"Journey to the West", a Chinese Magic Novel #2 Quiz

Answer: to take possession of the treasure cassock

I like this story very much. A 270-year-old monk was tempted by a treasure and wanted to kill others to have it, even at the cost of a meditation hall. But he ended up killing himself, which showed a Buddhist lesson that greed leads to self-destruction.

Bodhisattva Guanyin's Sanskrit name is Avalokiteoevara. He is very popular in China. So, unlike in India and countries in the West Regions, temples were built in China to worship Guanyin. (Wu Cheng-en based what happened during the journey to the West on the context of China though Sanzang travelled mostly outside China.) His full name in China is the Compassionate and Merciful Miraculous Savior from Suffering, the Bodhisattva Guanyin and Buddhism has it that he often comes to sufferers' rescue when hearing their plea for help by transforming himself into different forms. His most popular form in China is a woman. (Maybe Chinese relate kindness and benevolence more with women.) So Guanyin is a man in India and a woman in China.

Answer: Ksitigarbha

There are four Bodhisattvas in Buddhism: Guanyin (Sanskrit Avalokiteoevara), Samantabhadra, Manjusri and Ksitigarbha. Guanyin is the Bodhisattva of benevolence, Manjusri is the one of wisdom, Ksitigarbha is the one of practice and meditation and Ksitigarbha is the one of wish-fulfilling.

In Chapter 23, Old Woman of Mount Li led Guanyin, Samantabhadra and Manjusri to test the piety of Sanzang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Wuneng and Sha Wujing; only Zhu Wuneng failed the test.

Answer: Because Sun Wukong stole three manfruits and knocked the manfruit tree down

According to the novel, manfruits "were shaped just like a newborn baby, complete with limbs and sense organs". Wu Cheng-en must have based this fruit on an ancient Chinese book titled "Record of Exotic Things" by Ren Fang in Northern and Southern Dynasties.

In the book, Ren Fang described an exotic tree found in the region near what is now Saudi Arabia, saying on its branches grew newborn babies which could smile and move their limbs.

Answer: a young man

"Sun Wukong killing Fiend White Bone thrice" is one of the most well-known Journey to the West stories in China. It was once adapted into a Shaoxin opera. After watching the opera, Chairman Mao wrote a poem; "A thunderstorm burst over the earth, so a devil rose from a heap of white bones.

The deluded monk was not beyond the light, but the malignant demon must wreak havoc. The Golden Monkey wrathfully swung his massive cudgel, and the jade-like firmament was cleared of dust. Today, a miasmal mist once more rising, we hail Sun Wukong, the wonder-worker."

Answer: Sitting in meditation

Sun Wukong competed with the three Teachers in six competitions; rainmaking, sitting in meditation, guessing objects through wooden boards, putting head back on after being cut off, openning up chest and cutting out heart and making oneself whole again, taking a bath in boiling oil. (In the last three competitions, Sun Wukong killed the three Teachers.) In the second competition, Sanzang volunteered to compete because he was good at sitting in meditation; he said that he "can sit for two or three years".

Wu Cheng-en lived in the Ming dynasty, when emperors generally preferedu Taoism to Buddhism. Emperor Shi Zong took Tao Zhong-wen, a famous Taoist, as his teacher and was very respectful to him. In "Journey to the West", this situation occurred in many countries, like the country of Wuji, Tarrycart and Bhiksuland. Wu Cheng-en wrote this to satirise the political reality in the Ming dynasty.

Answer: The Great King of Miraculous Response froze the river. When Sanzang and his three disciples walked on the ice, he broke the ice and sank Sanzang, Zhu Wuneng and Sha Wujing.

Bodhisattva Guanyin turned the Great King of Miraculous Response into a goldfish and contained him in a basket. In many Chinese paintings of Guanyin, she appeared with a fish-basket. But Chinese folklore has a different story about the fish-basket from the novel. Wu Cheng-en ignored the folklore story and went out of his way to invent a new story.

Presenting boys and girls as an offering is a terrible custom in ancient China. In Ming dynasty there was a tale in Fujian that a snake fiend often ate human beings, so the local villagers presented boys and girls as an offering every Double Ninth Festival; in the end the fiend was subdued by Bodhisattva Guanyin. Maybe Wu Cheng-en heard this tale and invented the story of River of Heaven.

Answer: False

Western Liang was a country of women. The queen wanted to persuade Sanzang to become the king with herself as the queen. Then they could have sons and grandsons to pass the throne on. Sun Wukong made Sanzang pretend to agree. After the queen stamped their travel permit with the official seal and saw Sun Wukong, Zhu Wuneng and Sha Wujing away outside the city gate, Sanzang suddenly got out of the royal carriage and said farewell to the queen.

The historic Sanzang wrote a book titled "Record of the Western Regions". In this book he mentioned an East Women Country, where a woman was made the queen while all men only fought and farmed. It's generally believed that Wu Cheng-en based Western Liang on this country.

Answer: Buddha Dharma

Though Examiner also told the true Sun Wukong from the false one, he would not identify him, "afraid that the evil spirit would turn nasty, make disorder in the palace and destroy the peace of the Underworld".

The story of the true and false Sun Wukong impresses many people. Some like to interpret it from the psychological perspective. The false Sun Wukong is in fact the inner world of the true one; he didn't really convert to Buddhism and he protected Sanzang only because he wanted to repay his favors.

Answer: With the help of the four vajrapanis, Heavenly King Li and Nezha, Su Wukong subdued the Bull Demon King, so Raksasi, his wife, had to submit the Plantain Fan.

The Bull Demon King and his people make the biggest fiend family in "Journey to the West": The Bull Demon King, Raksasi (his wife), Princess Jade (his concubine), the Red Boy (his son), As-you-will Immortal (his brother) and the Infinitely Sage Dragon King (his friend). Since Sun Wukong swore brothers with the Bull Demon King long time ago, they were all related to Sun Wukong more or less.

Wu Cheng-en based many Journey to the West stories on the poetic dramas in the Yuan Dynasty. In those dramas, the Red Boy and Raksasi both appeared; the Bull Demon King appeared a little later. But it is Wu Cheng-en who connected them and made them a family.

Answer: Being drowned in River of Heaven and having the scriptures wetted

The historic Sanzang had many disasters during the trip to and back from India. It happened that the last disaster was his boat turning over in River of Sindhu and some of the scriptures he took got wet. Wu Cheng-en must have based his novel on the account in "Record of the Western Regions" by Sanzang. There is a very famous scholar named Hushi in modern China, who was not content with the last ordeal endured by Sanzang in Journey to the West. So he rewrote the story.

He had all the demons, fiends, monsters and spirits who failed to eat the living Sanzang in order to have an eternal life but got killed in his trip to the West Heaven assemble in a big mountain and force Sanzang to repay them on his way back to China. Sanzang took pity on them and would rather cut his flesh off piece by piece to feed them all.

This writing by Hushi impressed me very much.