The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 1
Page 2
My dependence on modern scholarship devoted to this work is apparent everywhere in both the introduction and the translation itself. I have stressed, however, in my discussion of the work those narrative devices and structural elements which have received comparatively little attention from recent commentators. For, in addition to being a work of comedy and satire masterfully wrought, The Journey to the West appears to embody elements of serious allegory derived from Chinese religious syncretism which any critical interpretation of it can ill afford to ignore.
A small portion of the introduction first appeared as “Heroic Verse and Heroic Mission: Dimensions of the Epic in the Hsi-yu chi,” Journal of Asian Studies 31 (1972): 879–97, while another segment was written as part of an essay, “Religion and Allegory in the Hsi-yu chi,” for Persuasion: Critical Essays on Chinese Literature, edited by Joseph S.M. Lau and Leo Lee (in preparation).
The commitment to so large an undertaking can hardly be kept without the encouragement and support of friends both at the University of Chicago and elsewhere. It has been my good fortune since my arrival at Chicago to have had Nathan Scott as a teacher and a colleague. He is an unfailing and illuminating guide in the area of literary theory and theological criticism, and my gratitude for the sustaining friendship of Professor Scott and his wife for more than a decade cannot be expressed in a few words. From the beginning, Dean Joseph Kitagawa of the University of Chicago’s Divinity School has not only urged me to attempt this translation, but has also faithfully provided thoughtful assistance which has enabled me to carry forward, without too great disruption, each phase of research and writing in the face of equally demanding academic and administrative responsibilities. To Herlee Creel, Elder Olson, Mircea Eliade, Frank Reynolds, James Redfield (all of Chicago), C.T. Hsia (Columbia University), Joseph Lau (University of Wisconsin), and Giles Gunn (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), I must say that the warmth of their friendship and their enthusiasm for the project have been a constant source of strength and inspiration. David Roy has generously placed his superb library and his vast knowledge of Chinese literature at my disposal; the many discussions with him have saved me from several serious errors. David Grene has taught me, more by example than by precept, a good deal about the art of translation. Portions of this volume have also been read by D.C. Lau (University of London) and Nathan Sivin (MIT); their searching criticisms and suggestions, along with those of an anonymous reader, have decisively improved the manuscript.
I am indebted also to Philip Kuhn and Najita Tetsuo, past and present directors of the Far Eastern Language and Area Center at the University, for making available the needed funds at various stages of research. A grant by the Leopold Schepp Foundation of New York in the summer of 1973 enabled me to visit Japan and Taiwan to study the early editions of the narrative. The gracious hospitality and stimulating conversations provided by Kubo Noritada (Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo), Nakamura Kyoko (University of Tokyo), Tanaka Kenji (Jinbun Kagak’u Kenkyūjo), and Abe Masao (Nara University) made my stay in Japan unforgettable, though it was all too brief.
My thanks are due, too, to T.H. Tsien and his able staff at the Far Eastern Library of the University of Chicago (Tai Wen-pei, Robert Petersen, Ma Tai-loi, Ho Hoi-lap, and Kenneth Tanaka), who have offered me every assistance in the acquisition of materials and in the investigation of texts, and to Mrs. T.H. Tsien, whose elegant calligraphy has graced the pages of this edition. Araki Michio, doctoral candidate at the Divinity School and my sometime research assistant, has been invaluable in helping me read Japanese scholarship. Edmund Rowan, doctoral candidate at the Department of Far Eastern Languages and Civilizations, has proofread the entire typescript with meticulous care and discerning criticisms. No brief statement is adequate to indicate the selfless and painstaking labor of Mrs. Donna Guido and Miss Susan Hopkins in the preparation of the manuscript. Finally, I owe the successful completion of this first volume above all else to my wife and my young son. For their affectionate exhortations, for their unswerving devotion to the translation, and for their cheerful forbearance toward long stretches of obsessive work, the dedication betokens only a fraction of my gratitude.
