Interpretation of the original work of Journey to the West: The dispute between Buddhism and Taoism, the contest between Tathagata and Taishang Laojun

In "Journey to the West", Taishang Laojun is the founder of the world and the ancestor of all immortals. He is not only the founder of Taoism, but also the man who transformed Hu into Buddha and the enlightener of Buddhism. For thousands of years, Tathagata's Buddhism and Laojun's Taoism have been in fierce conflict.

After Tathagata conquered Sun Wukong, the Jade Emperor treated Tathagata as a guest. Laojun's people keenly felt that Tathagata was about to be used in heaven. The Barefoot Immortal and the Antarctic Immortal, two well-known figures in Taoism, successively presented gifts to the Tathagata and expressed their high respect to the Buddha.

In front of the old leader Taishang Laojun, these two immortals rushed to flatter the Buddha. Faced with this situation, Laojun didn't know what he felt in his heart.

In order to carry forward Buddhism and spread it throughout the four continents, Tathagata was busy everywhere: discussing cooperation with the leader Jade Emperor, competing with his opponent Laojun, and coordinating the relationship with the senior leader Guanyin. , dealing with contradictions within Buddhism. Tathagata even had to deal with the personal affairs of Jin Chanzi's children, including the formation of the Buddhist scriptures team, the tasks on the Buddhist scriptures, etc.

Tathagata does not sit on the lotus platform every day, waiting for the people below to report to him. He takes care of everything and is an outstanding entrepreneur. Sun Wukong is an excellent employee and the most reliable warrior of Tathagata.

In the first year of Tang Monk’s journey to seek Buddhist scriptures from Chang’an (the 13th year of Zhenguan), five hundred years ago, Sun Wukong caused havoc in the Heavenly Palace and caused the flames of the Bagua furnace to fall into the human world to form a mountain of flames. The mountain has become the natural dividing line between the Buddhist and Taoist families in Hezhou, Xiniu.

The first battle between Buddhism and Taoism occurred a thousand years ago. The focus of the competition was the country of Jisai, which believed in both Buddhism and Taoism. Taishang Laojun set up a 800-mile thorn ridge to the west of Jisai Kingdom to prevent Buddhism from spreading eastward. The temples on the thorn ridge were gradually submerged under the thorns.

Jingji Ridge became the earliest dividing line between Buddhism and Taoism established by Laojun in Hezhou, Xiniu. Not to be outdone, Tathagata crossed the thorn ridge and placed the relics in the Jinguang Temple in Saiguo. The relics were so dazzling that they attracted a large number of believers. Buddhism gained the upper hand in the Jisai Kingdom. The local people, including neighboring countries, worshiped Buddhism. Even the Laojun's core territory, the Xiliang Women's Kingdom, paid tribute to the Jisai Kingdom.

Tathagata spent "bloody money" for the cause of Buddhism, but the bigger "bloody money" is yet to come.

This was unacceptable to Laojun. In order to consolidate his power, Laojun abandoned Thorn Ridge and reset the boundary to the east of Jisai Country, which is the Eight Hundred Miles of Flame Mountain. The purpose is to prevent people from Xiliang Women's Kingdom from going to Sai Kingdom to worship Buddha. It went on like this for another five hundred years, until the arrival of the Buddhist scripture collection team, the boundaries between Buddhism and Taoism were broken again.

It took Tang Monk seven years from entering Xiniu Hezhou to Huoyan Mountain, and it also took exactly seven years to get from Huoyan Mountain to Lingshan. Huoyan Mountain is almost located in the middle of Xiniu Hezhou, but Laojun The population on the borderlands is relatively sparse.

The people guarding the Flame Mountain are the Bull Demon King Princess Iron Fan and his wife. Princess Iron Fan is a Taoist nun and a Taoist, and "Tu" is a boy who used to light fires for Taishang Laojun. To the east of the Flame Mountain is Laojun's territory, and Taoism occupies half of Xiniu Hezhou.

The residents living near the Flame Mountain respectfully call Princess Iron Fan the Iron Fan Fairy because they seek help from her. The country closest to where Princess Iron Fan lives is the Xiliang Women's Kingdom. She may have been a princess of the Xiliang Kingdom, and was later influenced by the old man and became a Taoist nun. Laojun gave her a banana fan, which was a rare treasure that Laojun refined from a piece of black iron from ancient times.

