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 Zhang Huaming
Journey to the West is a fantastic novel that belongs to the Four Chinese Classics (other three being Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, A Dream in Red Mansions). The novel has enjoyed great popularity and everlasting glamour since it was finished in the middle of the 16th century. So far, it has been translated into dozens of different foreign languages. It is known to every family and household in China and is becoming more and more popular in foreign countries. For hundreds of years,
the novel has been adapted for operas, movies, TV shows, animations and Cartoons in various versions. The artistic works using Monkey King as the leading role have also appeared in foreign countries in amusing numbers and varied artistic forms. The authorship of the novel has not been verified until today, but it is generally accepted that Wu Cheng’en in Ming Dynasty wrote this novel. It is the best novel of fairy tale produced in China and a combination of the wisdom of common people and the creation of the man of letters.
Journey to the West tells a story of a young monk, Tang Sanzang, protected by his disciple Monkey King, the Great Sage Sun Wukong, goes through eighty-one adventurous experiences and finally gets to the Western World (Indian) and takes the Buddhist Scriptures back to his native country. There are four characters in this novel, Tang Sanzang, piggy Zhu Bajie, Monk Sha and Monkey King. Among whom, Monkey King is the most vividly described character. He is a superhero of wisdom, bravery, righteousness and warm-heartedness, while abhors evil as a deadly foe and kills them mercilessly. He once declares himself as the Great Sage Equaling Heaven and introduces great trouble to the Heaven Palace, which enrages the Jade Emperor who dispatched a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers to submit him but all failed. Desperately defeated, the Jade Emperor asks Tathagata, “the Venerable Sakyamuni from the Western Land of Perfect Bliss” for help. Handsome Monkey King was captured and trapped under the Five Elements Mountain. He is never able to get out until his master Sanzang comes and sets him free. After his release, he accompanies his master and protects him as his disciple to the end. On their road, they take Piggy and Monk Sha as Sanzang’s disciple and start their adventurous pilgrimage.
Among the three disciples of Sanzang, Piggy, whose dharma name being Zhu bajie, is the most interesting character to talk about. He used to be the General Tianpen in the heaven, but was dispelled out of the heaven because of his sexual harassment of Chang-e, the goodness of the moon. After his reincarnation, he was born by a pig, so his face is almost big-like and looks terribly ugly. He is stupid, lazy, a gluttonous, lustful and inferior in potency than Monkey King. . He takes by force the lady Gao of Ancient Gao Village as his bride. Fortunately, the girl is saved by Wukong. Even he is apprenticed to Sanzang and become a monk, he never forgets to flirt with young ladies. However, the author does not describe him as a hero of stupidity; he is always kind-hearted in his nature, he takes good care of his master and does a great favor to Wukong, although he is was negligent of his duties. It is this ugly piggy that offers the readers great pleasure in reading the novel.
An interesting thing to note here is that an opinion poll was carried out among 98 ladies not long ago. The question asked in the poll is that which one they would choose if they were to choose one of the disciples as their husband. The result of the poll turned out to be unbelievable, Zhu Bajie ranked first among the free heroes by 75% of the votes while no one chose Sanzhang. Most of the supporters of Bajie believe that, as a husband, he is amiable, tolerant, and full of passions. On the long way of pilgrimage, he keeps thinking of his beloved lady Gao. Were he secular, he would be a faithful husband to his wife. This is probably the reason why most of young women would choose Zhu Bajie as their ideal husband. In Contrary, Sanzang is not so favorable because of his cowardliness when facing goblins, his impotence in urgent situations, selfishness in daily life and mercilessness in punishing Wu Kong. Leer más sobre Zhang Huaming: http://tianyalit.blogspot.com/ Leer más sobre Ana María Chiuminatto: www.flickr.com/photos/achiuminattolampwork yareah.com/chiuminatto *Yareah magazine es una revista cultural fundada y dirigida por el escritor Martín Cid: http://www.martincid.com
**Created and edited by the writer Martin Cid:
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