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During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the integration of the three religions gradually became the mainstream of society, especially among non-monastic groups. People preferred to discuss the three religions together, and this kind of thinking gradually became a mainstream ideology at that time, which was reflected in popular literature.
The culmination of the integration of the three religions is undoubtedly "Journey to the West", which contains many religious elements and has become a threshold for reading the original work of "Journey to the West".
If we look at "Journey to the West" from the perspective of the integration of the three religions, many strange plots can be easily explained.
The three religions refer to Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
The so-called integration of the three religions means that after more than a thousand years of debate between Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, they suddenly discovered that instead of entangling with each other, it is better to have a meal together. The integration of the three religions formed the Chinese culture at that time.
In "Journey to the West", there are not only the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness, but also the Taoist doctrine of alchemy, and the Confucian doctrine of controlling the mind. The combination of the three creates the achievement of "Journey to the West".
In "Journey to the West", Sun Wukong is called the "Monkey of the Mind", and he is matched with the White Dragon Horse, collectively known as the "Monkey of the Mind and the Horse of the Will".
"Monkey of the Mind and the Horse of the Will" refers to the difficulty of fixing one's consciousness.
For example, one second you may be thinking about whether to exercise in the evening, and the next second you may think of Changshu Arnold.
This ability of the mind and will is called the "Somersault Cloud" in "Journey to the West", which means that one somersault of a person's heart can cover a distance of tens of thousands of miles.
Sun Wukong represents a person's jumping heart, and Sun Wukong's journey is a journey of the heart.
In Buddhism, the path of cultivating the mind is nothing more than the concept of emptiness, so he is called Wukong. In Buddhism, emptiness means that everything in the world does not have a stable existence.
Cultivation, cultivation, not only requires cultivation but also action, so after Sun Wukong embarked on the journey to the west, he was also called Sun Xingzhe.
After understanding emptiness, one must act, so Zhu Bajie is called Suneng.
After emptiness and action, one must strive for progress, and then one can achieve purity, so he is called Wujing.
In the original text of "Journey to the West", the five disciples represent the five elements. In the book, Sun Wukong is called "Golden Monkey", which is a Taoist term meaning lead. Zhu Bajie is called "Wood Mother", which means mercury. Lead and mercury are important raw materials in alchemy during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Sha Wujing is called "Yellow Woman", which means matchmaker. It is the existence that reconciles lead and mercury in alchemy during the Yuan and Ming dynasties.
These are mentioned multiple times in the original work, such as "Wood Mother cheers for defeating monsters, Golden Monkey uses magic to destroy evil spirits", "The Zen Master swallows food and conceives a ghost, the Yellow Woman uses water to resolve the evil fetus", "Wood Mother encounters water monsters and is captured, the Monkey of the Mind is reluctant and searches hard", "The Yellow Lion Spirit sets up a fake banquet, Golden Wood Earth plan causes trouble on Leopard Head Mountain".
Sun Wukong represents gold, Zhu Bajie represents wood, and Sha Wujing represents earth.
In the original work, the attributes of Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing are clearly stated, but there is controversy about Tang Sanzang and the White Dragon Horse, and it is not clearly stated who belongs to fire and who belongs to water.
Some people believe that Tang Sanzang's name is Jiang Liu'er, his father is from Haizhou, and he went to Jiangzhou for official duties but died by drowning. He was later saved by the Dragon King and never left the water. The White Dragon Horse caused a fire by burning the bright pearl in the palace, so there is a fire element. In the 51st chapter, Sun Wukong's weapon was taken away, and Huode Xingjun was invited. Huode Xingjun's fire department has fire dragons and fire horses, and dragons and horses belong to the fire department. Therefore, Tang Sanzang riding a white horse belongs to water restraining fire.
Another view is the opposite. Tang Sanzang comes from Nan Zhan Bu Zhou, and the south represents fire, which belongs to the five elements. In the original work, Tang Sanzang is also called "Zen Master", "Zen Machine", "Red Child". The Zen Master is the core of the team, and among the five internal organs, the heart is the monarch's organ, and the heart belongs to fire. The heart is fiery and ever-changing, so Tang Sanzang's character is unpredictable and prone to mood swings. The White Dragon Horse comes from the Western Sea and lives in the Eagle Sorrow Gorge, which belongs to water.
Although "Journey to the West" corresponds to the relationship between the five people and the five elements, there are contradictions when read carefully.
For example, Sun Wukong is called the Monkey of the Mind and the Golden Monkey, which may not be from the same author. The Monkey of the Mind belongs to the heart among the five internal organs, and the five elements should belong to fire. The Golden Monkey belongs to the metal element, and the five internal organs should be the lungs. The names of the Monkey of the Mind and the Golden Monkey are mentioned many times throughout the book.
If it is the same author, there should not be such contradictions.
This situation is probably because the "Journey to the West" we see today did not come into being overnight. During its hundreds of years of birth, each creator would revise, add, and incorporate their own insights and propositions into the content of their predecessors.
Starting with the five elements is because the theory of the five elements in the original work is chaotic and contradictory, which led to its rejection. When reading it, you can consider the Monkey of the Mind and the Golden Monkey and the Wood Mother as two different systems.
What? You feel even more confused after reading it? Don't worry, not being good at physics doesn't affect your life, and not understanding the theory of yin and yang and the five elements doesn't prevent you from reading "Journey to the West". But the premise is to have a basic understanding of it, so that you won't feel more annoyed as you read it, and eventually you won't be able to continue reading.