Interesting - Religion - Wu Ch'eng-en (1500 – 1582), born in Shan-yang, Huai-an (now Kiangsu province, China) was a famous novelist and poet in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) who wrote a travel story based on the story Hsuan-tsang / Tang Zhang's journey from his book Ta-T'ang Hsi-yu-chi (Notes on a Journey to the West during the Great T'ang Dynasty), which later became famous with the legend of the Magical Monkey Sun Wu-khung (Sun Go-kong or Sun Hou-zi) with the title Hsi-yu-chi (Notes on a Journey to the West).
Is the Magic Monkey a True Story or Just Fiction?
Hsi-yu-chi was first published in 1592, 10 years after Wu Ch'eng-en's death.
The legendary story Notes of a Journey to the West consists of 100 chapters which can be divided into three main parts:
The first part of the seven chapters tells of the birth of Sun Go-kong from a stone egg and having unrivaled supernatural powers that disrupted heaven and then descended from heaven and was imprisoned by Sakyamuni Buddha in Wu-hsing-shan (Mountain of the Five Elements of Nature) while awaiting his release by a monk who will travel to the West to retrieve scriptures.
The second part contains five chapters dealing with the history of Hsuan-tsang and his main tasks in traveling to the West.
Meanwhile, the third part, which contains the remaining 88 chapters, tells the entire journey of Hsuan-tsang/Tang Zhang with his three students.
This legend reflects human life in general. This can be found in the characteristics of the characters.
- Sun Go Kong represents humans with selfishness, hatred, irritability, arrogance, and wild thoughts.
- Chu Pa Chie (Cu Pat Kai) represents humans with various worldly desires and greed, such as being greedy for food, being flirtatious and flirting with beautiful women (crazy about women), wanting a high position and being crazy about material possessions.
- Sha Ho Shang (Wu Ching) represents a human with a weak character who needs support from others, is slow in thinking, has difficulty memorizing things (Scripture sutras), and inner ignorance. So the three of them symbolize Lobha, Sin, and Moha (Greed, Hatred and Darkness / Inner Ignorance) in the teachings of the Buddha, these are called the three roots of evil, where if humans eliminate or control these three roots of evil then enlightenment will be achieved and ordinary people can become Buddha.
- Meanwhile, the holy monk Hsuan Tsang / Tang Zhang represents humans who have been free from suffering and are enlightened, have a firm heart in Buddhist teachings, are steadfast in holding the precepts, and are loyal to the Middle Path and strive hard for the happiness of other beings.
- The white horse that the monk rides on represents Buddha's teachings called Dharma
The legendary story of the magic monkey is a fairy tale about human behavior that contains high-level philosophy as well as advice and teaching so that it is easy to understand and understand. This one is the true story of the monk who motivates us that all success requires STRUGGLE.
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