Recently, in addition to often taking out some fragments of the Yongzheng Dynasty for interpretation, I occasionally interpret the four masterpieces of Classical Chinese.
After these interpretations of the article, after being sent, some of them have received a lot of attention, and even netizens have left messages.
In the comments of netizens, there are many voices of doubt, and the main reason for questioning is that the article is suspected of over-interpretation of classics and famous works.
I personally believe that for the interpretation of famous works and classics, there is no excessive over-excessive, only a bottom line and no bottom line.
The reason why people are willing to start from some details in famous works and classics and reinterpret some new views is precisely the beginning of the greatness of the original work: after such a long time, even across the distance of the times, it can still be combined with the life and social experience of the new period by later generations, and read out the feelings from them, which is not exactly the embodiment of the enduring vitality of the work?
In a sense, the interpretation of the original work is also an extension and re-creation of the original work, and even the part that the original author did not consider was supplemented and improved.
The author created such an immortal work, although it reflects his superb cultural and artistic level, but this does not mean that future generations can not continue to extend and improve the work on the basis of the original work.
At least today, through research and research, scholars can basically determine that "Journey to the West", "Water Margin", and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" were all compiled and sorted out by the authors at that time on various legends and stories scattered in the folk before they formed famous works. Why weren't the authors of the time interpreting and extending the original works?
Isn't our history and culture passed down step by step in such an extension and improvement?
Therefore, what I want to say is that as long as this kind of interpretation of famous works is not contrary to the bottom line of creation, it should not be too harsh.
Next, back to the point, around the title of "Journey to the West, the origin of the Jade Emperor and Sun Wukong", we continue to analyze and discuss.
Before, I once wrote that the birth of Sun Wukong and his later worship of teachers, learning art, and making a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace did not happen by accident, but was always guided and pushed forward. This promoter is none other than the Buddha.
The Buddha hoped that through this series of experiences, he would temper a sutra learner who had experienced hundreds of battles and was highly skilled in martial arts, and would lead the completion of the great cause of sutra collection that he had planned for many years.
According to some descriptions in the original "Journey to the West", we will also find that the reason why Sun Wukong embarked on the road of making a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace step by step, in addition to the guidance of Rulai, is actually inseparable from the secret layout of another character, that is, the Jade Emperor.
For this point of view, we can see the support point from the description of several details in the original book:
1. At the beginning of the original novel, when Sun Wukong changed from the stone, the Jade Emperor was aware of it, but for the incarnation of Sun Wukong, the Jade Emperor chose to turn a blind eye and did not take it seriously.
2. After Sun Wukong returned from his studies and obtained a golden hoop stick and a matching battle robe from the Dragon Palace, the Dragon King did not report to the Jade Emperor at the first time. Instead, after Sun Wukong made a big fuss in the mansion and destroyed the book of life and death, he and Yama went to the Jade Emperor to file a complaint. Obviously, there are people operating here, and the purpose is to pave the way for the next step of the Jade Emperor's arrangement.
So, what is the next step for the Jade Emperor?
3. After the Dragon King and the King of Yan jointly ran to the Heavenly Court to "petition" sun wukong, the Jade Emperor sent an envoy, Taibai Venus, to Huaguo Mountain and asked Sun Wukong to go to the heavenly palace to become an official.
It is reasonable to say that robbing the treasures of the Dragon Palace and destroying the archives of the prefectural government is not a small crime. Instead of punishing him, the Jade Emperor invited him to work, which could not but be said to be a bit abnormal.
Unlike other immortals who need to go through many tests to rank in the immortal class, Sun Wukong has directly established the establishment of the Heavenly Garden, and the size is still a manager - the Dragon Horse who is responsible for managing the entire Heavenly Garden. Objectively speaking, for a mortal person who has no background at all, no merit, and no understanding of the Heavenly Court, it is already good to be able to give such an arrangement. It is equivalent to failing the "national examination" and directly going to the central leading organ to assume the position of head of the logistics department.
However, Sun Wukong was not satisfied with such an arrangement, and did not even write a resignation report, so he directly left his post.
4, the previous fault, coupled with this time to fry the Jade Emperor's squid, so that the Jade Emperor is very unhappy, had to come up with some punitive measures. He arranged for King Li of Tota to take Nezha and the Giant Spirit God to Huaguo Mountain to subdue Sun Wukong.
As a result, the giant spirit god or Nezha fought with Sun Wukong for a few rounds and then returned home.