Compared to Princess Iron Fan, Laojun doesn't care at all about other "grassroots" characters. For example: the three monsters of Chechi Kingdom, the vine spirit tree monster in Thorn Ridge, the leopard spirit in Hidden Mist Mountain, and the yellow lion spirit. None of them entered Laojun's discernment. The Taoists are full of talents, the immortal positions are full, and the competition is very fierce. For these little people, Laojun will not even give them a chance to be assessed.

The Dragon King of the West Sea also belongs to Taoism. Due to its geographical location adjacent to Lingshan Mountain, the Dragon King of the West Sea took refuge in Tathagata. He secretly used gold and silver jewelry to buy sesame oil from rhinoceros essence and dedicated it to Tathagata. He also bought one for his son Xiaobailong. Immortal throne. Of course, the father and son had to perform a little bit to avoid arousing Lao Jun's suspicion.

The Wuji Kingdom is located to the east of the Flame Mountain. The king appears to believe in Buddhism, but in fact he believes more in Taoism. Tathagata Buddha wanted to win him into his own camp and arranged for Manjushri Bodhisattva to go to the Wuji Kingdom to preach. As a result, he was imprisoned in a water prison by the king after a disagreement. He was able to escape after three days.

Tathagata formulated a revenge plan and sent Manjushri Bodhisattva's green-haired lion down to earth to the Black Chicken Kingdom. The green lion spirit turned into a Taoist priest and became the king's national advisor, and quickly won the king's trust. In Baolin Temple, the Green Lion Spirit pushed the king into the well. The king died for three years. "Thankfully" the Dragon King of the Well gave him a pearl to hold in his mouth, so the body did not rot.

Tang Monk and his apprentices arrived in the Wuji Kingdom, and Sun Wukong used Laojun’s Resurrection Pill to revive the king. Laojun originally didn't want to give it to Sun Wukong, so he thought that instead of letting him steal it, it would be better to give it to him as a favor. Lao Jun has no confidence in a thief like Sun Wukong. It seems that when Sun Wukong made a big fuss in Heaven and stole Lao Jun's "Nine Transformations Golden Elixir", Lao Jun did not let him steal it on purpose.

In the end, Sun Wukong fought fiercely with the blue lion spirit pretending to be the king, and Manjushri appeared in time to take away the monster.

The king did not know that this "Taoist priest" was Manjusri's mount, and thought that the Taoist priest was too bad. Since the Green Lion Spirit was castrated, it had no impact on the king's harem, but the behavior of this "Taoist priest" had left an extremely bad impact on the king. The Wuji Kingdom changed to respect Buddhism because Buddhism had the power to save his life and regenerate him. virtue.

Tathagata succeeded in infiltrating Laojun's territory, but his method was not very fair and he blamed Taoism. What happened in the Wuji Kingdom was finally known to Lao Jun because Sun Wukong went to Lao Jun to borrow a soul-reviving pill.

Later, Tang Monk and his disciples passed through the Chechi Kingdom and met three "grassroots" monsters, namely: the Great Immortal of Hu Power, the Great Immortal of Deer Power and the Great Immortal of Sheep Power. They enshrined the "Three Pure Ones" tablets and dreamed of entering heaven, but Laojun dismissed them.

The three monsters of Chechi State used magic to control the wind and rain, which solved the country's twenty-year drought. Therefore, the Taoist priests were deeply respected by the king and people in this country. The incompetent monks can only work for Taoist priests, and their lives are worse than death.

Many monks could not bear the abuse by Taoist priests and chose to commit suicide. The remaining monks were living an ignoble existence with the help of Tathagata people. When the Buddhist scripture-seeking team passed by Chechi State, Sun Wukong came out to save them and threw the statue of the "Sanqing" into the pit.

Sun Wukong let the king know the Buddhist skills through a battle with three monsters. The three monsters died heroically in the battle with Sun Wukong.

The status of the monks in Chechi Kingdom was improved, but due to the influence of the three monsters during their lifetime, the king did not abandon Taoism and follow Buddhism, because Chechi Kingdom was a big country and would not change its national policy easily. Sun Wukong did not force the king to change his faith, but the status of the monk was guaranteed and he would no longer be oppressed by Taoist priests.

What the scripture-seeking team did on Laojun’s territory aroused Laojun’s dissatisfaction. Laojun prepared to take revenge on Tathagata and secretly arranged for his mount Qingniu to go down to the realm.

The Green Bull Spirit came to the territory of Xiliang Women’s Kingdom and waited for the Buddhist scripture collection team at Jindou Cave in Jindou Mountain. The name of this cave sounds like someone is here to ask for money. Tang Seng, Zhu Bajie and Sha Seng were all captured by the Green Bull Spirit.

