripts. Much in the way of Heinrich Schliemann with Homer in hand looking for Troy, Aurel Stein and the others relied on Xuanzang’s Record of the Western Regions as a guide, located long buried cities under the sands of the Taklamakan desert. Xuanzang, i
ncidentally, visited Dunhuang on his way back to Xi’an—in fact he had been provided with an escort from Khotan, on the emperor’s orders. It is not known if the famous portrait in one of the caves is of Xuanzang, or another itinerant monk.

  On his way to India, he passed through many kingdoms. In Turfan the king wanted to retain him to such a degree that he would not allow him to proceed, and only agreed after Xuanzang went on a hunger strike. The king was so impressed he provided him with an escort and provisions for the next part of the journey. He also wrote twenty-four letters of introduction to his fellow rulers of the small kingdoms of Central Asia through which Xuanzang would pass. They proceeded to the oasis of Kucha, another stop along the Silk Road, where the red haired, blue-eyed Tokharian ruler, a Buddhist, made him welcome. There he was able to debate with Hinayana Buddhists, who followed the “Lesser Vehicle” road to enlightenment, which was regarded as inferior by adherents of the Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle,” which was the prevalent form of Buddhism in China. Such debates were to continue during Xuanzang’s travels, adding to his knowledge of the various schools of Buddhism within India itself.

  During the seven days they spent crossing the Tianshan mountains, fourteen men, almost half their party, starved or were frozen to death. They went on to the camp of Yehu, the khan of the eastern Turks, where the letters of introduction from the king of Turfan were helpful. This khan also suggested that Xuanzang go no further, but eventually provided him with a Chinese speaking guide, who accompanied him as far as modern Afghanistan. He passed through Bamiyan, where he described the huge statues carved into the cliff, the same statues which were blown up by the Taliban only a few years ago. He then went to Tashkent and Samarkand, then on to Bactria, near Persia. The local ruler was Tardu, the eldest son of Yehu and the brother in law of the King of Turfan. Tardu’s wife had died, and he had married her younger sister, who immediately poisoned him. She and her lover then usurped the throne. It was here Xuanzang met Dharmasimha, who had studied Buddhism in India, and later Prajnakara, a monk from an area near Kashmir. Xuanzang was coming more and more into the Indian cultural sphere, but he yet had to physically cross the Hindukush into India itself.

  When he crossed the Kabul River he was closer to places and events associated with the life of the Buddha. Buddhism was already in decline in India when Xuanzang visited, and many of the famous monasteries, once teeming with monks, were deserted and in ruins. He visited Sravasti, the site of the Great Hall where Buddha preached, Kapalivastu, where he was born and Kusinagara, where he died and was cremated. In one of the most moving passages in the book, when Xuanzang first approaches the bodhi tree, under which the Buddha had attained enlightenment, he threw himself face down and wept, wondering what sin he must have committed in a previous life to be born in Tang China and not in India during the lifetime of the Buddha himself.

  For eight or nine days he could not bring himself to leave the holy tree, until some monks came from Nalanda monastery, India’s most prestigious place of Buddhist learning, to escort him there. The entire community of ten thousand monks came to greet him. He traveled throughout India, to Bengal and Orissa, and almost to Ceylon, but political turmoil there made it imprudent to visit. At one stage he was captured by pirates intending to sacrifice him, but a cyclone swept through the forest and the pirates were so scared they released him. Towards the end of his time in India, Xuanzang met the great Buddhist King Harsha, and explained his mission. Soon after this Harsha sent a delegation to Chang’an, thus establishing what we would now call diplomatic relations with China. Indian monks also urged Xuanzang to stay with them: India was the home of the Buddha, and China was such an unenlightened place it would be unlikely to attain Buddhahood there. Xuanzang explained that was precisely the point of his mission, and he made plans to return to China. During all this time in India, throughout his travels, he had been collecting scriptures and statues. It was now time to pack them up and return to China. He made elaborate preparations, and set off through terrain as difficult and dangerous as the way there. When he was crossing the mile-wide Indus River (on an elephant), his books and statues were thrown into the water by a sudden storm, and several were lost. Xuanzang had to send back to India for replacements before proceeding. His party consisted of seven monks, twenty porters, ten asses, four horses, and an elephant. He eventually arrived in Kashghar, and then Khotan, which he noted was famous for its jade market. At this point his fame had grown to the extent that the Tang emperor instructed the King of Khotan to provide an escort for Xuanzang and his group to Dunhuang, and from there to Chang’an. A vast crowd welcomed him home. Emperor Taizong met him personally, and asked him to write a detailed geographical description of the seventy or more kingdoms through which he traveled. The Record of the Western Regions was completed in 646. Until his death the pilgrim retranslated existing works, and translated previously unknown scriptures. He died not long after completing his translation of the long and complex Diamond Sutra. His best known translation in the modern world is the Heart Sutra, recited daily by millions of believers, and readily available in any modern Chinatown shop selling Buddhist statues and other religious items.