Abbreviations
Antecedents Glen Dudbridge, The “Hsi-yu chi”: A Study of Antecedents to the Sixteenth-Century Chinese Novel (Cambridge, 1970)
Bodde Derk Bodde, Festivals in Classical China (Princeton and Hong Kong, 1975)
BPZ Baopuzi , Neipian and Waipian. SBBY
BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Campany Robert Ford Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s “Traditions of Divine Transcendents” (Berkeley, 2002)
CATCL The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair (New York, 1994)
CHC The Cambridge History of China, eds. Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (15 vols. in multiple book-length parts. Cambridge and New York, 1978–2009)
CHCL The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair (New York, 2001)
CJ Anthony C. Yu, Comparative Journeys: Essays on Literature and Religion East and West (New York, 2008)
CLEAR Chinese Literature: Essays Articles Reviews
CQ China Quarterly
DH Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden, 2000)
DHBWJ Dunhuang bianwenji , ed. Wang Zhongmin (2 vols., Beijing, 1957)
DJDCD Daojiao da cidian , ed. Li Shuhuan (Taipei, 1981)
DJWHCD Daojiao wenhua cidian , ed. Zhang Zhizhe (Shanghai, 1994)
DZ Zhengtong Daozang (36 vols. Reprinted by Wenwu, 1988). Second set of numbers in JW citations refers to volume and page number.
ET The Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio (2 vols., London and New York, 2008)
FSZ Da Tang Da Ci’ensi Sanzang fashi zhuan , comp. Huili and Yancong . T 50, #2053. Text cited is that printed in SZZSHB.
1592 Xinke chuxiang guanban dazi Xiyouji , ed. Huayang dongtian zhuren . Fasc. rpr. of Jinling Shidetang edition (1592) in Guben xiaoshuo jicheng , vols. 499–502 (Shanghai, 1990)
FXDCD Foxue da cidian , comp. and ed., Ding Fubao (fasc. rpr. of 1922 ed. Beijing, 1988)
HFTWJ Liu Ts’un-yan [Cunren] , Hefengtang wenji (3 vols., Shanghai, 1991)
HJAS Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
HR History of Religions
Herrmann Albert Hermann, An Historical Atlas of China, new ed. (Chicago, 1966)
Hu Shi (1923) Hu Shi , “Xiyouji kaozheng ,” in Hu Shi wencun (4 vols., Hong Kong, 1962), 2: 354–99
Hucker Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford, 1985)
IC The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. and comp. William H. Nienhauser Jr. (Bloomington, IN, 1986)
Isobe Isobe Akira , Saiyūki keiseishi no kenkyū (Tokyo, 1993)
j juan
JA Journal asiatique
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JAS Journal of Asian Studies
JCR Journal of Chinese Religions
JMDJCD Jianming Daojiao cidian , comp. and ed., Huang Haide et al., (Chengdu, 1991)
JW The Journey to the West (Refers only to the four-volume translation of Xiyouji by Anthony C. Yu published by the University of Chicago Press, 1977–1983, of which the present volume is the first of four in a complete revised edition.)
Lévy André Lévy, trad., Wu Cheng’en, La Pérégrination vers l’Ouest, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (2 vols., Paris, 1991)
Li Li Angang Piping Xiyouji (2 vols., Beijing, 2004)
Little Stephen Little with Shawn Eichman, Daoism and the Arts of China (Art Institute of Chicago, in association with University of California Press, 2000)
LSYYJK Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan
LWJ “Xiyouji” yanjiu lunwenji (Beijing, 1957)
MDHYCH Gu Zhichuan , Mingdai Hanyu cihui yanjiu (Kaifeng, Henan, 2000)
Monkey Monkey: Folk Novel of China by Wu Ch’eng-en, trans. Arthur Waley (London, 1943)
/>
Ōta Ōta Tatsuo , Saiyūki no kenkyū (Tokyo, 1984)
Plaks Andrew H. Plaks, The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel (Princeton, 1987)
Porkert Manfred Porkert, The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine: Systems of Correspondence (Cambridge, MA, 1974)
QSC Quan Songci , ed. Tang Guizhang (5 vols., 1965; rpr. Tainan, 1975)
QTS Quan Tangshi (12 vols., 1966; rpr. Tainan, 1974)
Saiyūki Saiyūki , trans. Ōta Tatsuo and Torii Hisayasu . Chūgoku koten bungaku taikei , 31–32 (2 vols., Tokyo, 1971)
SBBY Sibu beiyao
SBCK Sibu congkan
SCC Joseph Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China (7 vols. in 27 book-length parts. Cambridge, 1954)
Schafer Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1977)
SCTH Sancai tuhui (1609 edition)
Soothill A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, comp. William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodus (rpr. 1934 ed. by London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. Taipei, 1970)
SSJZS Shisanjing zhushu (2 vols., Beijing, 1977)
SZZSHB Tang Xuanzang Sanzang zhuanshi huibian , ed. Master Guangzhong (Taipei, 1988)
T Taishō shinshū dai-zōkyō , eds. Takakusu Junijirō and Watanabe Kaikyoku (85 vols., Tokyo, 1934)
TC The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the “Daozang”, eds. Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen (3 vols., Chicago, 2004)
TP T’oung Pao
TPGJ Taiping guangji , comp. and ed. Li Fang (5 vols., rpr. Tainan, 1975)
TPYL Taiping yulan , comp. and ed. Li Fang (4 vols., Beijing, 1960)
Unschuld Paul U. Unschuld, trans. and annotated, Nan-Ching: The Classic of Difficult Issues (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1986)
Veith Ilza Veith, trans., The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, new ed. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1972)
WCESWJ Wu Cheng’en shiwenji , ed. Liu Xiuye (Shanghai, 1958).
