Did the Tang Dynasty really release the monk Wukong? Are you a master-apprentice relationship with Xuanzang?

On June 29th, 2003, 10, the Map of Xuanzang was discovered in Qingliu Temple, Jishan County, Shanxi Province, and its drawing time was nearly a hundred years earlier than that of The Journey to the West.

First, the Tang Dynasty monk "released Wukong" said. Shi Wukong's common name is Che Fengchao. In 75 1 AD, he went to the Western Regions with Zhang Guangtao, became a monk in Gandhara due to illness, and returned to Beijing in 789 AD. Shi Wukong was more than 40 years later than Xuanzang, but his starting place also began in Anxi. After his return, he engaged in translation and missionary activities in the western regions for many years, leaving many stories and legends. Some scholars believe that in the long process of the story of "learning the scriptures", people gradually linked and kneaded the name of Shi Wukong with the name of the legendary traveler who accompanied Tang Priest to learn the scriptures, and gradually formed the artistic image of "the Monkey King".

Second, the theory of "Shipantuo". Zhang, a professor in Chinese Department of Harbin Normal University, came to this conclusion after studying the evolution of Buddhist scriptures. He believed that the Monkey King's realistic prototype was Shipantou in Ren Hu, which was collected by Xuanzang in the most difficult time of his westward journey. The reasons are as follows: (1) the Monkey King is similar to Tang priest and stone tray support, and stone tray support is similar to Xuanzang; (2) The function of crisis relief is similar; (3) The identity of the walkers is the same; (4) The subtle relationship between master and apprentice is similar; (5) Shipantuo is a Hu monk, and Hu monk is close to the "monk". Under the guidance of religious thought, "Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures, Hu monk gang" can easily be translated into "Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures, monk gang", thus providing an opportunity for the apotheosis of Xuanzang's Buddhist scriptures story.

The famous Monkey King Monkey King was "born" in a fairy stone on the top of Guo Hua, a mountain in Ole Dongsheng, China. Its life story was first recorded vividly in The Journey to the West. However, there have been media reports recently. After studying the mural "Pure Land of Tang Yan" in Yulin Grottoes, Gansu Province, experts found that a quick-talking monkey face following Tang Yan in the mural is the prototype of the Monkey King.

This paper points out that Mr. Duan Wenjie, honorary president of Dunhuang Research Institute, once wrote that the monkey-shaped man in the picture is the prototype of the Monkey King, named Shipanto, and his hometown is in Suoyang City, Anxi County, Gansu Province, so the Monkey King should be from Gansu Province.

So the Monkey King's story is even more confusing. Where did the image of the Monkey King come from? Did he really evolve from a western semi-final in Gansu?

Lu Xun thinks that the Monkey King originated from Wu, the water god of Huaihe River, and Hu Shi thinks its prototype is Hanuman, an Indian monkey.

Hu Xiaowei, a well-known expert in classical novels and a researcher at the Institute of Literature of China Academy of Social Sciences, said that although The Journey to the West's book has been circulated for hundreds of years, ordinary readers have always been unclear about the evolution of the source of the characters' stories, just like it was originally a "grandson monkey jumping out of a crevice". It was not until Lu Xun's A Brief History of Chinese Novels created a precedent of this kind of novels that the Monkey King was put on the table as a serious academic issue.

Lu Xun believes that since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there have been more and more translations of Buddhist classics, so Indian stories have been widely circulated among the people. Scholars like their novelty and strangeness, so they use them intentionally or unintentionally, and these stories gradually become China. As for the image of the Monkey King, Lu Xun thought it should come from China folklore. He cited Wu, a monster in Li Gongzuo's novels in the Tang Dynasty, as evidence, and thought that the Monkey King evolved from this, thus confirming that the Monkey King's prototype came from China.

