As soon as the domestic stand-alone game "Black Myth: Wukong" was launched, it became the focus of players around the world, and even Elon · Musk, the "Iron Man of Silicon Valley", were praising it. Given that the basic plot of this game comes from the classic literary masterpiece "Journey to the West", and the core character "Destiny Man" is the doppelganger of Sun Wukong, the soul of "Journey to the West", we might as well open a brain hole related to the ancient literary celebrity Li Qingzhao - when Li Qingzhao was alive, did he watch "Journey to the West", did he hear of Sun Wukong, and was it possible to be interested in games like "Black Myth: Wukong"?
The portrait of Monkey King in the picture book "Journey to the West" in the Edo period of Japan
Playing until you forget to sleep and eat, Li Qingzhao is a game fan
First of all, you can boldly guess that if Li Qingzhao can meet "Black Myth: Wukong", then he will definitely be fascinated by it. Why? Because Li Qingzhao is a game fan.
In the early period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Qingzhao avoided the war, moved to the south of the Yangtze River, was bored, wrote a book, and wrote a book "Horse Fighting Picture Sutra", which is a game strategy for teaching people to "fight horses". This guide has been lost, and it is difficult for modern people to figure out what kind of game "horse fighting" is, but the foreword written by Li Qingzhao for the book has been handed down, called "The Preface to the Horse Fighting Diagram Sutra".
Li Qingzhao wrote in the "Preface to the Sutra of Playing Horses": "To give sex to Bo, all the so-called Bo are delayed, and they forget to sleep and eat day and night." It means that she loves games, and any kind of game can make her addicted, playing during the day and at night, until she forgets to eat.
Li Qingzhao also wrote: "Cracking, size, pig nests, clan ghosts, nonsense, counting warehouses, gambling fast, etc., are all slang and unseen. The collection of wine, the pampering, and the double fuse are gradually abandoned. Selecting immortals, adding and subtracting, inserting fire, appointing recklessly, and doing nothing to help people are clever and ingenious. Big and small chess, chess games, and only two people can be accommodated. Exclusive selection, horse fighting, especially for the boudoir elegant play. Taste hatred and selection, and work hard to review, so there are few people who can pass through, and it is difficult to meet the enemy. ”
Cracking, size, pig nest, clan ghosts, Hu painting, counting warehouses, gambling fast, these games are relatively vulgar and not elegant. Zangjiu, 摴 (chū) 蒲, and double flapping, these games gradually disappeared in the Song Dynasty, and not many people played them. Choosing immortals, adding and subtracting, and plugging in the fire, these games are too simple for players to show their wisdom and skills. Chess, Chess, and Go are all played by two people, and more players cannot participate directly. Only the two games of selection and horse fighting, which are difficult and elegant, are most suitable for girls. However, the selection is too complicated and laborious, and most players cannot understand it, which makes it difficult for Li Qingzhao to meet a fierce opponent.
There are all kinds of games above, except for chess and Go, we don't understand anything else, and we are confused, but Li Qingzhao is like a treasure, and she also said that it is difficult to meet strong opponents, which shows that she has a wide range of knowledge in the field of games and is at ease. Unfortunately, she was born more than 900 years ago and has never played with a computer, let alone Black Myth: Wukong.
Li Qingzhao didn't know that Sun Wukong had heard of "Monkey Walker" at most
So has Li Qingzhao watched "Journey to the West"? I'm afraid not.
In the twentieth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in 1592 AD, a businessman surnamed Tang in Nanjing published a "Journey to the West with Newly Carved Characters Like an Official Board" in the printing workshop "Shidetang" he operated, the whole book is divided into 100 chapters, with full illustrations, which is the earliest and most complete version of the novel "Journey to the West" that we can see today. The book is signed "Huayang Dongtian Master School", that is, it is proofread by Huayang Dongtian Master. Who is the owner of Huayang Cave? The mainstream opinion in modern academic circles believes that he is Wu Chengen, an official of the Ming Dynasty.