XMGZ Xingming guizhi , authorship attributed to an advanced student of one Yin Zhenren , in Zangwai Daoshu (36 vols., Chengdu, 1992–1994), 9: 506–95. For JW, I also consult a modern critical edition published in Taipei, 2005, with a comprehensive and learned set of annotations by Fu Fengying . The citation from this particular edition will be denominated as XMGZ-Taipei.
XYJ Wu Cheng’en , Xiyouji (Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1954). Abbreviation refers only to this edition.
XYJCD Xiyouji cidian , comp. and ed. Zeng Shangyan (Zhengzhou, Henan, 1994)
XYJTY Zheng Mingli , Xiyouji tanyuan (2 vols., 1982; rpr. Taipei, 2003)
XYJYJZL Xiyouji yanjiu zhiliao , ed. Liu Yinbo (Shanghai, 1982)
XYJZLHB “Xiyouji” zhiliao huibian (Zhongzhou, Henan, 1983)
YYZZ Youyang zazu (SBCK edition)
ZYZ Zhongyao zhi (4 vols., Beijing, 1959–1961).
Yang Yang Fengshi , Zhongguo zhengtong Daojiao da cidian (2 vols., Taipei, 1989–1992) Yü Chün-fang Yü, Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteśvara (New York, 2001)
ZHDJDCD Zhonghua Daojiao da cidian , ed. Hu Fuchen et al. (Beijing, 1995)
Zhou Zhou Wei , Zhongguo bingqishi gao (Beijing, 1957)
Citations from all Standard Histories, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Kaiming edition of Ershiwushi (9 vols., 1934; rpr. Taipei, 1959). Citations of text with traditional or simplified characters follow format of publications consulted.
Introduction
I HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ANTECEDENTS
The story of the late-Ming novel Xiyouji (The Journey to the West) is loosely based on the famous pilgrimage of Xuanzang (596?–664), the monk who went from China to India in quest of Buddhist scriptures. He was not the first to have undertaken such a long and hazardous journey. According to a modern scholar’s tabulations,1 at least fifty-four named clerics before him, beginning with Zhu Shixing in 260 CE, had traveled westward both for advanced studies and to fetch sacred writings, though not all of them had reached the land of their faith. After Xuanzang, there were another fifty or so pilgrims who made the journey, the last of whom was the monk Wukong , who stayed in India for forty years and returned in the year 789.2 Xuanzang’s journey, therefore, was part of the wider movement of seeking the Dharma in the West, which spanned nearly five centuries. His extraordinary achievements and his personality, neither of which this novel attempts to depict literally, became part of the permanent legacy of Chinese Buddhism. He was, by most accounts, one of the best-known and most revered Buddhist monks.
