(Snail Watch Journey to the West No. 291)
Text/Walking with a snail
One
Recently, many readers have repeatedly asked snails a question: In the entire Journey to the West, all the mounts, children, pets, etc. of the Heavenly Court and the Western Heavens are only demons in the Nether once, only Manjushri Bodhisattva's mount, the Green Haired Lion Spirit, and the Netherworld is a demon twice. Because it looks handsome? Or is it hidden in Manjushri's selfish intentions?
Indeed, the green-haired lion spirit was twice a demon.
The first time, in the country of Wuji, Rulai was going to promote the king to be a golden arhat, and sent the organization minister Manjushri to investigate, Wenshu did not know whether he was unhappy that the king's annual income exceeded 120,000, so he became a mortal monk who deliberately looked for trouble, and finally angered the king, and put Manjushri in a pig cage to immerse himself in the yushui River for three days and three nights.
In order to avenge himself, Manjushri sent a mounted lion to become a Taoist priest and took his throne for three years, but in order not to leave an excuse for encroaching on the king's wife, Manjushri was fierce and turned the lion essence into a eunuch with a knife in his crotch.
The second time, in shi huoling, the green lion actually became the leading big brother, Puxian's old driver Bai Xiang, Rulai's uncle Dapeng, were willing to be his little brother.
However, when he met Sun Wukong, he was still beaten to cry and cry, and he was also drilled into the stomach by Sun Monkey, tied to the careful liver with a rope, and squeezed in his hand.
In short, this is a mount with a bitter fate, and it has become a demon with a bitter fate.
What everybody thinks is strange is --
First, why does the lion spirit have to go on business twice? Not only did there be no oil and water fishing, but also the parts on the body were removed. Did Manjushri have any selfish intentions?
Second, the lion spirit has changed its temperament twice on business trips. The first time not only did not eat people, but also governed the country smoothly; the second time it became a man-eating demon, naming and calling for eating Tang monk meat. Why?
Third, when Sun Wukong saw him again, neither of them said that they knew him before, did everyone know it and did not dare to tell the truth?
In this regard, fans against the wind said that as a Buddhist executive, Director Manjushri has at least two cars, a dead leper lion, a Lake Silly Lion, in short, a lion character head. So, they are not in the same car.
Some readers also said that it must be Wu Cheng'en who drank a little wine and wrote it, deliberately making a joke for everyone. Or the writing time is too long, the front is written, and the back is forgotten.
In addition to the bug of the green lion, there are many loopholes in the time when the Tang monks took the scriptures, the name of the Dragon King of the West Sea, and so on.
Some people simply think that "Journey to the West" is not as exquisite as "Dream of the Red Chamber", and Wu Cheng'en is not as rigorous as Cao Xueqin.
Is this really the case?
Two
Before answering this question, the snail will tell you a story.
In 1592, the twentieth year of the Ming Dynasty, a bookstore in Nanjing called Jinling Shide Hall suddenly became lively, and the owner stood on the steps, greeted customers on duty, and wiped the sweat off his forehead from time to time. On the wall, a new notice was posted -
Our shop has newly carved out a large character like the official version of "Journey to the West", 200 times of volume, and welcomes all the guest officials from today.
The owner of the bookstore is named Tang Guanglu, who is a rising star of the Tang family in the Nanjing engraving book shop. It can be said that without him, it is difficult for us to read the full version of the Hundred Times "Journey to the West", because the "Journey to the West" hundred times on the market today are basically the Shidetang version.
But at that time, Tang Guanglu took a great risk!
Before the launch of this book, the Tang monks took the scriptures is not a new story, starting from the Tang Dynasty, all kinds of acting scripts, rap treasure scrolls, storytelling plain words, and even begging along the street will come to a few lotus flowers, so many stories in this hundred times are still the collection and collation of folklore.
At that time, the printing technology was not as good as now, it took several years to engrave such a book, and it cost a lot of money, thousands of book plates were enough to fill all the warehouses of Shide Hall, and if they were not careful (such as being banned or sold badly), the Tang family would be ruined!
