Huang Paoguai joked.

The Monkey King: Smart and witty, not afraid of hardship, savvy, but anxious.

Pig Bajie: ugly on the surface, lustful and greedy, but kind at heart.

Friar Sand: Plain-looking, loyal, inarticulate, silent and dedicated.

Tang Priest: Defender of justice, very kind-hearted, leading his powerless disciples to control the Monkey King's behavior with the help of Guanyin's spell. He has calculation.

There are not many successful artistic images in The Journey to the West, and most of the characters lack vitality, but several successful characters are flesh and blood and are highly typical.

First, the Monkey King. This is the main character of the work, and it is also one of the most successful, well-known and beloved artistic images in all China's ancient novels.

(1) Image source.

I have said many times that the teacher's main task is to introduce relevant background and materials, and his own views are dispensable. Where did the image of the Monkey King come from? There are two views: imported and local.

1, import theory. The initiator of this statement is Hu Shi. 1923, Hu Shi put forward in the Textual Research of Journey to the West that the Monkey King is not a domestic product, but an Indian import. It is regarded as the China copy of Hanuman, a magical monkey in the Indian epic Ramayana. He said, "China and India have had close cultural exchanges for more than 1000 years, and countless Indians have come to China. Such a great Hanuman story will not spread to China. So I assume that Hanuman is the foundation of Sun Walker. " Zheng Zhenduo agreed in The Evolution of Journey to the West. Mr. Chen Yinque also affirmed that the Monkey King was related to the legendary Monkey King in India. After the liberation of the whole country, this statement gradually fell silent. However, after 1978 Indian Dance Company visited China, this statement became active again. The Monkey King and Indian Epic (People's Daily,1978.1.13) and Ramayana (world literature, 1978.2) reappeared. In particular, with his profound knowledge of Sanskrit and ancient Indian history, Mr Ji discussed the relationship between the Monkey King and Hanuman. He said: "Although some people deny this, the great magic of his random deformation can be found in the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures and in Ramayana."

2. Domestic theory. The initiator of this statement is Lu Xun. Shortly after Hu Shi's import theory was published, Lu Xun refuted it. He said: "I thought that the Monkey King in The Journey to the West was a kind of gas without support (the legendary Huaihe monster was like an ape when Yu was controlling water)." He put forward three reasons to refute: first, the people who made The Journey to the West did not read Buddhist scriptures; Second, there is no such image in the Buddhist scriptures translated by China; Thirdly, the author Wu Cheng'en read many legends of the Tang Dynasty, so he was greatly influenced. Later, Feng, and Peking University's Historical Draft of China's Ancient Novels also disagreed with the import. In Sanskrit literature, Jin Kemu thinks that the images of the two monkey gods are different, and there is no mention of this monkey god and his monkey palace in Chinese Buddhist scriptures, and the story of the monkey god and his monkey palace is also late, so the story of the two monkey gods can't prove any relationship. Ramayana has not been translated into our language. In the book Journey to the West and Others, Liu believes that the similarity between the two monkeys is just a coincidence, and there are countless such examples in the history of world literature, such as Satan and the Monkey King, Prometheus and Gun, and King Solomon. This coincides with mine.

The leaders of the two schools are academic leaders, so it is difficult to compete. I personally agree with Hu Shi. First of all, the saying that unsupported qi is like an ape appeared very late, after Buddhism had spread all over China. There was this legend after the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Li Gongzuo wrote "Chatting in the Curtain", claiming to be the "Ancient Yue blasphemy sutra", which said that when Yu was in charge of water conservancy, he chained the ape-like Huai water god with no support. Gu Jing was invented by himself. But when folklore has a basis. At the same time, Li Zhao and Gong Zuo also said in "Tang Shi Supplement" that some people found chains in the water, and they were poor enough to get green macaques. "Later, there was a cloud in the Classic of Mountains and Seas:' Water beasts are good at doing harm, and there is no wonder at the foot of Suojun Mountain.' "There is no Shan Hai Jing in this version. Even if there is an ancient version, you can't see what it has to do with monkeys. So Hu Shi's bold assumption was influenced by India. Secondly, it doesn't matter whether The Journey to the West's novelists have read Buddhist scriptures, because there are monkeys in early Buddhist stories, and there is no evidence to prove that the novelists have not read Buddhist scriptures. I think the author of the novel must have read Buddhist scriptures because he is quite proficient in talking about Buddhism. Third, Hanuman is not included in the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures, and Ramayana is not translated into Chinese, which does not mean that people in Middle-earth will not know about this monkey. In ancient times, there were frequent cultural and commercial exchanges between China and India, and the possibility of oral literature interacting with each other was not ruled out, but it was also inevitable. So, why do we have to say that this image of Indian women and children is impossible to flow into China?

