Symbolism In Journey To The West

Storytelling has been one of the most effective vehicles for communication of beliefs, values, and traditions since the establishment of language. Since the emergence of Chinese civilization, stories have been used by many to express the concept of religions and philosophies to the common people: “Merchants, traders, and Buddhist pilgrims helped spread Buddhist ideas to China by the second century C.E. Buddhism offered the Chinese new ideas such as karma, reincarnation, hell, monks…” (Brown). Wu Cheng’en, a Chinese novelist and poet during the Ming Dynasty, is considered the author of the Journey to the West. The Journey can be viewed as a collection of religious stories that represents a single demonstration of Chinese religious culture. Journey can therefore be viewed as an esoteric work, like the Bible and Koran. Furthermore, with every esoteric work, there are two meanings provided to the reader: an inner and an outer meaning. The inner meaning is generally associated with the religion itself while the outer meaning is usually the adventures that the characters embark on. This story has been an influence to many and has been retold so many times that it is even considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. As one reads through the novel and studies the symbolism used in the story, he/she can find that it is deeply rooted in Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Which religion the story is an allegory for still remains a debate among scholars even today. Yet, although there are Taoist and Confucian elements found in the Journey, I believe that this story is an allegory mainly focused on Buddhism. There are several elements of Buddhism found in the story, especially through the analysis of each of the ma...

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...will result in the complete opposite.

Unwholesome actions can be even further categorized as they are related to the “3 means of action, which are body, speech, and mind. There are 3 unwholesome actions of the body, which are killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. There are 4 unwholesome actions of speech which include lying, slander, harsh speech, and gossip. And finally there are 3 of mind, which are greed, anger, and delusion” (Fundamentals). Tripitaka, and all of his disciples’ unwholesome actions fall into one or more of these categories. At the end of the story, when the characters reach Vulture Peak, we are reminded that Tripitaka must endure 81 hardships before he can achieve true enlightenment. The 81 hardships are essentially the conflicts that are the result of Tripitaka’s unwholesome actions and he must resolve them during the course of his journey to