Taoism in Wu Ch’eng-en’s Journey to the West

A Review of the Literature

Do Thi Anh Tu

University of Economics and Business

“The Journey to the West” is a book known as one of “four most great classical novels” of China,
which written by Wu Cheng’en, a novelist and poet of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The plot
revolves around Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who travels west to India with his four disciples to search
for Buddhist scriptures.

The novel draws its content from folk tales and myths to tells a story of spiritual transformation. The
novel was written in the late of Ming Dynasty when the dominant religious beliefs were the various
forms of Chinese folk religion and the co-existence of Three Teachings – Confucianism, Taoism, and
Buddhism.

The Journey to the West draws intensively about the mythology of this folk religion draws especially
from Taoism and Buddhism. We found a Taoist Heaven (Taoist venerables like the Jade Emperor, Lao
Tzu, and The Gold Star of Venus) coexisting with a Buddhist Western Paradise (Buddhist luminaries
like Kwan Yin and the Buddha). The Chinese folk Heaven, drawn mainly from Taoist mythology, is
modeled closely on the government of the Chinese emperors. In other words, it is a bloated
bureaucracy, crammed with innumerable officials with imperious titles. All these heavenly officials
are humans whose merit in their earthly lives earned them their positions.

Journalist Rebekah (2018) have noted that Buddhism is the favored religion of Monkey and
Xuanzang but during the time the novel was written, the dominant spiritual affiliation in China was
actually Taoism. Perhaps this means that Monkey’s authorship was mocking Buddhist ways, making
a satire of the religion with Monkey’s foolish.

Taoism also support the belief of reincarnation, with proof that Monkey was largely concerned with
finding a way to cheat the reincarnation process (Rebekah, 2018). When he is in heaven and one
day aimlessly goes into Lao-Tzu’s laboratory, he saw immortality elixir pills and decide to steals and
eats as many pills as he can possibly find.

As researcher Elina (2019) have explained, on the surface level, all the Taoist saints and spirits are
shown inferior to the Buddhist saints. All of them, from the nameless heavenly soldiers to the Jade
Emperor, the Supreme Deity of Taoist pantheon, fail more often than not in their battles with
adversaries and need help from bodhisattvas or Buddha.

Elina Alievna Sarakaeva (2019) found that Monkey King’s lack of any reverence to the Taoists is
shown especially vividly in the episode when he comes to a temple where the Taoist Trinity is
worshiped. Besides, on the way to the West, there are too many Taoist frauds with human of Taoists
are either cruel or imposters that affect to Monkey King’s beliefs (Laurie, 1998).

Ryan Bradeen and Jean Johnson (2005) stated that Journey to the West can be read as an allegorical
pilgrimage of self-cultivation, a life-long process that leads changing how one thinks and acts. That
explains why Monkey finally embraces all three religions.

REFERENCES

Bradeen, R. & Johnson, J. (2005) "Using Monkey King to Understand Chinese Religious Life,”
Adventures in Chinese Culture: The Monkey King’s Guide, accessed June 29th, 2022

Cozad, L. (1998). Reeling in the Demon: An Exploration into the Category of the Demonized Other as
Portrayed in The journey to the West, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 66, 117-145.
Retrieved June 16, 2016 from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1466243

Nydamdec, R. (2018). Summary and Analysis of Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Ch'eng En.
Retrieved August 2018, from: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Monkey-Journey-to-the-West.

Sarakaeva, E. A. (2019, Sep 30th). Religous Interretations of Wu Chengen’s Novel «Journey to the
West». Journal of Frontier Studies, 3, 194 – 230. Retrieved June 30, 2022 from:

https://doaj.org/article/2000583988f64f4b9fa4a9d5957c7161