Of course, you can also take the monkey god, which has been circulating among the people in China for a long time, as the prototype. The key is to make sense and stick to it.

(B) the meaning of the image

Compared with Du Liniang and some characters in Jin Ping Mei, as we will talk about later, this image is relatively simple. The mainstream is nothing more than daring to resist, with high martial arts and loyalty. There is a lot of information in this field, you can find it yourself. I mainly want to introduce the meaning of the character, that is, what benefits we can get through this image.

1, ideological significance. This image, the author wants him to be regarded as a hero who "dedicated himself to his ideal", a model figure and a symbol of "ideological reform". People should pursue their own ideals, which is affirmed by the author, but the pursuit should be standardized and in line with the overall interests of society, rather than blindly messing around. In him, it more embodies the positive spirit of "healthy and self-improvement" in traditional culture.

Although the descriptions in the first seven chapters and the last seven chapters are unified, their ideological meanings are obviously different. The first seven times have been written by the Buddha at the foot of Wuzhishan from the birth of the stone monkey. From the author's original intention, it is written about an unpolluted ape who went to seek Buddhism in order to live a long life, fell into the left door and was finally reported by the world. This explains the Buddhism of "all demons are born in the heart". If you don't seek Buddhism, although you don't possess yourself, you can't surpass the six divisions in the karma wheel. But today's readers can often read about the yearning for freedom and the suppression of individuals by natural society. Moreover, with the growth of age, various desires and demands have emerged. However, it is impossible for nature and society to satisfy everyone's wishes, so that people's desires and pursuits have to be restricted. The essence of man is freedom, so it is bound to conflict with the environment. Of course, in the end, individuals always have to make greater compromises. This is the conclusion we saw in the story of making a scene in heaven in our works. But it can't be said that this struggle for freedom of marriage is meaningless. Because only in the struggle with nature and society can human beings move from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. Just like the hyperbolic equation in analytic geometry, it is always approaching the ultimate goal.

The last ninety chapters are the theme of adventure. The author wants to illustrate the difficulty of practicing Zen by learning from the scriptures. He needs to overcome the interference and limitation of the outside world and himself at any time, and move forward wholeheartedly, and finally he will be happy and practice Buddhism. But when reading, like reading other adventure works, we can get two inspirations: one is relatively simple, that is, a happy life, a lofty realm and a perfect personality are not easy to achieve, and we must go through countless difficulties and obstacles; The other layer is more secret. In fact, the story development process of Adventure is exactly the same as Marx's judgment on myth, which is that people are eager to realize the impossible things in reality with the help of unnatural forces, symbolizing the process of people moving from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. It can inspire people to believe that freedom will surely overcome unfriendliness. By the way, most myths can be classified as adventure motifs.

2. Aesthetic significance. This mythical figure is not a possible figure in reality, but it has a realistic foundation, otherwise it will not be loved and recognized by readers.