As we have analyzed before, Sun Wukong's Buddhist background is very deep, and Tota Li Tianwang and Buddhism are also inextricably linked. The Jade Emperor asked Li Tianwang to do this errand, and the meaning of releasing water was more obvious. To put it bluntly, it was to let Li Tianwang lead these people to Huaguo Mountain for a formality, to prove that Sun Wukong was very capable, and instead of continuing to suppress it, it was better to further recruit the Heavenly Court for my use.
5, then, the Next Step of the Jade Emperor is even more obvious.
Don't you Sun Wukong want to be a "Great Sage of Qi Tian"? Let it be you.
Do you Sun Wukong think that the official position of "Bow Ma Wen" is small? As you please, give you a fictitious position with official rank and no real power, and let you play in the heavenly court.
As a result, Sun Wukong began his professional life of hanging out and fishing in the heavenly court all day.
Until one day, more and more people ran to the Jade Emperor to reflect that Sun Wukong had nothing to do all day, so the Jade Emperor began the next step, which was also the most critical arrangement.
6. What arrangements did the Jade Emperor make?
Arrange for Sun Wukong to take care of the peach orchard.
Just imagine, Sun Wukong is a monkey, monkeys eat peach this is the law of nature, the nature of animals, the Jade Emperor can not know? Let Sun Wukong go to look after the peach orchard, and the Jade Emperor made such an arrangement, what is the inside story?
Here, it needs to be interspersed with a point of view that I have analyzed before.
There is a deep inside story hidden in "Journey to the West": throughout the novel, the divine realm, the immortal world, the Buddha's realm, the demons and ghosts, and even mortals are pursuing an ultimate goal - the secret recipe for immortality.
According to the description in the original book, there are several ways to live forever:
Eat peaches, eat elixirs, eat ginseng fruits, eat Tang monk meat, and swallow the immortal medicine of virgin boys and girls.
Why does the Heavenly Court hold a peach party? Because it's time for the peach to bear fruit.
Why do the immortals want to come and participate? It is to receive the peach and ensure that you continue to live forever in the next growth cycle of the peach.
Note that immortality does not equal eternal life. That is to say, this peach needs to be eaten continuously in stages in order to extend its lifespan. If you can't eat peach in one cycle, then the immortal will hang up in the next peach growth cycle.
Then, the Jade Emperor asked Sun Wukong to take care of the peach, whether Sun Wukong ate the peach or not, the Jade Emperor could reasonably push the responsibility for the reduction of peach production and even the lack of harvest on Sun Wukong.
When the Jade Emperor found an excuse for the reduction of peach production or even the lack of harvest, it was completely reasonable to provide peach to the gods and immortals in a restrictive manner.
When the peach that was related to their own life and death could not be guaranteed, the gods and immortals either further expressed their loyalty to the Jade Emperor, or they could only let themselves hang up.
The gods would definitely choose the former.
That is to say, the Jade Emperor actually wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to redistribute the peach, by arranging Sun Wukong to stir up trouble in advance, so that he could find a reason to deter many immortals, and even take this opportunity to eliminate dissidents - not to distribute peaches to them, let them hang up, and finally achieve the purpose of maintaining the authority of his rule in the heavenly court.
7. In order to break the thoughts of the gods and immortals, after Sun Wukong made a big fuss about the peach meeting, he also "ghostly made the gods send" to the Tushi Palace of Taishang Laojun and ate the elixir refined by Taishang Laojun - at least the Jade Emperor would also declare to the outside world that the specific amount of Sun Wukong had eaten could not be counted.
When the Jade Emperor saw that Sun Wukong had already turned the "Peach Festival" upside down according to his needs, and "ate the essence" of the elixir that could also continue his life, just when Sun Wukong came out of the alchemy furnace of Taishang Laojun and was ready to slip away, he hurriedly sent someone to invite the Buddha of Rulai. Let Rulai Buddha use his magic power to subdue Sun Wukong in public, and it can be regarded as the final successful handover with Rulai.
The above indications show that Sun Wukong from birth, to learning art, and then to the great haunting of the Heavenly Palace is certainly planning the layout step by step, paving the way for the next step of the plan to learn the scriptures. It was also the Jade Emperor who used Sun Wukong as a "spoiler" to destroy an established power structure in the Celestial Realm by interfering with the "Peach Festival", so as to re-integrate the various personnel and power distribution of the Heavenly Court to achieve the purpose of rectifying the team.
The Jade Emperor finally asked Rulai to come over and "clean up" Sun Wukong, indicating that he and Rulai were tacit about their respective purposes, and in the end they basically achieved a win-win goal - the Jade Emperor also gave strong support to the plan to learn the scriptures carried out by Rulai 500 years later.
Because they both have a common opponent, Taishang Laojun.