However, the young man Tang Guanglu still persuaded his family to make this important decision, because the manuscript of the book deeply attracted him! He had never seen a journey to the west story so exquisitely conceived, so humorously written, and so satirical, far from being comparable to the rough and vulgar stories of sutra on the market. He was willing to give his life to this book!
More than four hundred years have passed, and the bookstore of ShideTang has long been annihilated in the smoke and dust of history, but this hundred-time "Journey to the West" has crossed the long river of history with the spirit of overlordship, and has gone through various political storms and is completely presented on our desk.
When it was born, the previous various forms and versions of "Journey to the West" suddenly disappeared, and it was difficult to see it again.
However, such a brilliant work does not have the author's name on the cover, but only mentions in the preface that it comes from a manuscript flowing out of a certain royal palace.
Three
Of course, this book has an author, and there are many ironclad evidence to prove that the author is Wu Cheng'en of Huai'an, Jiangsu Province! (Thanks to Mr. Cai Tieying's research, he mentioned several chains of evidence snails, and some of the ideas in this article are taken from his work Journey to the West: Past and Present Lives.) ）
But by the time the book was published, he had been dead for a full decade!
In the feudal era, most of the literati who wrote popular novels were brilliant, and they pointed out the country and stirred up the words in the books, but they never dared to put their big names on the masterpieces they had painstakingly forged. No matter how ancient this work is and how expensive the Luoyang paper is, it has nothing to do with them. Their "berthing" was disguised behind an origami fan and a long shirt.
This is because, in those days, the career path was the right way for a man, and writing novels was only done by people who did not do the right thing. Whether it is Shi Nai'an, Pu Songling or Wu Jingzi, they have pursued a lifetime of career, but they have always been blocked out of the door by the keju, and there is no way, they have to write their own talent and anger into the novel.
Cao Xueqin, not to mention, fell in the middle of the family road, and suffered a major blow in her life, and could only use the novel to narrate bitter tears, in order to avoid suspicion, she also used "false language village dialect".
Like them, Wu Cheng'en has been a child prodigy since he was a child, a "rising star" in the eyes of others, and the big families in the neighborhood are vying to invite him to read to his son. His father had all his hopes for him to become an official. Once, when his father was bullied by a strongman, the neighbor told him to go to the official, but he said meaningfully: You see, isn't there an official in my house?
However, fate made a big joke to Wu Cheng'en. The neighbors he had studied with and tutored all won the Jinshi and Yuanyuan, and when he reached his forties, he did not even pass the examination.
It is recorded that his classmate Shen Kun, who was reading with him, believed in Emperor Guan, and prayed silently in front of Emperor Guan's statue before the college entrance examination, and Wu Cheng'en mischievously wrote several test questions and threw them into the incense burner in front of Emperor Guan. When Shen Kun saw it, if he got the most precious treasure, he quickly prepared according to this. As a result, when the exam was taken, it was really these test questions, Shen Kun was on the list, and Wu Cheng'en was on the list.
Deeply disappointed in his son, his father died depressed. The grief and shame in Wu Cheng'en's heart are indescribable, and he personally wrote an epitaph to his father (which was unruly in that era), and the first sentence was a profound review -
Uh-huh! The orphan boy accepted the grace of the heavens, and the heavens sent severe punishments, but took them from the Father.
After that, he was angry about the scientific expedition, but he still fell off the list, fell off the list, and then fell off the list. It was almost fifty years old that he sighed, threw away the college entrance examination books, and waited in shame for a qualified year (similar to today's adult school students). Nearly sixty years old, with the help of his young friend Li Chunfang, now a cabinet university scholar, he went to Changxing County to serve as a county magistrate (similar to deputy county magistrate, but his power was very different from today's deputy county magistrate).
However, Wu Cheng'en, a scholar, was just an idiot in the official arena, and he was soon involved in a case and almost spent the rest of his life in prison. Fortunately, Li Chunfang was afraid of being implicated and helped him in time, so he was released from prison without guilt and changed to Ji Shan, the teacher of the little prince, instead of serving as Ji Shan in the Jing King's Mansion in Puzhou.