Wu Chengen mainly lived in the Jiajing period, and he had already died in 1592 when Nanjing Shidetang published "Journey to the West", so before 1592, there should have been an earlier version of the novel "Journey to the West", but it has not been handed down. But in any case, "Journey to the West" as a novel genre is unlikely to have been born before the Ming Dynasty, because before the Ming Dynasty, only "Journey to the West" in the genre of miscellaneous dramas or commentaries came out. Therefore, even if Li Qing has taken care of "Journey to the West", what he will see will not be "Journey to the West" in the novel genre.
In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty or the early years of the Ming Dynasty, playwright Yang Jingxian created a miscellaneous drama "Journey to the West" (one said that the author was another playwright Wu Changling), the story is relatively simple, and the characters of Tang monks and apprentices are relatively thin, but Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Seng have gathered together, and scenes such as Black Wind Mountain, Flame Mountain, and Daughter Country (written as "Women's Country" in miscellaneous dramas) have also appeared. Going back further, in the middle of the Yuan Dynasty or the late Yuan Dynasty, there should be a "Tang Sanzang Journey to the West Commentary" came out, which is equivalent to the base of Mr. Storyteller, this commentary has been lost, only in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty published in the Chinese textbook "Pu Tongshi" left a little excerpt, from that excerpt it can be seen that Sun Wukong was not called Sun Wukong at that time, only called "Sun Xingzhi".
Continuing to trace back, Liu Kezhuang, an official of the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote two six-character poems: one depicts looking in the mirror and mocking himself with "ugly monkey walkers"; One poem writes about the righteousness of Buddhism, using "learning scriptures and annoying monkey walkers" as a metaphor for the path of cultivation. It can be inferred from this that during the Southern Song Dynasty, there must have been a story of Tang monks and apprentices learning scriptures from the West: an ugly-looking monkey spirit was responsible for protecting Tang Xuanzang from going to Tianzhu. However, this monkey spirit was not called Sun Wukong at that time, but "Monkey Walker".
From the novel "Journey to the West" published by Shidetang in Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty, to the "Journey to the West" miscellaneous drama written by Yang Jingxian in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, to the only surviving excerpt of the Yuan Dynasty's "Commentary on Journey to the West in Tang Sanzang", and finally to the "Monkey Walker" mentioned in Liu Kezhuang's poem in the Southern Song Dynasty, along this rough timeline, we can get a simple conclusion: the artistic image of Sun Wukong was formed in the Ming Dynasty or the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and there was no name "Sun Wukong" in the Southern Song Dynasty, only the prototype of Sun Wukong "Monkey Walker". Li Qingzhao was born in the Northern Song Dynasty and died in the Southern Song Dynasty, so she may only have heard of Monkey Walker, but not Sun Wukong.
The story of the monkey essence protecting the Tang monks and learning scriptures spread from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Western Xia
In the Song Dynasty, there was also a monk with the law name Daochuan, who was shaved in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, and became famous during the Song Xiaozong period, which was similar to Li Qingzhao's life era. Daochuan left more than 30 poems, one of which reads: "He has a heart of three Tibetan Taiyi, and he watched the rowing." The national teacher on the opposite side can't be found, just because he has never been abused. ”
At present, the "Journey to the West" version scholars have not noticed this poem, the poetry is obvious, and it describes the story of Tang monks and apprentices learning scriptures: Sanzang is too confused, Qian Qi is very smart, Sanzang can't see that the national teacher is a monster, just because he was blinded by stupidity. With Daochuan's poem, coupled with the aforementioned Liu Kezhuang's two six-character poems, we can be sure that there was not only a story of monkey spirits helping Tang monks learn scriptures during the Southern Song Dynasty, but also this kind of story should still be very popular.