Born probably in the year 596 in the province of Henan ,3 in Tangera Chenliu county of Luozhou (now Goushi county ), Xuanzang, whose secular surname was Chen and given name Wei , is described by his biographers as having come from a family of fairly prominent officials. His grandfather Chen Kang was erudite (professor more or less) in the School for the Sons of the State (guozi boshi ), a moderately high rank. Xuanzang’s father Chen Hui mastered the classics early and loved to affect the appearance of a Confucian scholar. Xuanzang himself was reputed to have been a precocious child. When he was but eight years old and reciting the Classic of Filial Piety before his father, the young boy suddenly leapt to his feet to tidy his clothes. As the reason for his abrupt action, the youth declared: “Master Zeng [one of Confucius’s disciples] heard his teacher’s voice and rose from his mat. How could Xuanzang sit still when he hears his father’s teachings?”4 Despite this alleged practice of received virtue, the death of his father two years later and the influence of an elder brother who was a Buddhist monk already (Chen Su , religious name, Zhangjie ) might have led to his joining the monastic community in the eastern Tang capital of Luoyang at age thirteen. Even at this time he had developed a deep interest in the study of Buddhist scriptures, and he later journeyed with his brother to the western capital of Chang’an (today’s Xi’an ) to continue his studies with that city’s eminent clerics.
Xuanzang grew up in a period of tremendous social and intellectual ferment in Chinese history. Yang Jian (r. 581–604), the founding emperor of the Sui dynasty, came to power in 581, and though the dynasty itself lasted less than forty years (581–618), its accomplishments, in Arthur Wright’s words, were
prodigious and its effects on the later history of China were far-reaching. It represented one of those critical periods in Chinese history . . . when decisions made and measures taken wrought a sharp break in institutional development in the fabric of social and political life. The Sui reunified China politically after nearly three hundred years of disunion; it reorganized and unified economic life; it made great strides in the re-establishment of cultural homogeneity throughout an area where subcultures had proliferated for over three centuries. Its legacy of political and economic institutions, of codified law and governmental procedures, of a new concept of empire, laid the foundations for the great age of Tang which followed.5
It was also a time marked by the revival of religious traditions, for Sui Wendi (Yang Jian) actively sought the support and sanction of all three religions—Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism—to consolidate his empire, thus reversing the persecutory policies of some of his predecessors in the Northern Zhou dynasty and providing exemplary actions for the early Tang emperors in the next dynasty.6 Though he might lack some of the personal piety of a previous Buddhist emperor such as Liang Wudi (r. 502–49), Wendi himself was unquestionably a devout believer whose imperial patronage gave to the Buddhist community the kind of support, security, and stimulus for growth not unlike that received by the Christian church under Constantine. This Chinese emperor began a comprehensive program of constructing stūpas and enshrining sacred relics in emulation of the Indian monarch Aśoka. He also established various assemblies of priests to propagate the faith and study groups to promote sound doctrines. Even allowing for some exaggerations in the Buddhist sources, it was apparent that Buddhism, by the end of the Sui dynasty, had enjoyed remarkable growth, as evidenced by the vast increase of converts, clerics, and temples throughout the
land.
That Xuanzang himself at an early age was very much caught up in the intellectual activities spreading through his religious community at this time could perhaps best be seen in the kind of training he received as a young acolyte. His biographers mentioned specifically that after he first entered the Pure Land Monastery in Luoyang, he studied with abandonment the Niepan jing (Nirvāṇa Sūtra) and the She dasheng lun (Mahāyāna-saṁparigraha śāstra) with two tutors (FSZ, j 1). These two works are significant to the extent that they may shed light on part of the doctrinal controversy continuing for some three centuries in Chinese Buddhism. A major Mahāyāna text, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, was translated three times: first by Faxian in collaboration with Buddha-bhadra, then by Dharmakshema of Bei Liang in 421, and again by a group of southern Chinese Buddhists led by Huiyan (363–443) in the Yuanjia era (424–453). Its widespread appeal, particularly in the south, and its repeated discussions can readily be attributed to the emphasis on a more inclusive concept of enlightenment and salvation. According to Kenneth Ch’en, the Buddhists until this time had been taught that there is no self in nirvāṇa. In this sūtra, however, they are told that the Buddha possesses an immortal self, and that the final state of nirvāṇa is one of bliss and purity enjoyed by the eternal self. Saṁsāra is thus a pilgrimage leading to the final goal of union with the Buddha, and this salvation is guaranteed by the fact that all living beings possess the Buddha-nature. All living beings from the beginning of life participated in the Buddha’s eternal existence, and thereby dignity is granted them as children of the Buddha.7