After this storm, Wu Cheng'en was completely disappointed in the official field. Coupled with the idle work of the royal palace, he began to write "Journey to the West" with a pen. After it was written, perhaps wang ye promised him to engrave the book, or maybe it felt useless, and he resigned his official post and returned to his hometown after being left in the palace, and eventually became poor in the countryside.
Four
Looking back at Wu Cheng'en's life, the reason why he has not been able to pass the examination for many years is actually his own responsibility, because he has a fatal "hobby": reading novels!
What "Search for God", "Xuan Wei Record", "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks" and so on. What is even more frightening is that he not only loves to read, but also learns to write, and after his prime, he once wrote a Zhiwei novel "Yu Dingzhi" (this book did not have the good fortune of "Journey to the West", and he lost it after his death).
You know, what is needed for scientific research is not your Wang Yang's arbitrary novel style, but the eight strands of style at a glance, just like today you use Jin Yong's martial arts brushwork, can you be admitted to college? Can I write institutional materials? At that time, Wu Cheng'en was like a bad teenager who was often taken away by the teacher when we were young.
In fact, Wu Cheng'en also knows that this problem is not good, but he just likes it, from the bottom of his heart, even if he has suffered many blows from fate, he can't lose this "bad hobby", and finally in his flower year, he accumulated thick hair and wrote the great masterpiece "Journey to the West".
As the snail also said earlier, a long novel is going to be printed, that is to take a great economic risk, Wu Cheng'en has no money, so he never thought of changing the poor life through it; writing novels is not the work of literary talents, so he never thought of making a name for himself through it.
All because he likes !!! He is willing to use his last life to realize this long-cherished wish!
After Wu Cheng'en left, this manuscript was obviously not taken seriously, and it was impossible for the royal palace to pay for it, and over time, it somehow fell into the hands of storytellers. The storytellers of that era, like today's singers, had good works to make a name for themselves and earn money to support their families.
In the eyes of the literati and officials, this is the work of the subordinates, but in the eyes of the storytellers, it is the treasure of the family. They use word of mouth and copying. Since it is word of mouth, there must be times when it is transmitted; since it is copied, it is possible to write a typo.
In addition, in the process of lecturing, the storyteller feels that this place is not wonderful to talk about, so he adds a paragraph; that place is too wordy, so he deletes a paragraph. Although Sedokdo was also proofread at the time of engraving, it was inevitable that there would be various errors (because it was not clear what the original manuscript was).
This is the root cause of many flaws such as the two nether realms of the green lion, the confusion of the time when the Tang monks took the scriptures, and the inconsistency of the name of the Dragon King of the West Sea! Otherwise, with the rigor of Confucianism, Wu Cheng'en would never have made such a low-level mistake.
In 1592, this manuscript wandered the rivers and lakes for many years, and finally reached the hands of Tang Guanglu, the owner of Shide Hall. Like a wandering orphan, he finally found his adopter.
Five
Hundreds of years have passed, although Wu Cheng'en's companions have been brilliant, who remembers their names? Even in another thousand years, Wu Cheng'en's name will shine in the long river of history.
We believe that even if he is a high school leader, in the face of a cruel system, Wu Cheng'en is unhappy in his heart; even if he has lost his life, as long as he lifts his pen into the journey to the west, Wu Cheng'en is happy in his heart!
It is precisely because of his lifelong hobby that China has one less bureaucrat and one more literary giant.
Wu Cheng'en's life once again shows that as long as the effort is always rewarded, it is not unrequited, it is not time. A philosopher also said that as long as you are in the right direction and insist on doing ten thousand hours (10 years), you must be an expert in a certain field.
Just like a friend of snails, Jinqi, her father is a successful businessman with her own factory, she can live a comfortable life under the protection of her father without worry, but she chose to start a business, and after many failures, she finally created a healthy underwear brand, owned her own patented products, and became a dark horse in the industry.
I cast aside all my sorrows and doubts to chase the homeless tide, for the eternal stranger was calling me, and he was walking along the path. (Tagore: "Fruit Picking")
There is no failure in life, only giving up. People's life really can not be less than dreams, what if one day it will come true?
Heading to the public name of the same name, you can read the 98th issue of the work "The Only City in the Journey to the West that Makes Sun Wukong Afraid, the King Can't Even Afford to Come!" 》