In "Journey to the West", Tang Seng's four apprentices have their own characteristics, each playing a different role in the story, and together constitute a complete image of the scripture-learning team.
First of all, we need to understand the characteristics and values of each apprentice. Sun Wukong is the combat effectiveness and wisdom of the scripture-learning team, his ability is strong, but his personality is unruly, and he often conflicts with Tang Seng. Zhu Bajie is the pistachio in the team, with an open-minded personality and good at adjusting the atmosphere, but sometimes lazy and greedy for comfort. Sha Seng is a loyal and reliable representative, hardworking, steady and pragmatic, but relatively lacking in innovation and thinking. As the mount of Tang Seng, the white dragon horse undertakes the task of carrying people forward, which is indispensable.
Based on these characteristics, we can make some assumptions and inferences. If Tang Seng needs to eliminate an apprentice, he may consider the following aspects: the apprentice's character, ability, contribution, and loyalty to the task of learning scriptures.
From the perspective of personality, although Sun Wukong is unruly, his contribution to the task of learning scriptures is irreplaceable. He has a lot of powers and is able to defuse many crises and help the team through them. If the Monkey King is eliminated, the team will lose important combat power and wisdom support.
Although Zhu Bajie has an open-minded personality, he is sometimes lazy and lacks perseverance. In some cases, he can be a burden to the team. However, his humor and ability to regulate the atmosphere are also beneficial for the team.
Sha Seng is a loyal and reliable representative, and his hard work and steady pragmatism are very helpful to the team. However, he is relatively lacking in innovation and thinking skills, and has limited intellectual support for the team.
As the mount of Tang Seng, the white dragon horse undertakes the task of carrying people forward. Without the White Dragon Horse, Tang Seng would have to rely on other ways to travel to the West Heaven to learn scriptures, which could increase the difficulty and time of the task.
Based on the above analysis, the elimination of any one apprentice will have an adverse impact on the team. But if I had to choose one, I would eliminate the sand monks. Here's why: First, while the Sand Monk is loyal and reliable, he is relatively weak in his abilities and has limited help to the team in terms of fighting and solving problems. Secondly, compared with other apprentices, Sha Seng has a relatively conservative personality and lacks innovation and thinking ability, which affects the team's wisdom and innovation ability to a certain extent. Thirdly, the task of learning from the scriptures needs to go through many tests and challenges, and although the stability of the sand monk is important, sometimes it also requires a more flexible and innovative way of thinking to deal with unexpected situations and solve problems.
Of course, this is only the result of an analysis based on logic and reason. In "Journey to the West", each apprentice has its own unique value and role, and eliminating any of them will affect the course and meaning of the story. Therefore, in actual literature, such an assumption does not hold.