In the battle with the Green Bull Spirit, Sun Wukong, the Tota King and his son, and the gods in heaven who came to help, all had their weapons taken away by the Green Bull Spirit's King Kong Zhuo. In desperation, Sun Wukong After finding Tathagata and listening to Sun Wukong's report, Tathagata made arrangements. The original text is as follows:

Tathagata knew that this day would come sooner or later, and had already made preparations. The Tathagata assigned the task to the two arhats subduing the dragon and subduing the tiger, and asked them to pretend to fight with the green bull spirit, but in fact they gave money. The things taken out from the treasure house were not weapons but money. Eighteen golden mountains were turned into golden cinnabar and carried by eighteen Arhats.

As expected, all the gold cinnabar was taken away by King Kong Zhuo of the Green Bull Spirit. The two Arhats, Subduing the Dragon and Subduing the Tiger, informed Sun Wukong to find the Supreme Lord. When Laojun saw Sun Wukong, he was different from his previous indifferent attitude. This time he was cheerful. Laojun was probably thinking: "You finally came to me. I have been waiting for this day for a long time."

< p> Hearing what Sun Wukong said, Laojun pretended to be shocked. It turned out that his mount had stolen his personal treasure King Kong Zhuo. It had been seven days in the lower world and seven years in the human world. Why do you always lose things at Laojun’s house? The Nine-turn Golden Pill was stolen by Sun Wukong, and the six treasures were stolen by Qing Niu and two boys who were setting fire to the fire.

Laojun is obviously lying.

Qingniu Jing stole his Diamond Diamond seven years ago, and just two years ago, Laojun went down to earth to retrieve the treasures in person because King Golden Horn and Silver Horn stole five treasures. Didn't he know that at that time? Has King Kong Zhuo been stolen a long time ago? Two years ago, Laojun came to the mortal world on foot. How could he not know that his mount was missing?

Sun Wukong is so smart. After listening to Laojun’s serious lies, he only smiled awkwardly but politely. Laojun subdued the Green Bull Spirit and left, and the others got their weapons back in Jinzhuang Cave. The original text is as follows:

Gold sand is not a weapon, so where did it go? The eighteen Arhats returned to Lingshan empty-handed to pay their respects. The original text says: Laojun surrendered but turned his head towards the sky, smiling and leading the green ox around. Laojun took the green cow back with a smile. It must be that Laojun accepted Tathagata's eighteen golden cinnabar with a smile. From then on, he no longer stopped Tathagata's actions in Xiniu Hezhou.

In this incident of the Green Bull Spirit, Laojun also warned those Taoist gods who were ready to take action. Laojun is also the ancestor of all immortals. Laojun’s green bull left them helpless. If these gods wanted to You need to think carefully about taking refuge in Tathagata.

Tathagata used eighteen golden mountains as a ransom and reached an understanding with Laojun. Then Tathagata organized Buddhist forces to subdue the Bull Demon King, permanently extinguished the fire on the Flame Mountain, and opened up a way for Buddhism to spread to the east. new roads. Red Boy has changed from a monster to a god, and Bull Demon King has changed from a god to a prisoner. The treatment gap between the "father and son" is too big.

For Tathagata, the only obstacle to his grand plan is Thorn Ridge. Xingxian and several other vine spirit tree monsters are still there, guarding Thorn Ridge. These monsters were very loyal to Laojun. They tried their best to persuade Tang Monk to return to the East, saying that Tang Monk had no use for his own local religion and went to the West to seek Buddhism.

These monsters on Thorny Ridge were all fans of Laojun, and were eventually destroyed by the Buddhist scripture-seeking team. In fact, they were abandoned by Laojun. In this way, Thorny Ridge was also opened up.

The incident of Taishang Laojun’s Green Bull Spirit had a great impact on Tathagata. Not only did he lose a lot of money, but he also caused instability to the believers who followed Tathagata. Tathagata needs to fight back, otherwise the younger brothers will not have confidence.

Tathagata and Maitreya Buddha planned the "Little Leiyin Temple" incident. Maitreya Buddha arranged for a yellow-browed boy to come to the mortal world with a bag of heaven and earth, and used the same technique to take away a group of gods with their weapons. , these gods were completely powerless when they were taken away, and the Qiankun Bag was even more powerful than King Kong Zhuo.