  Increased interest in Buddhism, the Silk Road, and growing global awareness has made Xuanzang a significant figure in world history in the twenty-first century. Historically, he can also be considered an extremely influential figure: through him Buddhism, which was to die out in India, was translated to China, and a collection of confused and disconnected ideas which Buddhism was threatening to become was transformed into a profound and complex philosophical and psychological system. From China Buddhism spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Most of the philosophical schools of Tang Buddhism did not survive the fall of the Tang, one of the great watersheds in Chinese history. What did survive was the Pure Land School, which saw the aim of life as reincarnation in the Pure Land, where one could enjoy the blessings and avoid the sufferings of life on earth. This was to become the basis of popular Buddhism throughout China, and from there into the Chinese communities of Southeast Asia and beyond. The other school to survive was Chan, which did not rely on scriptures, but on meditation to reach enlightenment in a flash of inspiration. This was restricted to a few monasteries in China, particularly the Shaolin monastery, which combined Chan Buddhism with martial arts. Recent interest in Chinese martial arts and innumerable movies about fighting monks have attracted a certain interest in Chan Buddhism itself in recent years. Historically it flourished in Japan under the name of Zen, and it was introduced to western readers through the writings of Daisetsu Suzuki. The other schools are mainly of interest to historians and philosophers.

  The most popular and enduring book which has kept the memory of Xuanzang alive for more than a millennium has been one that would have amazed the real Xuanzang. He has become one of the major figures in a novel, translated into the languages of the modern world and modified according to the tastes of the modern world, the other main characters of which were a monkey and a pig. But knowing about transformations and reincarnations, he might well have been quietly pleased that his mission to bring the true scriptures to the world outside India might still be continuing in a new form.

  (2) THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST

  The novel is a fictionalized account of the legends that had grown up around Xuanzang’s travels. The Record of the Western Regions and The Life of Xuanzang, a biography of Xuanzang written by a disciple, Huili, were full of stories of strange kingdoms with even stranger customs, attacks from robbers and pirates, mountains, ravines, wild animals, and dangers of all types. Even demons and devils are mentioned. Stories about Xuanzang were told by itinerant storytellers in the market places, mixed with various local folk tales and other traditions. Modified history was the stock in trade of the storytellers, other famous stories deriving from the complex history of China during the Three Kingdoms, after the fall of the Han, or the adventures of a group of outlaws living on a mountain during the Song dynasty. Historical details were not imp
ortant to the storytellers, but the stories were fleshed out with all sorts of fictional embellishments to attract the interest of the listener, or later the reader. Each “round” would end on a dramatic note, with the words “If you want to know what happened next, you must listen to the next chapter.” So the next chapter would start with a brief synopsis of the story so far, before continuing it. This is the origin of the “episodic novel,” the usual form of traditional Chinese novels.

  The medieval Chinese mind took it for granted that the area to the west, beyond China’s borders, was full of demons, monsters, and barbarians of every type. The earliest written version of these stories about Xuanzang himself is The Tale of the Search for the True Scriptures of Sanzang of the Great Tang Dynasty, and dates from the Southern Song, but a fragment about the Tang emperor going to hell was discovered in the Dunhuang secret library. In the Southern Song version the Monkey is already Xuanzang’s chief disciple, and their encounters involve gods, demons, and bizarre kingdoms. These stories, and others, continued to accrue and develop in various forms, mixed with local folklore and popular religion, and were collected and edited in their present form in the late Ming. The entire book is very long, and the plots and sub-plots, with their myriads of demons and other strange creatures, make very demanding reading. At much the same time abridgements were produced, about a quarter of the length of the original. During the Qing the book was usually read in abridged form, and one such edition formed the basis of the present translation.

  On one level The Monkey King’s Amazing Adventures is an adventure story, and a very funny one. On another level it is an allegory in which the pilgrimage to India is a simile for the individual seeking enlightenment. On the first level, the monkey, the pig, the monk, and the sand spirit, and the innumerable demons and monsters, are characters in an adventure. On the second, they are personifications of our own inner spirits and demons: the pure, idealistic monk trying to achieve spiritual awareness, trying to keep the impetuous monkey, the lazy and lustful pig, and the mournful but reliable sand spirit under control, while all the time being confronted with internal and external demons which must be conquered to continue the way forward. One yet another level for the specialist the book presents an extraordinary range of religious folklore, both Taoist and Buddhist. There is much discussion about how much of the book is Buddhist, how much Taoist: even how much, if any, Confucianism is in it. Xuanzang was a committed Buddhist, of course, but the general theme of the book seems to be san jiao wei yi “the three religions are really one.” Each deserves to be treated equally: which as far as the Monkey is concerned, is to be treated with equal irreverence. As we shall see, Timothy Richard also saw Christian themes in the novel, an interpretation shared with no one else.