Research On The Cultural Factors In The Evolution Of The Story Of The Journey To The West

The essay includes introduction, the main body and the conclusion.The introduction elaborates the status quo, origin and the significance of the research.The main body is elaborated in four chapters:Chapter one discusses the influence of Confucianism on the evolution of the Story of the Journeyto the West. Although religions make up the subject material of the Story, Confucianism forms the basis ofit. Da Tang Xi Yu Ji is influenced by both the Confucian spirit of active social participation and literarycriticism. The influence of Confucianism on the Biography of Master of the Law is mainly reflected in itsthorough affirmation on imperial power. The thoughts of faithfulness, longevity and universal fraternity inConfucianism as well as the tendency of respecting teachers and knowledge which became popular in SongDynasty affected the creation of Da Tang Sanzang Qujing Shihua. By contrast, the impact of traditionalConfucianism on the miscellaneous drama of the Story of the Journey to the West was deeper than before,which was mainly reflected in five aspects: promotion in one’s official career through Confucianism study,piety, benevolence, satire Buddhism though Confucianism, and be loyal to the royalty and dedicated to thecountry. As the Story of the Journey to the West evolved to its Pinghua and the100-capter edition, WangYangming’s thought of Philosophy of Heart had a great influence on both the Stories and the characterimage molding; besides, the thoughts of piety, benevolence and people-based ruling were shown moreobviously than before in Story of the Journey to the West. So the impact of Confucianism on the evolutionof the Story of the Journey to the West is deepened gradually.Chapter two discusses the influence of Buddhist thought on the evolution of Story of the Journeyto the West. The Story has an obvious relation with Buddhism since it’s a text with religion theme. Both DaTang Xi Yu Ji and the Biography of Master spread the sacredness of Buddhism. Da Tang Sanzang QujingShihua is influenced greatly by Pure Land sect, Mi sect and Zen, it also thinks highly of the Heart Sutra.However, the author had a jocosity depiction of Buddhism to arouse the interest of readers, which reflectedthe dilution tendency of Buddhism on the Story of the Journey to the West. In addition, Buddhist thought isalso highlighted in the miscellaneous drama of the Story of the Journey to the West, in which the image ofGuanyin is typically molded and some plots also spreads Buddhist thoughts. What’s more, in this miscellaneous drama version, the Buddhist becomes more worldly and entertaining, and the mockery andtease of Buddhist is shown in many parts of the story. The Pinghua version of the Story of the Journey tothe West is famous for its liveliness and became a book for pastime, in which the story was compared to acareer and the Buddhist factor was ignored. The satire on Buddhism became more fierce in the100-chapteredition. From the above, we can see that the influence of Buddhist thought on the evolution of the Story ofthe Journey to the West is diluted gradually.Chapter three discusses the influences of Taoism on the evolution of the Story of the Journey tothe West. The image of Tripmaster Monkey in Da Tang Sanzang Qujing Shihua originated from themonkey stories in Taoism. The changing spellings in Shihua us very similar to the Fu Lu curses in Taoism.In the meantime, the works uses many quotations from Tao literature and reflects the longevity philosophyin Taoism.A large number of Tao image began to appear in the miscellaneous drama version of the Story ofthe Journey to the West, which included the three Apprentices and the White Dragon Horse. Sun Wukong’sTao origin was proved in the note of Pinghua version of the Story of the Journey to the West, quoted in PuTong Shi Yan Jie. In contrast to other versions, Taoism was reflected more profoundly in the100-chapteredition, but also appeared the tendency of depreciating Taoism. All of these research proves that the impactof Taoism on the evolution of the Story of the Journey to the West is deepened gradually.Chapter four discusses other factors’ influences on the evolution of the Story of the Journey to theWest, which mainly includes politics, economy, folk culture and literature. From the perspective of politics,the strengthening of feudal autocracy leads to the inseparable relation between the evolution of the Story ofthe Journey to the West with the realistic politics. From the perspective of economy, with the economicdevelopment and business prosperity, the economic factor in the works of the Story of the Journey to theWest is shown more and more obviously. From the point of folk culture, it began to exert a profoundinfluence on the evolution of the Story of the Journey to the West since the Buddhist Poetry. Every worksof the the Story of the Journey to the West absorbed the folk culture achievements in its former or same agemore or less. From the point of literature itself, after Da Tang Xi Yu Ji and the Biography of Master, otherversions of the Story of the Journey to the West experienced gods and spirits. The Ancient Myth and thestories full of spirits in the mystery novels in Wei and Jin Dynasty has definitely effected the evolution ofthe Story of the Journey to the West. After that, the creation of versions of the the Story of the Journey to the West all absorbed the cream of its former version to perfect itself. All the four factors have an auxiliarydriving effect on the evolution of the Story of the Journey to the West.The conclusion summarizes the whole essay. After the discussion in the previous four chapters,we can see that with the evolution of the Story of the Journey to the West, Confucianism, Buddhism as wellas Taoism were integrated into the works, also with the influence of politics, economy, folk culture and theliterature itself, the Story of the Journey to the West has formed the ideological content of admiringConfucianism, mocking Buddhism and depreciating Taoism till the100-chapter edition.