The Emperor gave him also a horse and troops to be his companions to the west. But in the way, they were attacked by demi-devils who devoured all his companion. Tripitaka was saved and he continued his journey alone. This was his first difficulty to hold. for his journey. Tripitaka then was get helped by his three disciples. These three were not human being but the demi-gods in forms of monkey, pig and human. These demi-gods would help Tripitaka for the scriptures. It is said, the dragon king of the east sea then took a form as a white horse for Tripitaka rode for the journey to the west. In his journey, Tripitaka had to face many difficulties to reach India. But step by step, he had successfully been in India. Unfortunately, after Tripitaka got the scriptures and crossed the river, the winds blew up their boat and sank it with the scripture drowned into the river. Luckily they had been helped by the giant demi-god turtle. The story was ended with the narrated that they had found the Buddha, although they found no scriptures at all.
This story is founded on the condition and situation of Ming Dynasty.
This epic story is a captivating read, with the pilgrims getting into trouble in the most unexpected places, fighting through not only outright confrontation and abduction but also lies and disguises while using trickery of their own. Sun Wu Kong the Monkey King is especially good at this, having mastered the way of transforming himself into anything he likes, including a fly, tree, or a beautiful girl. Xi You Ji spans over a huge area, taking readers for a wild ride to the Heavens, volcanoes, seas, wide rivers, mountain peaks, demon-filled caves, right down to the pits of Hell. The plot is imaginative and full of conflict, either with external enemies or between the pilgrims themselves. The characters are well developed, with distinct, three-dimensional personalities. Well, most of them, at least. There are also underlying spiritual and religious themes. This masterpiece is frequently underestimated as it also portrays a realistic view of the political and social scenarios during the Ming Dynasty. In short, Xi You Ji is definitely worth your time. Grab the chance to experience one of the greatest classics of ancient China!
History of Xuan Zhang (Tripitaka)
The year was 600. The place was Chen He (Old River) Village of Henan (South of the River). In northern China, where the climate was cold and dry, Chen Yi was born. No one even suspected at the time that the youngest boy of this respected family would one day grow up to be the famous scholar and pilgrim, Xuan Zang. The Chen family consisted of a long line of government officials and scholars of Confucianism. Chen Yi was also expected to follow in his ancestors' footsteps. Fortunately for all Buddhists, his father, Chen Hui, was also extremely interested in Buddhism, and studied both of these religions at home. Naturally, this was a major influence on the little Chen Yi, and when his second elder brother became a Buddhist monk at Jing Tu (Holy Land) Monastery, he also went there to practice and study Buddhism. In the same year, when he was merely six, he became a novice monk. Usually, only boys who are at least 7 years old are allowed be ordained as novice monks. However, he passed the rigorous tests, and therefore was ordained into the Buddhist order as an exception, taking on the name of 'Xuan Zang'.
From then on, he studied with his elder brother at Jing Tu Monastery. He studied both Theravada (Lesser Vehicle) and Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism, showing a preference for the latter. 'Greater Vehicle' refers to teachings that can 'ferry' all beings towards salvation, as opposed to the 'Lesser Vehicle' teachings that focus on personal awakening or enlightenment. From an early age, Xuan Zang's extraordinary intelligence stood out. By listening to a lecture on a scripture one single time and studying it by himself another time, he could memorize an entire scripture. This was amazing considering that each scripture consists of millions of words. His fellow monks hailed him as a genius. When his father died in 611, he and his brother continued studying at Jing Tu monastery, until political unrest forced him to flee to the city of Changan (Eternal Peace - now known as Xi An). After that, he went to Chengdu of Sichuan (Four Rivers) for further studying, growing in knowledge and reputation. At age 20, Xuan Zang was fully ordained as a Buddhist monk. The more Xuan Zang studied, the more he was dissatisfied with the quality of the Buddhist texts available. There were many different interpretations of a single scripture, most contradicting each other. There was no one single standard version of the scriptures. This was because the translations of the Buddhist scriptures of that period were mostly done by foreign monks, from India and elsewhere. Language barriers hindered accurate translation, compounded by the fact that each translator had different understandings of the original scriptures themselves, which were inherently hard to understand. Different branches of Buddhism also complicated the process of interpretation. The followers of each branch had different views of the teachings, which were frequently disputed by members of different sects. All these led Xuan Zang to a conclusion: In order to gain true understanding, he would have to go to the West to get the original holy scriptures. As fate would have it, a disciple of Abbot Silabhadra (the president and highest ranking monk of Nalanda University) arrived in Changan by sea. When he knew that Xuan Zang was planning a pilgrimage to India, he told Xuan Zang: "To really understand the true meanings of the holy texts, you must go to Nalanda University and study under the Abbot Silabhadra." Therefore, Xuan Zang fixed his goal as Nalanda University in India - the real life equivalent of the fictional Thundersound Monastery of the Western Heavens in the novel Journey to the West.