Those trapped in the Qiankun bag include the "twenty-eight stars" of heaven, the two generals of turtle and snake and the five great dragons (Taoist gods) under Dangmo Tianzun, Prince Xiao Zhang and others under the king Bodhisattva. The four great generals (Buddhist gods).

The yellow-browed monster violently tortured the gods of heaven, Taoism and Buddhism. Finally, Maitreya Buddha, the Buddha from the east, stood up and subdued the yellow-browed monster. It turned out to be one of his yellow-browed boys. A boy can defeat all kinds of great immortals, which shows the strength of Buddhism.

Through this action, Tathagata used this action to comfort those who were watching and following, telling them that Buddhism was powerful, asking them to have confidence in Tathagata, and at the same time warning those who wanted to betray Buddhism.

The next task of the scripture collection team was to eliminate the remaining monsters belonging to Taoism, such as the leopard spirit in Hidden Mist Mountain and the yellow lion spirit. They were all killed by Sun Wukong and others. Laojun's power in Xiniu Hezhou was basically eliminated by the Buddhist scripture-seeking team. Only Princess Iron Fan was preserved and finally became an immortal, which shows that she and Laojun have an unusual relationship.

Through the above analysis, it can be found that the old aristocratic power represented by Laojun is in decline. These outstanding disciples scattered outside loyally guard the faith, but do not receive any attention from the leaders and fend for themselves outside. self-destruction.

The fairies on Laojun’s side are of high quality, educated, ideal and ambitious. The three monsters of Chechi Kingdom made great contributions to the local good weather, and respectfully worshiped their leader "Sanqing". Xingxian and her friends on Thorn Ridge formed the "Muxian'an Poetry Club" and were a group of cultural experts. And they all died violent deaths.

The Leopard Spirit of Yinwu Mountain is known as the "Nanshan Hermit". He is determined to be a noble and upright hermit. In fact, Leopard Spirit was very hypocritical. He probably waited day and night for Laojun to come and inspect him. Many years later, he waited for Tang Monk from the East.

A relatively clear-headed little demon under the Leopard Spirit told him that Tang Monk could not eat Tang Monk's meat. There were many people who wanted to eat Tang Monk's meat. Tang Monk's ability to come here from the east soil meant that someone was protecting him.

The Leopard Spirit did not listen to his advice and insisted on eating Tang Monk's meat, because eating Tang Monk's meat was the only chance for the Leopard Spirit to become an immortal. The leopard spirit was finally killed by Sun Wukong.

It is really a sad thing that the whole family was killed just because the Yellow Lion Spirit stole the weapons of the three brothers of Sun Wukong. The Yellow Lion Spirit is the only monster that doesn't eat people but is eaten by people. His little monsters are also very disciplined. The original text says:

They use money to make real deals with traders. They do not harm humans. , and did not deceive human beings.

Let’s take a look at Sun Wukong, who is part of the team that represents justice. His description of buying cakes near the Flame Mountain:

Sun Wukong turned his hair into copper coins and deceived the vendors. It's a pity that the hawker doesn't know the goods. This is the hair of the future fighting Buddha. It has a lot of room for appreciation and is of great collection value.

Look at the disciples of Tathagata. The golden-winged roc eagle alone can eat up all the people in a country. The quality of Tathagata's disciples is worrying, probably because of the rapid expansion. Anyone with money and ability can join, and heroes do not care about their origins.

There are many demons in Buddhism, such as: Golden-winged Dapeng Eagle, Buddha Mother and Peacock, Daming King Bodhisattva, Bull Demon King, Scorpion Demon, Mink Demon, Golden-nosed White-haired Mouse Demon, including Sun Wukong , Zhu Bajie, Sha Seng, etc., how many of them eat fasting and chant Buddha's name? Tathagata did not expect them to recite sutras every day and promote Buddhism to the masses, but let them do their best.

Tathagata gave these grassroots people a way to rise, so the power of Buddhism grew rapidly.

Tathagata is good at taking advantage of others and can easily cause their dissatisfaction. The Bull Demon King betrayed Tathagata, the Golden-winged Dapeng Eagle left Lingshan to go to the Lion and Camel Kingdom to prove his talents, the scorpion spirit pricked Tathagata's finger, and the mouse spirit stole fragrant flowers and candles, indicating that Tathagata needs to further improve his management level.

But there is no problem that Tathagata cannot solve. Tathagata uses various methods and turns difficulties into opportunities under his operation. Tathagata is the real master and the real protagonist in Journey to the West.