He is a natural stone monkey, but he lives in a society similar to human beings, and has successively entered the celestial world and the Buddhist world. So he is a monkey, a man and a god. Animal nature, humanity and divinity are unified in him. The author closely follows these three points to write this character. The author did not leave the animal attribute of this character. Mao-faced Leigong mouth, bowlegged legs, crutches. The master and apprentice were captured by the king of Jinjiao thirty-four times, and escaped like a little demon, with their feet by the emperor and Pig hanging from them, saying, "Although you changed your head, you haven't turned into a donkey. Are those two famous books on your ass? " So I know you. "This is a basic principle when the author writes this character. He always remembers that he is a monkey, so he will never give up this at any time. Even if it becomes a temple, there is still no way to change the tail, so we have to put it behind as a flagpole and be seen by Erlang God. Not only in appearance, but also in behavior, he is scratching his head, active and restless for a moment, which is in stark contrast to Zhu Bajie's laziness and unwillingness to move. When he was in the car, he tried to compete in meditation. When he heard this, he panicked, saying that he was kicking the sky and drilling wells, stirring the sea and crossing the river, catching the moon with his back, and changing things, but he was afraid of meditation. Even if you lock yourself on an iron post, you have to climb up and down. The author is like this, so that readers will never forget that he is a monkey. This, of course, is much more vivid than the monkey turning into Untitled Scholar in the Buddhist scriptures. However, he has human nature such as emotion, especially an indomitable hero, who changed from hostility against the established social order to a hero who devoted himself to the just cause. These behaviors can stimulate people's enterprising and positive spirit, and have nothing to do with decadence and negativity. And some of the personality characteristics of ordinary people are also his own, such as optimism and humor, competitiveness, wearing a high hat to brag and so on. These are also very easy to arouse the reader's intimacy and see his own shadow in him. In the eyes of readers, he is just a strange-looking and lively guy. At the same time, he is a god. He has a golden cudgel, weighing 13500 Jin. He is good at magic, and his head is stiff and seventy-two changes. Now he can stand tall, become a fly and get into the belly of an iron fan princess ... the author has given him almost all the magical powers he can think of. Monkeys, gods and people are so perfectly combined in this artistic image. It doesn't make any sense. It will never be this again. And these three points have a common name. For example, this little guy is like a monkey, and he is talking about a monkey; And this guy is as smart as the Monkey King when talking about people; And this can be like the Monkey King, talking about God. In China's former literary galleries, no image can do this.

The appearance of this image in the supernatural novels marks a great breakthrough in China's romantic literature, and is a great gain and progress in the ancient aesthetic history of China.

Second, pig eight quit. In the works, this character image has unique ideological and aesthetic significance. He is in sharp contrast with the Monkey King and Tang Priest, each according to a corner of the triangle, which sets each other off and brings out the best in each other. He and the Monkey King are both unrealistic figures carefully shaped by romanticism. As Xie said, the Monkey King is the "Italian God". Although he is restless, he is always pursuing a lofty spiritual realm, and detours are inevitable, but as long as he is guided and restrained, he can reach the highest and purest realm of life. Pig Bajie, on the other hand, is "listless", showing his longing for real life enjoyment, being content with the status quo and not seeking progress. These two kinds of mentality are not conducive to the promotion of the realm of life. However, compared with the restless "heart ape", the negative emotions often reflected in Zhu Bajie are not conducive to the promotion of the realm of life. Because the former is the driving force after all, and the latter is mostly the braking force. Both are based on the deep soil of traditional culture. The Monkey King embodies more positive factors in traditional culture, such as the spirit of going forward bravely and never giving up until you reach your goal. This religious dedication is positive, consistent with the positive ideal of life in traditional culture, and gives people high-spirited power, so he is a hero. However, Pig Bajie embodies more negative factors in traditional culture. This is a typical hedonism. This is the common feature of workers under the small-scale peasant economy. He has both advantages and disadvantages of this kind of person.

The most prominent fault of this man is selfishness. In any case, he always considers his own interests first. This determines several weaknesses in his character.

The first is short-sightedness, which only sees immediate interests and has no foresight. After learning the scriptures, he also knew that it was a good thing, and his merits were boundless, so under the persuasion of Guanyin, he agreed to go to the Western Heaven to learn the scriptures with the Tang Priest. However, when he became a monk, he did not have the great sense of crisis and the imminent desire to turn over a new leaf and pursue liberation as the Monkey King did, but in the final analysis, it was a utilitarian consideration. So, as soon as he was accepted by the Monkey King, he shaved his head and became a monk, and prepared to go to the Buddhist paradise with Tang Priest. Gao Lao revealed his idea of being content with three meals a day and his wife living with a hot kang without becoming a monk. "Husband, look at my bastard. I'm afraid we can't get through, so we can go back to the customs and live with you as a son-in-law." Angered by the Monkey King, he explained, "Brother, I'm not talking nonsense. I'm afraid something will go wrong for a while, but it's not that the monk made a mistake, his wife got married in the wrong way, and both of them were delayed? " On the way to learn from the scriptures, he is also an out-and-out opportunist. Whenever he encounters difficulties, he quits, divides his luggage, and still goes back to Gao Laozhuang as a son-in-law.

The second is laziness. This is very prominent in the works. If you can be lazy, let him patrol the mountain, and he will find a place to hide and sleep.

