This week’s Cosmic Library brings back our guests to talk about the mixed moods of Journey to the West, in which spiritual profundity tangles with the irreligious rebellion of a Monkey King.
Translator Julia Lovell says:
Literary critics have been arguing about the spiritual, religious elements of the book for centuries. Some have always maintained that the book has actually a very intricate religious design, that Monkey is an allegory for the human mind. So in this reading, Monkey stands for the instability of human genius in need of discipline, namely the trials of the pilgrimage, to realize its potential for good.
This reading draws from the Buddhist tradition:
The earliest Buddhist sutras translated into Chinese analogize the human mind as a monkey, as restless, erratic, volatile. And by the end of the first millennium C.E., the phrase “monkey of the mind” (xinyuan) had become a stock literary allusion for this restless human mind.
Bad News/Good News
The restless Monkey King jokes about some terrifying prospects, taking readers through multiple moods by way of old-fashioned swagger. Maybe that progression through moods constitutes a psychological pilgrimage, or perhaps it’s just literary movement, but in any case, it makes for narrative propulsion—restlessly turning from feeling to feeling, incident to incident, idea to idea.
As we hear on this week’s show, a divine messenger disguised as a woodcutter says to the Monkey King:
“Deep in this mountain lies the Lotus-Flower Cave, home to two monsters determined to have you for dinner.”
“What luck!” responded Monkey cheerfully. “Do you know how they plan to eat us?”
“I beg your pardon?” asked the nonplussed woodcutter.
“I see you are inexperienced in such matters. If they start with the head, I’ll be dead in one bite—all good. After that, they can fry, sauté, braise, or boil me—it wouldn’t matter one bit.”
Horror turns into joke, which keeps things turning. (As always, I’m quoting from Julia Lovell’s translation.)
Next week, we follow a tangent into the world of wuxia cinema.
Thanks for reading/listening!
-Adam