Wu Cheng'en (吴承恩), a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty lived in sixteenth century China and wrote under the pen name of Sheyang Hermit. He was best known for being the probable author of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature, Journey to the West which is popularly called Monkey.
Monkey is very well known in Asia and around the world. It is the story of the journey of a man known as Tripitaka. He was an actual person and his real name was Hsuan Tsang. Tripitaka lived in the seventh century. He travelled to India to learn Buddhism and it was he who imported that religion to China.
There are several other main characters in this story and I will introduce you to them:
Monkey, who is armed with a magic cudgel and represents the Intellect.
Pigsy, who is armed with a rake and represents the Physical Appetites.
Sandy, who wears a necklace of skulls and represents Sincerity and Enthusiasm.
These four characters encounter Kuan-yin, Lao-tzu, dragons, monsters and dozens of Chinese deities. By the tenth century AD there was an established cycle of legends about Tripitaka's journey. From the thirteenth century onward those stories were performed live by Chinese actors. Today they are ubiquitous on Asian TV, many in cartoon form.
I highly recommend Arthur Waley's translation out of the various translations available for the interested Western reader. The original Chinese book is immense and most other translators have valiantly tried to include all of the episodes. In order to accomplish this, they deleted huge portions of text, particularly dialogue. Waley by contrast, omitted some entire episodes but he translated the remainder in its absolute entirety. Except for incidental passages of verse which translated very poorly.
This story itself is an amalgam of satire, folk-lore, allegory, philosophy, psychology, religion, history and poetry. It vigorously satirizes bureaucracy. All the deities are the bureaucrats and Heaven as depicted is a replica of the ancient Chinese government. I can easily imagine Wu in Heaven sharing a ribald joke or two with Rabelais.
There were many occasions while I was reading this book when I laughed uncontrollably. One such occasion was a recounting of the night on which Monkey and his crew stayed at a monastery. They had drunk all of the sacred wine in the ceremonial jars, so they refilled the jars with urine. Monkey was inherently naughty so a special head-band was made for him. A band that tightened whenever he was being mischievous.
This story is well written, conceived and will stand as a classic of fine literature for what ever time is left for our civilizations. A reader of any age can enjoy it and learn from it according to their own level of sophistication, so well is it written. I dare not tell you what happened after Monkey ate all of The Peaches of Immortality. You’ll have to look it up.
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