The most prominent weakness in his works is lust. Of course, his greatest weakness is lust. According to China's traditional ethics, the stain on the relationship between men and women is something that heroes must avoid. In his works, Tang Priest is undisciplined. For example, in "Girl Country" and "Spider Spirit", he resolutely refused to go to bed, indicating that he has not fundamentally eliminated his mortal worldly desires and has not reached the state of doing nothing. And the Monkey King is a hero, she is not good at women. Pig Bajie is a master of lust. The author emphasized his weakness. In his last life, he was demoted to Marshal Tianpeng because he molested Chang 'e in the middle of the month after drinking. Although I voted for the pig fetus by mistake, I can't change my nature. His adoption is not to carry on the family line, but to satisfy his own desires. On the way to learn from the scriptures, he made mistakes in this respect. In Guanyin, four women, including Lishan's mother, were invited to listen to the Tang Priest and his party. Only he is the most active. He even said that if others refused to adopt their wives, he could not only marry his three daughters, but even his mother-in-law could marry them together. Bathing in spider essence is bold harassment. On the way to learn from the scriptures, others turned their backs and asked for Buddha, but he secretly saved private money and stuffed it in his ear with silver.

But he also has the advantage of being a small producer. Although he often slacks off without supervision, the heaviest work on the way to learn from the scriptures is always undertaken by him. He picked out all the luggage from beginning to end. Thorn ridge cleared the way, and 800 miles of thorns were leveled overnight. The sparse persimmon cave turned into a big pig, clean and filthy all the way, and made great contributions.

His personality color is also very rich. If the Monkey King is a combination of a monkey and a god, then when the author wrote this character, he wrote the characteristics of his pig and god. He has an amazing appetite, thinking all day, and rushing to eat when he sees food. When I was eating at Mr. Kou's house, I ate all the meals for the next three days. When I left, I put steamed bread, flower rolls, cakes and burnt fruits all over the floor. This is to catch the greedy side of pigs. Of course, this view of the character is superficial, and the author has written his combination of stupidity and cleverness. People often say that someone is as stupid as a pig, but in some countries, the police have tamed the pig into a drug search expert, that is to say, the born pig itself has these two characteristics. Both the Monkey King and Tang Priest call him a bookworm or a tramp, but he is really a bookworm. When the Monkey King surrendered to him, he broke the door of Zhan Yun cave with a stick. He shouted angrily, "You are really tired and lazy. What does it have to do with you? You broke my door? Look at the law and break into houses. That bastard committed a capital crime. " It's pedantic to talk about this with a deadly opponent before a life-and-death struggle. He went to Boyue Cave to find his master, and Huang Paoguai, the owner of the cave, said with a smile, "There is a Tang Priest in my family, and I have never neglected him. I will arrange some human flesh bags to eat with him, and you can go in and eat a penny. " He didn't even know that the master was a Buddhist and only ate meat, let alone the common sense of human flesh buns. He believes this and really wants to break it. Fortunately, Friar Sand caught me. The mind is really simple. It is no exaggeration to say that he is a fool.

But he also has a lot of cleverness. After the Tang Priest exiled the Monkey King, he was captured by Bai. In desperation, he had to ask the Monkey King to come out. The Monkey King asked him, "You idiot, when I left, I repeatedly reminded him,' If an evil spirit catches Master, you can say that I am his big disciple.' Why don't you say anything about me? At this moment, Pig had a brainwave, seized the Monkey King's weakness of arrogance and arrogance, and made up a lie and said, "Brother, he didn't say you were all right, but he just said you, but he was speechless. "Then he lied and said," I also have a big brother named Monkey Sun. He is omnipotent and good at reducing demons. When he came, he called you to a bad end! Hearing this, the monster became even more angry and scolded, "What monkey? I'm afraid of him! If he comes, I'll skin him, pull his tendons, chew his bones and eat his heart! Give him a break. I'll chop him up and fry him in oil. "This passage is the famous the Monkey King in The Journey to the West, which really made the Monkey King furious and decided to go out at once. What makes him smarter is that the country without promise got rid of monsters. The monster became the Tang Priest, and even the Monkey King didn't recognize him. He even advised the real Tang Priest to read the spell, and the fake Tang Priest was exposed. He also took the opportunity to make the Monkey King, who had been bullying himself, suffer YaBaKui and suffer.