Hu Shi has different views on this. He said: "I have always suspected that this magical monkey is not made in China, but imported from India. Perhaps even the helpless Qi myth has been imitated by India. " He found a monkey named Hanuman in the oldest Indian epic Ramayana, which he thought was the earliest prototype of the Monkey King.

Chen Yinque demonstrated that the Monkey King's prototype was indeed Ha Numan, but the patterns on Gansu murals showed that The Journey to the West's story had been circulated in the Tang Dynasty.

Chen Yinque, a great historian, is very familiar with Buddhist scriptures. He not only verified the prototype of the Monkey King, Hanuman in Ramayana, but also proved it with another book, Renyu Sutra. He found that the story of "Noisy Heaven" originated from two unrelated Indian folk stories, and after it was introduced to China, Buddhist communicators combined them intentionally or unintentionally.

At the beginning of the last century, the establishment of Dunhuang studies added some new historical materials to the evolution of The Journey to the West's character stories, mainly murals, including the image of a single person walking on foot with a backpack and the image of a "walker"-like Hu people leading a horse, indicating that the character stories have been enriched through the ages.

In recent years, Duan Wenjie, honorary president of Dunhuang Research Institute, published A Discussion on Newly Discovered Xuanzang Buddhist Scriptures, focusing on six existing groups of Xuanzang Buddhist Scriptures in Xixia period of Gansu Province, and introducing similar stories that were circulated among the people in the Tang Dynasty. In the Zhou Dynasty in the late Five Dynasties, there was still a mural "Xuanzang's Learning from the Scriptures" in the classroom of the Tibetan Classrooms of Shouning Temple in Yangzhou, which was lamented as a "masterpiece" by people at that time. This mural was painted in the later Zhou Dynasty at the latest. Unfortunately, the temple has been destroyed, leaving no murals.

The basic character frame of Journey to the West was formed in the Yuan Dynasty, and the Indian monkey was recreated by Tibetan Buddhism and became the Monkey King.

In the research, researcher Hu found that although all the above statements were well-founded, Xuanzang's story of learning scriptures was popular for hundreds of years from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, and the story of changing characters was quite slow, but its richness broke out in the Yuan Dynasty. He believes that according to Duan Wenjie and other cultural relics experts, Wu Cheng'en's creation in the late Ming Dynasty is often taken as the basis, without taking into account the fact that The Journey to the West's zaju and Shi Hua appeared in the Yuan Dynasty. Researcher Hu pointed out that among the documents separated from the remains of Yongle Dadian, several are the stories of The Journey to the West, a novel of later generations, especially the story of Sun Xing in the Korean Chinese document Bai Shi, which is very important. Zhao, a famous writer and translator, believes that The Interpretation of Pu Tong Proverbs was written in the Yuan Dynasty. Professor Choi Minho King of Hanlin University also suggested that this book was written in the seventh year from Yuan Dynasty to Zheng Zheng (1347). In addition, the mural of Xuanzang Buddhist Sutra in Yuan Dynasty was discovered in Jishan County, Shanxi Province last year. All these prove that The Journey to the West's basic story character frame was probably formed in the Yuan Dynasty.

Researcher Hu believes that although the embryonic form of the Monkey King's image is somewhat related to the monkey image in Indian epics and folk stories, the ideological and cultural background in the Tang and Song Dynasties failed to produce a "qualitative leap", and the shocking content in The Journey to the West's stories broke out in the Yuan Dynasty, so we should seek an explanation from the input of the dominant Lamaism at that time and the background of the debate between Buddhism and Taoism. In other words, although Sun Monkey is closely related to the Indian God Monkey, it is only through the "second input" of Tibetan Buddhism that it becomes active among readers with vivid images.

According to the investigation, the report that Mr. Duan Wenjie identified the Monkey King as a native of Gansu is untrue. As early as April 27th, 2002, the doctor of Chinese Department of Harbin Normal University wrote in Guangming Daily that Mr. Zhang put forward the view that the image of the Monkey King came from Shipantou.