NOTES ON WU CH'ENG EN, MONKEY
Buddhism's key concepts and how this early romance novel, while also containing elements of Daoism and Confucianism, fits within the Buddhist framework in spite of its whimsicality. Just about everything that happens reinforces Buddhist notions about how desire and misprision bind people to the world, keep them from doing what they need to do, etc.
The Four Noble Truths and Three Laws
1. life is suffering
2. suffering is a product of attachment or desire
3. it’s possible to let go of attachments
4. there’s a true path towards liberation -- meditation, self-annihilation, detached action; see the Eightfold Path from Buddha's first sermon "setting the wheel of truth in motion": right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.
Three Laws: Anicca (impermanence); Dukkha (suffering, all phenomena unsatisfactory)' Anatta (non-self, no ego); the five precepts basically have to do with clean, peaceful living so that you don't get attached to the body and its desires or to material objects.
So the straightforward message is that misdirected desire makes us unhappy, but right conduct and attitude can bring us peace. On the whole, Buddha counsels reorientation of one’s sensibilities and attentions away from the self and towards the community.
Hinduism tends to posit an individual soul, to be more priestly and caste-based even extending to nirvana entry; Buddhism is a middle way rather than ascetic; early or "Theravada" Buddhism doesn't require a deity.
As indicated in the general intro to Chinese literature, What's made light of during this time period is Confucian rigidity. There are plenty of examples of this in the selections. The boundary between illusion and reality is porous, and that isn't always a bad thing because it opens up the door to transformation and divine assistance.
Similarity to Greek Hellenistic and Roman novels or "romances" like Apueius' The Golden Ass, which turns out in spite of its silliness to be about the pursuit and attainment of enightenment through the world's snares.
The nature of this fiction, as "romance," is playful and not exactly what you would call "realism," to say the least, except in the sense that it probably fits closely with its audience's sensibilities and expectations and doesn't talk over the top of their heads. Still, as with most non-realistic fiction, the aim is moral reinforcement and entertainment at the same time.
For further discussion, refer to the audio mp3 file of my comments in class, available from www.ajdrake.com/wiki.