He is also the funniest character in his works. The author uses the technique of comic game to describe this character. There is no doubt that these comic factors in his character belong to people. The author wrote this favorite character with a relaxed and teasing mood. I often think that when the author writes this character, I'm afraid he often can't help laughing. His attitude towards this role is to treat a beloved urchin, watching him be naughty and rushing into some irreparable disasters from time to time. It's really "favorite child hooligan". Patrol on Pingdingshan, he is lazy and sleepy, and he wants to lie. The author deliberately described it with funny cartoon brushwork. The Monkey King turned into a woodpecker and pecked his long beak. He shouted at the monster and swung the nail palladium, just like Don Quixote fighting with the windmill. When I found that it was a woodpecker, I wisely guessed that the bird mistook its mouth for a dead tree looking for insects to eat. Later, the three bluestones were regarded as the Tang Priest Wukong and Friar Sand, and a lie rehearsal was conducted. The author smiled kindly at his bad habit of being like an urchin. The lies he fabricated in his works have never succeeded except inspiring the Monkey King. They are all tricks that people can see through at a glance, thus showing his simple and honest side. It is this simple and honest honesty and his efforts to show his disharmony because he thinks he is smart, which constitutes his comic character. Never accept lessons, so jokes keep coming.

This figure represents a broader national character than the Monkey King.

Third, Tang Yan. He is a key figure in Buddhist stories. He is the leader of the Buddhist activities, and a devout idealist who doesn't want to die and wants to go to the west to get the scriptures. He assured Emperor Taizong: "I will sacrifice my life and work hard until I die. If I don't get there, I won't know the truth. Even if I die, I won't dare to go back to China. I will fall into hell forever. " In fact, on the way to learn the scriptures, he suffered the most. First, because the other horses are immortals and all kinds of magical powers, only he is mortal. Second, all monsters come for his meat that can live forever. But he persisted for fourteen years with the same original intention and full of enthusiasm. At the same time, strictly abide by the precepts, eyes do not see evil sounds, ears do not listen to obscene sounds, no evil thoughts. He regards that beautiful face as dirt and the golden ball as dust. Is a veritable holy monk. Even the demon knows that he is a "good man who has been practicing for ten years."

His core role in Tibetan scriptures can not be ignored. It is not practical to say that he is insignificant. He let three disciples from the monster constantly overcome the centrifugal tendency, inspired them with firm beliefs, and finally completed the feat of learning from the scriptures. Even Friar Sand can see this clearly. "There is only the Tang Priest in the world to learn from the scriptures, and there is no such thing as a grandson monkey learning from the scriptures." The Monkey King himself said to Pig Bajie, "You and I can only support him and let him live. These troubles are beyond our control and we can't get them. Even if I can see the Buddha first, the Buddha will not give you my kindness. " This emphasizes the irreplaceable position and role of Tang Priest in this collective.

However, people who have seen the work are somewhat disgusted with this character. There's too much to say. He has many shortcomings that ordinary people can't tolerate. One is cowardice. Whenever the master and his disciples enter the barren land of their works, they always write "the elder was frightened" or "shed tears", which is a cliche. Even Pig Bajie once said that he was "the boss is useless". The second is heartless and sometimes even selfish. The Monkey King risked his life for him, but he kept reciting spells to the Monkey King, and even made his headband look like a gourd, and refused to give up. The Monkey King once said to Guanyin Bodhisattva, "My disciples lay down their lives to save their evil forces, just like a tiger grabbing brittle bones from its mouth and a dragon showing scales on its back. I just hope to return to the right result and wash away the evil. I realized that the elder was ungrateful and broke off a good relationship. " Once I complained in front of Master: "Master, your old man is really heartless. I worked hard to get the scriptures for you. Now I have killed these two thieves and told them to sue me. Although I did it, it was for you. " Can be said to be crucial. Third, the shemale is upside down, and right and wrong are unknown. He is particularly credulous and has been taken in by goblins many times, but he is still stubborn. In the final analysis, it is because he is fatuous. Of the three apprentices, the Monkey King is the most reliable one, but the Monkey King is his least favorite. As far as professionalism is concerned, the pig is the worst, and it is always recommended to spread luggage, but because of his sweet mouth and love of gossip, he likes it the most. .