Here's a novel based on historical fact, but which quite obviously includes a lot of fantastical elements that didn't happen – or if they did, we're going to have to re-evaluate all our assumptions about reality. I've been trying to recollect anything in my reading experience that similarly treats historical events as grist for the fantastical mill, and I can't come up with a thing, certainly not in the "modern" age. It's a loss.
The factual account is as follows: Back in around the year 602, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang took note of the fact that in his country, although Buddhist belief and practice had taken root, there wasn't much in the way of authoritative scripture to guide people like himself in the correct way. He decided to go to India, the source of Buddhism and indeed the birthplace of the Buddha himself, to collect books for guidance. On foot and horseback, the trip there and back took him roughly 15 years, but he was so successful that Chinese Buddhism is actually more normative worldwide today than the Indian sort. Zen, a type highly familiar in the States, is actually a variety of Buddhism that the Japanese adapted from China.
Well, what does this have to do with monkeys? This, of course, is where the fantasy elements come in. The story (written 900 to 1000 years after Xuanzang's actual trip) begins at the very beginning of time, in which the first of the monkeys emerges from an egg-shaped rock on a mountain peak. Over time, as other monkeys join him, he learns increasing amounts of very powerful magic, until he goes so far as to assert his status as the Equal of Heaven. Sounds pretty extreme, but he actually gives the Heavenly authorities including the Jade Emperor a run for their money as he fights and defeats men, demons, other heavenly authorities and whoever else tries to curb him, until Heaven has had enough and imprisons him under a mountain for 500 years. In other words, he's a good example of the lovable rogue type.
We are about halfway through "Journey To The West" now, and no one has really journeyed anywhere. It's at this point that the Heavenly authorities send one of their number, the goddess Guanyin, to find someone in China to journey to India for those reliable scriptures his people need. You know who that is, of course. He's told that as he heads west he will encounter four magical beings to serve him, including our friend the monkey. Others include a man with a pig's face, a dragon in the shape of a horse, and a human monk named Sha. All of these creatures, like the monkey, have endured decades of punishment for their various sins, but have taken on Buddhism as a start to their repentance and will complete said atonement by their service. And off we go.
In addition to the regular prose narrative, we get frequent poetry on the subject of religion. It's interesting to note that our main characters, though Buddhist themselves, have no illusions about the supremacy of their faith. They're convinced that Buddhism is true, of course, and in fact meet the Buddha himself at the close of their journey (well of course they do – from whom else can they get the books they need?), but they meet plenty of evil people operating under the guise of Buddhism. They also meet plenty of Confucianists and Taoists of great virtue and piety who give them important help, and whom they treat with the utmost respect.
Also, it's a little startling to see how wrong-headed Xuanzang (here called the Great Master) can be. He and his party frequently meet up with various characters – old women and others in apparent need of help or in a position to offer food and shelter – who turn out to want to eat the Great Master without delay, because it seems that consuming the flesh of such a virtuous man would make them immortal. The monkey king inevitably knows that these characters are not what they seem and advises his party not to trust them, but the Great Master, true saint that he is, goes along with them and gets caught and nearly cooked. The monkey – who, you'll recall, spent the first half of our book fighting off his enemies – rescues his master and kills the various villains, at which point the Great Master scolds him for killing people. Small wonder that at one or two points, the monkey goes up to Heaven complaining about his treatment and threatening to quit, atonement or not. Fortunately for the Great Master, Heaven's authorities (spoiler alert) convince him to return.
In short, this is far from what I expected from a religious work. I can only assume that we see here some of the distinctions between Eastern and Western spirituality. In any case, the journey is successful, as it was in real life, and the heroes – whatever their shortcomings on the road – properly rewarded.
"Monkey: Journey To The West" is one of the four great works of Chinese literature. Like some of the others, it can be a bit repetitive – the party runs into trouble and someone, usually the monkey, bails them out using tactics he's used dozens of time before – but the piece has a good sense of humor about itself and enough of an overarching story to keep it moving forward. It's fun.
Benshlomo says, Saints need help from the more worldly among us from time to time.
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