The TV series "Journey to the West" accompanied our childhood growth, and every episode is still fresh in our memories. When we saw Tang Seng driving away Sun Wukong, did we ever have red eyes for their separation?
When we saw that Zhu Bajie was always dragging the team back, did we ever laugh at his gluttony? However, when we turn to the original Journey to the West again, we may have a new understanding.
It turns out that the whole ** is about the turf battle between Buddhism led by Rulai and Taoism led by the Jade Emperor. Sun Wukong is the "chess piece" in the hands of Rulai, Zhu Bajie is the "killer" sent by the Jade Emperor, Tang Seng is "pitted", and Sha Seng and Xiaobailong are "mixed" for the sake of experience.
So, why did the Buddha arrange the "chess piece" of Sun Wukong? This is something we need to think about deeply.
When Sha Seng appeared in the original book, it already hinted at his origin and purpose. He used to be the general of the rolling shutter on the Lingxiao Palace, and his status was quite high, similar to the Jade Emperor's personal bodyguard, but this did not mean that he could act arbitrarily.
In fact, he was demoted to the Nether for breaking a glass cup, apparently deliberately by the Jade Emperor in order to prevent the Scripture Learner from passing through the Quicksand River. This premise was confirmed when Sha Seng reported to his home: he had eaten many of the scripture learners, and only the skeletons of nine scripture learners floated on the surface of the water and could no longer sink.
This shows that it is not the first time that Rulai has found someone to learn the scriptures, and the previous people who have learned the scriptures have become the "belly meal" of the sand monks. As an indigenous sect, Taoism is naturally hostile to foreign sects such as Buddhism, and religious conflicts in the Middle East are a manifestation of this hostility.
After many failed attempts to find someone to learn from the experience, Rulai realized his mistake and arranged Sun Wukong as a chess piece.
Newly opened copywriting: At the beginning of **, it describes a story that happened in Huaguo Mountain, Aolai Country: a fairy stone absorbed the essence of heaven, earth, sun and moon and gave birth to a stone monkey.
This stone monkey later worshipped Patriarch Bodhi as a teacher and learned various skills. However, the Bodhi Patriarch disappeared after teaching Sun Wukong's skills and never appeared again. This makes people start to doubt the relationship between Patriarch Bodhi and Buddha Nyolai, because how could two powerful beings not know each other?
In addition, there is another suspicion: Patriarch Bodhi let Sun Wukong work as a sweeper in the cave for six or seven years before teaching him skills, and only taught kung fu for two days. Although Patriarch Bodhi knew that Sun Wukong would cause trouble**, he still let Sun Wukong go down the mountain.
This seems to be a deliberate act of indulgence. Sun Wukong later made trouble in the Heavenly Palace, stirred up the sea, tossed the underworld, and did not quietly become a Monkey King. The immortals in the heavenly court couldn't ** him with all their might, so they could only ask for help from Rulai.
In fact, Rulai has long known that Sun Wukong's skills are taught by himself, and he just uses Sun Wukong to achieve his own goals. On the way to learn the scriptures, people can also see the open and secret struggle between the Rulai faction and the Jade Emperor faction.
Guanyin Bodhisattva is the person who helps Tang Seng and his apprentices the most, while Zhu Bajie is the "killer" sent by the Jade Emperor, and his mission is to get rid of Sun Wukong.
In the story of "Journey to the West", the reward of Tang monks and apprentices after taking the true scriptures raises some questions. Although Zhu Bajie has a lot of strength in the process of learning scriptures, he was only named "Pure Altar Messenger" by Rulai, this position does not exist in Buddhism, the work content is only to eat offerings, and it is to eat the remaining offerings of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, this arrangement seems to be a little foolish Zhu Bajie.
So, why is this arranged? It turned out that Zhu Bajie's real identity was a "traitor" sent by the Jade Emperor. Although Marshal Tianpeng is a marshal, he was demoted to the mortal world for molesting Chang'e after drinking, this punishment seems to be a little unreasonable, after all, the mounts of the immortals in the heavenly court, the doorman sneaking away to the mortal world to cause trouble, such a major event was not punished.
In addition, Zhu Bajie's weapon "Shangbaoqin Gold Palladium" has an extraordinary origin, which is made of the five emperors of the five directions with divine ice iron, and the appearance of this ** seems to be to restrain Sun Wukong, but in the end, Zhu Bajie found that he couldn't kill Sun Wukong at all, so he chose to give up the task.
All this was seen by the Buddha, and in the end, Zhu Bajie only got a nameless position. So, why do you want to find someone to learn from you? Why did Tang Seng choose?
These arrangements all seem to have some mysterious purpose.
In Tang Taizong's dream, he visited the underworld and met the judge Cui Yu. Judge Cui may be a member of the Buddhist faction, and although the king of the underworld is considered to be a faction of the Jade Emperor, there is also the king of the earth and the Bodhisattva.
This dream made Tang Taizong start to promote Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty, and the character of Tang Seng appeared. Although initially opposed by the ministers, they considered Buddhism to be "foreign" and not to be believed.
Tang Seng was the Buddha ** "Golden Cicada" in his previous life, and it stands to reason that arranging such a person to learn scriptures will only bring trouble, but he was finally chosen. In the past, the people who learned the scriptures at least reached the quicksand river, but Tang Seng was tied up by monsters all the way into the cave.
But this is actually to clean up the monsters related to the heavenly court and open the way for Buddhist propaganda. Tang Seng himself was given a colorful woven gold robe, and had to take the scriptures hard.
This arrangement made him the "image spokesperson" of Buddhism, and at the same time was able to eliminate Taoist forces, which was really killing three birds with one stone. And the sand monk and the little white dragon just had an experience in it.
Some people think that in the "Journey to the West" scripture-learning team, Sha Seng has almost nothing to do, and everything is "pushed to the front" by the senior brother, he neither protects Tang Seng nor kills demons, so what role does he play in the scripture-learning team?
It turned out that the sand monk was actually a member of the Jade Emperor's faction, and Guanyin Bodhisattva only discovered this when he was in the quicksand river. As Rulai's right-hand man, Guanyin did not hesitate to pull the sand monk into the scripture study team, and promised that he could return to the fairy world after learning the scriptures.
And Sha Seng has already revealed his dissatisfaction with the Jade Emperor in his words, Guanyin's promise is exactly what he wants, what is wrong with taking a "hitchhiker" back to the fairy world?
Guanyin did this, firstly, to clear the obstacles on the way to learn the scriptures, and secondly, to pull the people of the Jade Emperor's faction into his camp, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. This situation also happened to the little white dragon, although the little white dragon itself did not have much ability, but behind him was the power of the dragon king's faction.
In order to expand his strength, Guanyin added a little white dragon to the scripture-learning team, what is this? On the way to learn the scriptures, the sand monk and the little white dragon have almost no sense of existence, which is the reason.
Although they were nominally to assist Tang Seng in learning scriptures, they were actually only to complete the task. Of course, some people say that in the chapter of the true and false Monkey King, the real Monkey King has been eliminated by Rulai, and it was the six-eared macaque who later protected Tang Seng to learn the scriptures, is this true?
In addition, every time he encounters a catastrophe, there will be a high frequency of Taishang Laojun, what is his purpose? Why did the Buddha "bribe" him to let Tang monks and apprentices go?