Pilgrimage
In 629, Xuan Zang was about 28 years old. It was three years after the Emperor Tang Zhen Guan ascended to the throne. The Gokturks (Eastern Turks) were constantly attacking at the western borders, therefore the government had closed down the roads to the west, prohibiting everyone except merchants and foreigners from traveling in that direction. It was at this time of unrest that Xuan Zang and some other monks with the same goal applied for passports (known as 'guo shuo' at the time) to journey to India. The government refused to grant their request. The other monks gave up. Xuan Zang, determined to make the journey, sneaked out of Chang An. Along the way, he was stopped at Liang Zhou as he didn't have a passport. A renown Buddhist abbot helped him to slip out. He rode by night and hid by day, eventually reaching Gua Zhou. However, a government document ordering his capture arrived at the same time. Luckily, the officials there were devout Buddhists and suspended the document, letting him go. Xuan Zang had now successfully evaded capture by the government. However, the real dangers still lay before him. Unlike in the fictional Journey to the West, the threats came not from demons, waiting to kill him and eat his flesh. The dangers the real life Xuan Zang faced were more mundane, but equally life-threatening. And as Xuan Zang left the safety of the Yu Men Guan (Gates of Jade), he stepped right into the first danger - the vast, dry Gobi Desert, with its extreme temperatures, both the scorching heat of the day and the freezing cold of the night deadly to travelers. The extreme temperatures together with the lack of water, food, and shelter made the desert a death trap for travelers of that century. Death lay along the road to the west, literally. As Xuan Zang rode his horse into the desert, a lonely, desolate figure in the shifting sands, he saw human bones, evidently the remains of travelers that, like him, had the courage to take on the challenge of the dangerous Gobi Desert without permission from the government. Unlike him, they had lost. Some of them, Xuan Zang knew, were pilgrims to the west like him.
As if the natural dangers weren't enough, there were five sentry towers in the Gobi Desert. The sentries were ordered to shoot and kill all travelers without a passport. When Xuan Zang sneaked past them, he was almost shot to death by arrows. In his efforts to evade them, he got lost and wandered for days in the Gobi Desert without water or food. He was close to death when his mount, a horse who had often traversed the desert, brought him to an oasis, which saved his life. In the 'Biography of Master Tripitaka of the Great Ci'en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty' by his disciples, it is recorded that on the fifth night, when Xuan Zang lay in the sand, unable to go any further, a mysterious man with the height of a giant came to him in his dreams and commanded him to get up and move! After Xuan Zang got to his feet and wandered aimlessly for some distance, his horse got excited and rushed in a certain direction, leading him to an oasis, thus saving his life. The formation of the character Sha Wu Jing (Friar Sand) was modeled after this man of Xuan Zang's dream.
After escaping certain death, Xuan Zang plodded on resolutely to Kumul, an oasis city, and followed the Chu River valley into Central Asia. He arrived at Turfan, known then as Gao Chang (Height of Prosperity) Country. The king of Turfan was a devout Buddhist who sent four novice monks and twenty five other people to journey with him, in addition to giving him letters of introduction and supplies. After they left Turfan, they had to cross a mountain of ice, the Victory Peak, also known as Mount Ling. While traversing the mountain which was covered with glaciers, one third of Xuan Zang's entourage died. The luckier ones suffered quick deaths when they were hit by great chunks of ice, broken off the glaciers by the wind. Others were buried alive by avalanches. Some, while traveling on the dangerous mountain paths, lost their footing and fell to their deaths. Others froze to death. Some fell through cracks in the glaciers, finding their resting places in coffins of ice. Yet Xuan Zang's determination to reach India did not diminish in the least. He continued to cross the Tian Shan (Celestial Mountains), and finally reached what is now known as Kyrgyzstan through the Bedal Pass.
Xuan Zang's journey to the west continued, passing various countries, visiting sites of Buddhism along the way. He arrived at the Nava Vihara (New Monastery), where he acquired the Mahavibhasa text, and studied Theravada Buddhism with the master Prajnakara. However, he was a devout advocate of Mahayana Buddhism, which preached that monks should not merely strive for personal enlightenment, as advocated by the Theravada sect, but instead, should be compassionate and help all beings to achieve salvation. His motive for studying the Theravada scriptures was not because he revered them, instead, he studied them so that he could attack the weaknesses in the Theravada teachings. After leaving, he traveled through other places until finally, he reached India through the Khyber Pass.
It took three years for Xuan Zang to reach India. For the most part, he journeyed alone. It was a miracle that he survived the deserts, the mountains of snow, the desolate plains, the heat, the sandstorms... Getting to India alive and in one piece was a great accomplishment in of itself.
