Journey To The West Image

Journey to the West tells the story of Tangseng's adventurous pilgrimage to India for Buddhist scriptures with the protection of his three disciples. Before the novel came into being, Record of Travels to Western Lands(《大唐西域记》)by Xuanzang(玄奘)and Bianji(辩机)recorded Xuanzang's pilgrimage westward, and Biography of Tripitaka Master(《大慈恩寺三藏法师传》)by Xuanzang's disciple described vividly his adventure; later, Poetry of Tripitaka Master's Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures(《大唐三藏取经诗话》) printed during Southern Song Dynasty involved magic elements, and works such as Tripitaka Master's Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures(《唐三藏西天取经》),Pinghua of Journey to the West(《西游记平话》),Drama of Journey to the West(《西游记杂剧》)followed. At the same time, the images of Tangseng's pilgrimage appeared in murals, sculptures of temples and grottoes, evolved from the extant earliest Image of Tangseng's Pilgrimage to the mural of Tangseng's Pilgrimage indicating the plot of Journey to the West in Qing Dynasty's temple, which responded to the evolvement of the story. Based on the extant images, this dissertation starts from the Image of Tangseng's Pilgrimage made during Western Xia, analyzes images of this topic one by one, tries to figure out the evolvement of Image of Tangseng's Pilgrimage, and study the various communicating routes over time by comparing these images.The first chapter studies the Image of Tangseng's Pilgrimage of Western Xia found in Dunhuang(敦煌)By analyzing the character of the image and comparing with those of the same time, the reason why the image appeared in the mural of Water-moon Guanyin is discussed.The second chapter focuses on images of this topic made during Yuan Dynasty and the Early Ming Dynasty, which include the group sculptures at Feilai Mount, Hangzhou(杭州飞来峰),the mural at Qinglong Temple, Jishan, Shanxi(山西稷山青龙寺),and the images in Huagai Temple, Gangu((甘谷华盖寺),etc.. In this chapter, the identities of statues and creation time of Niche No.47, Feilai Mount are researched; the figures'characters and creation time of murals of Qinglong Temple and Huagai Temple are analyzed; with the preceding researches on《唐僧取经图册》for reference, the evolvement of contents of the images during this period is studied on the whole; furthermore, in comparison with the image of Western Xia, this chapter tries to discover the images'transmission from Northwest China to Central Plains and South of the River.The third chapter discusses images from two temples and a grotto in Hexi Area. Their contents are very similar to the illustration in Li Zhuowu's Review on Journey to the West(《李卓吾先生批评西游记》)printed during the Late Ming Dynasty. Time of these murals is speculated, either. Among the murals, those in Tongzi Temple, Minle(民乐童子寺)and Dongda Temple, Tianzhu(天祝东大寺)have never been studied. This research regards the murals in the three spots as the evidence of the image of Tangseng's pilgrimage communicating from South of the River to Northwest China, speculates a reversed transmission route. The fourth chapter studies the images of Late Qing Dynasty, which include murals and sculptures in Hongya Temple, Zhuanglang(庄浪红崖寺), Ganeng Temple, Hongcheng(红城感恩寺),Xiyun Taoist Temple, Dunhuang(敦煌市西云观)and Upper Temple of Mogao Grotto, Dunhuang(敦煌莫高窟上寺)No researches on the images of Tangseng's pilgrimage on these spots have ever been done. And this chapter briefly analyzes their contents, and based on the plots from Journey to the West presented in the murals, infers that the images of Late Qing Dynasty emphasize the story, they are influenced by the novel, and the Buddhist meaning is replaced by secular meaning.This dissertation analyzes the extant images of Tangseng's pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures in temples and grottoes, explores how the images evolved. By comparing images over time, the conclusion is reached that the image transmitted from Northwest China toward Central Plains and Side of the River during the period from Western Xia to Yuan Dynasty, while transmitted backwards during Ming and Qing dynasties after Journey to the West came into being in Middle and Late Ming Dynasty.