Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T12:08:00.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Buddhist Allegory in the Journey to the West

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Francisca Cho Bantly
Get access

Extract

The narrative richness of the Chinese Ming (1368–1644) novel known as the Hsi-yu chi, or The Journey to the West, presents a daunting challenge to the interpreter. The bewildering array of cultural lore—especially from the three major religious traditions of China (Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism)—is so diverse and boldly interwoven that it almost appears as “simply furniture thrown in to impress, or mock, the reader” (Plaks 1977:181). Thus any interpretation faces the danger of exaggerating the importance of these cultural and religious elements, only to discover that the author offered them in jest.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , August 1989 , pp. 512 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Berling, Judith. 1987. “Bringing the Buddha Down to Earth: Notes on the Emergence of Yü-lu as a Buddhist Genre.” History of Religions 27, no. 1:56–88.Google Scholar
Campany, Robert. 1985. “Demons, Gods and Pilgrims: The Demonology of the Hsi-yu Chi.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, and Reviews 7:95–115.Google Scholar
Conze, Edward. 1958. Buddhist Wisdom Books. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Dudbridge, Glen. 1970. The Hsi-yu Chi: A Study of Antecedents to the Sixteenth-Century Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Groot, J. J. M. De. [1892–1910] 1969. The Religious System of China. Taipei: Reprint, Ch'eng-wen Publications.Google Scholar
Hsia, C. T. 1968. The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kern, H. 1963. Saddharmapundarika, or the Lotus of the True Law. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
LopezDonald S., Jr Donald S., Jr., ed. 1988. Buddhist Hermeneutics, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Mair, Victor. 1983. Tun-huang Popular Narratives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Orzech, Charles. 1986. “Cosmology in Action: Recursive Cosmology, Soteriology in Chen-yen Buddhism.” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Plaks, Andrew. 1977. “Allegory in Hsi-yu Chi and Hung-lou Meng.” In Chinese Narrative: Critical and Theoretical Essays, ed. Plaks, Andrew. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Plaks, Andrew. 1987. Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel: “Ssu-ta ch'i-shu”. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Průšek, Jaroslav. 1938. “The Narrators of Buddhist Scriptures and Religious Tales in the Sung Period.” Archiv Orientální 10:375–89Google Scholar
PrůŠek, Jaroslav. 1939. “Researches into the Beginnings of the Chinese Popular Novel.” Archiv Orientální 11:91–132.Google Scholar
Todorov, Tzvetan. 1976. “The Origin of Genres.” New Literary History 8, no. 1.Google Scholar
Michio, Uchida. 1963. “Saiyuki no seiritsu ni tsuite” [On the establishment of the Hsi-yu Chi]. Bunka 27, no. 1:23–46.Google Scholar
Yu, Anthony C. 1977–1983. The Journey to the West. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Yu, Anthony C.. 1983. “Two Literary Examples of Religious Pilgrimage: The Commedia and The Journey to the West.” History of Religions 22, no. 3:202–30.Google Scholar
Yu, Anthony C.. 1987. “Religion and Literature in China: The ‘Obscure Way’ of The Journey to the West.” In Tradition and Creativity: Essays on East Asian Civilization, ed. Tu, Ching-I. New Brunswick, N.J.: University Publications.Google Scholar