This paper examines how Wu Cheng'en's classic Chinese novel Journey to the West presents Buddhism as superior to Taoism and Confucianism within Chinese society. Drawing on the novel's major characters—Monkey King (Sun Wukong) and the monk Tripitaka (Xuanzang)—the paper analyzes how religious symbolism, narrative structure, and allegorical elements consistently elevate Buddhist beliefs above Taoist and Confucian ones. The paper also explores the historical background of Xuanzang's real pilgrimage, the two Buddhist views of Enlightenment (gradual and sudden), and the broader context of how three major religions have coexisted and competed in Chinese culture.
There are three major religions that have established themselves in China: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Of the three, only Buddhism is not indigenous to China. Buddhism found its way to China along the Silk Road, brought by missionaries from India. For centuries, the three religions have coexisted, with many Chinese adopting elements of each in their daily lives. Whatever similarities or symbiotic elements each contains, the three religions have also competed with one another for prominence and prestige within Chinese society. At different times each has been the dominant religion, fully supported by the Imperial Court; however, Buddhism, since its incorporation into Chinese society, has viewed itself as the superior religion.
While most Buddhists are completely comfortable with the idea of other religious ideals in society, and even embrace certain aspects of them, they still feel that Buddhism is superior. One piece of Chinese literature, generally accepted as one of the four great classic novels in Chinese history, is Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West. It is the fictionalized story of a real monk who traveled to India to learn about Buddhism and collect sacred Buddhist scriptures. Although the novel is intermixed with tales of mythology, adventure, magic, and the supernatural, one theme that permeates the story is the superiority of Buddhism within Chinese society. China may be home to three great religions, but, according to Wu Cheng'en, only Buddhism is the best.
Journey to the West is based on a real journey to India taken by a Chinese Buddhist monk in the early 7th century. The monk's name was Xuanzang, and his true story acts as the basis for Wu Cheng'en's fictional account, written some thousand years after the actual events. It is said that in the year 629, Xuanzang had a dream in which he was told to make a pilgrimage to India in order to learn about Buddhism and obtain sacred Buddhist texts. In a journey that lasted some 17 years, Xuanzang traveled to India, stayed for many years, and returned to China with more than a thousand sacred texts, which he spent the rest of his life translating. He is also credited with authoring the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, a vivid account of the social aspects of the many different lands he visited.
It is generally said that there are four great classic novels in Chinese literature: Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dream of the Red Chamber, and Journey to the West. It was during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 A.D.) that Journey to the West was written by the 16th-century author Wu Cheng'en, and it contains a highly fictionalized account of Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India. This account not only follows the journey of Xuanzang, called Tripitaka in the story, but also three magical companions: Sun Wukong (also called Monkey King), Zhu Bajie (also called Monk Pig, or Pigsy), and Sha Wujing (also called Friar Sandy). Together these four undertake a long and arduous journey on which they are constantly interrupted, attacked, waylaid, or forced into tangential excursions. After a great many adventures, the four arrive in India, retrieve the sacred texts, and return to China to receive many heavenly rewards. While this tale is based upon a real religious pilgrimage, Wu Cheng'en interweaves the original story with so much mythology, religious imagery, and magic that Journey to the West is transformed into a great piece of dramatic fiction.
Journey to the West contains a great deal of religious symbolism and imagery, especially in the presentation of its main characters. For example, there is Monkey King, or Sun Wukong, whose story takes up the first part of the tale. He began life as a monkey, but through courage and determination — mostly his willingness to travel through a waterfall and into the "Happy Land of the Mountain Flowers and Fruit, Cave Heaven of the Water Curtain" — he became King (Wu Cheng'en, p. 9). Monkey King then became a disciple of the Taoist immortal Bodhi, where he learned a number of magical Taoist powers, such as the ability to transform into any object. After becoming one of the most powerful demons on Earth, he was eventually invited to join the gods in Heaven. But his lowly position as manager of the stables, and later as gardener, insulted Monkey King, and after eating all the Sacred Peaches of the Heavenly Garden (which granted Enlightenment), he was expelled from Heaven by the Jade Emperor.
Returning to Earth, Monkey King next encountered Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism, and ate all his immortality pills, each one able to extend a person's life by a thousand years. Lao Tzu tried to kill Monkey King by burning him in a stove for 49 days, but this only hardened his skin to make it invulnerable to any weapon. Finally, the Jade Emperor, unable to subdue Monkey King, was forced to call upon the Buddha for help. Being more powerful than the Jade Emperor, Buddha was able to trap Monkey King under a mountain for 500 years, until the pilgrimage of Tripitaka.
The Monkey King's story is a way for Wu Cheng'en to demonstrate the power of Buddhism over that of Taoism. Even though Monkey King became extremely powerful through the teachings of Taoism and became virtually indestructible through the hands of Lao Tzu, it was Buddha who was called in to deal with him. The traditional Taoist head of the universe, the Jade Emperor, was unable to handle Monkey King, as he had "enough tricks to fight off a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers…" (Wu Cheng'en, p. 78). This inability to handle Monkey King was a clear demonstration that Taoism, while powerful, was not as powerful as Buddhism, and that Taoism was a religion of China's past, while Buddhism was China's future. It took Buddha to finally put Monkey King in his place, trapped under a mountain. And when he was finally released, it was a more subdued Monkey King that emerged — one under the control of the Buddhist Tripitaka and his ring of power. Many scholars claim that Wu Cheng'en fashioned his story so as to present Buddhism as more favorable than other religions, especially Taoism.
"Tripitaka represents Buddhist leadership and moral endurance"
"How Buddhism is presented as a deeper spiritual path"
"Blank scrolls symbolize sudden versus gradual Enlightenment"
Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism have both merged together in China and fought over the souls of China's people. These three religions share some similarities, as well as some non-overlapping beliefs, which allow a person to incorporate certain elements of each into their daily lives. A novel generally considered one of China's four greatest, Journey to the West, incorporates a number of Taoist beliefs alongside its predominant religious belief: Buddhism. But while Journey to the West, like China itself, merges elements of different religious traditions, it also presents the religious tenets of Buddhism as superior to the others.
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