EALC 275 Paper 2
Grace Chang
The influence of the Three Teachings in Monkey
Monkey is an abbreviated translation from the Chinese Classic novel: Xi You Ji (The Journey to the West) composed by Wu cheng’en. The whole book is narrating the story of Xuanzang in the Tang Dynasty traveling west to India to get the scripture, which is considered a greater vehicle that can be the salvation to all beings. Although apparently the idea of Buddhism is shown as the major concept throughout the whole small talk, the other two Teachings including Confucianism and Daoism are also sufficiently blended in the whole master piece. As a matter of fact, Monkey blends Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism together, which form in Neo-Confucianism. Throughout the whole book, their characteristics and the experience they went through show the ritual and benevolence in Confucianism idea, adopt the natural way in Daoist philosophy, and explain the path to reach Nirvana in Buddhist belief.
The backgrounds of the main characters can represent the influence by three Teachings. First of all, in the whole book, Tripitaka blended the Confucianism ritual and benevolence traits into Buddhism suffering Nirvana process, and eventually got the true meaning of Buddhism and became a Bodhisattva. Tripitaka, the core character of this west Journey, was the son of Chen O who received the first place at the final Court Examination and married the daughter of the minister. Civil Exam was an examination that adheres to Confucian values. In other words, Tripitaka was actually born this life in the family that had faith in Confucian conception. This was quite different from his previous life. In his previous existence, the true identity of Tripitaka was revealed in the last chapter as Tathagata’s second disciple, and the reason he was going on journey was explained by the Buddha: “Because you paid no heed to my