Was there such a story in the Northern Song Dynasty? In 1104 A.D., Su Dongpo's brother Su Zhe observed the murals in Yuncheng (now Yuncheng District, Luohe City, Henan Province) on the other side of the temple, and left a poem of seven laws "Wuzong Yuanbi Painting Manjushri Xuanzang", in which the neck couplet wrote: "Born with real people Yongmu, into the old release of the face of the old man is clear." "Born with a real person's grace, it means that Manjushri has a graceful bearing; The old man in Fan released his face and cleared his face, which means that Tang Xuanzang learned scriptures from the west and had a thin face. In addition to Tang Xuanzang, there may also be the prototype of Sun Wukong, "Monkey Walker", in the mural that Su Zhe saw, but it is not explicitly written in his poem, so he cannot make an assertion.
However, in the second cave of the East Thousand Buddha Cave in Guazhou County, Gansu Province, we can see a mural depicting Xuanzang's scriptures, which was painted by the Xixia people and is now named "Tang Seng Drawing Scriptures". On this mural, Tang Seng is wearing a robe, with his hands folded, walking in front; The monkey walker has a sharp beak and monkey gills, and walks behind with his hands on a pergola; There is also a red horse behind the Monkey Walker, the horse's head twisted towards the Monkey Walker, and the horse's butt facing the painter. This painting is blurred, some people say it was painted in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, some people say it was painted in the Southern Song Dynasty, if it was painted in the Northern Song Dynasty, then there must be a story of monkeys in the Northern Song Dynasty to protect the Tang monks to learn scriptures, and the story also spread to the Western Xia.
The second cave of the East Thousand Buddha Cave in Guazhou County, Gansu Province "Xuanzang Takes the Scriptures" (copy of Guazhou County Museum)
The early Tang monk rode a red horse The early Monkey King wore white clothes
You may question: Didn't Tang Seng ride a white dragon horse? Why is it a red horse? Isn't Sun Wukong wearing a tiger skin skirt? Why is the monkey walker wearing a white robe?
In fact, from the Song Dynasty to today, the story of Tang monks learning scriptures has undergone continuous evolution, the early Tang monks are riding red horses, and the early Monkey King is wearing white clothes. We might as well open a very short prototype version of "Journey to the West" born in the Southern Song Dynasty - "The Poetry of the Three Tibetan Scriptures of the Tang Dynasty". In the second chapter of this book, Tang Seng "saw a white-clothed Xiucai coming from the east", and introduced himself, "I am no one else, I am the 84,000 copper-headed iron-fronted macaque king of Ziyun Cave in Huaguo Mountain, and I am here to help the monk learn scriptures", and then "the mage immediately changed to a monkey walker". You see, this monkey walker is a white-clothed Xiucai from the Purple Cloud Cave of Huaguo Mountain, not the Water Curtain Cave of Huaguo Mountain.
Looking at the "Biography of the Three Tibetan Masters of the Great Ci'en Temple" (the book was compiled by Xuanzang's disciple Huili and others) born in the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzang met the Hu people Shi Pantuo on the way from the Tang Dynasty to India, and Shi Pantuo worshipped Xuanzang as a teacher, escorted Xuanzang for a while, and replaced Xuanzang's horse with an "old red and thin horse", that is, an old and thin red horse. In the Ming Dynasty, there is a song about Tang Seng to learn the scriptures "True Scripture Treasure Scroll" came out, Tang Seng's mount is not only a red horse, but also the incarnation of the "Red Dragon Three Princes", which can be transformed into a fire dragon at any time.
Therefore, the story of the monkey spirit protecting the Tang monk and learning the scriptures has been born in the Song Dynasty, but the monkey spirit at that time has not yet been named Sun Wukong, and the Tang monk is not riding a white dragon horse. Li Qingzhao may have heard the story of Tang Seng learning scriptures, but the version she heard should be like this: Tang Seng rode a red horse to learn scriptures, and a monkey spirit with great powers came to help, and the monkey spirit was dressed in white and named Monkey Walker.
(Author: Li Kaizhou, Source: Beijing Youth Daily)