The Idea of death and the chinese philosophy of it is intriguing, in the way Monkey is shown in the book, the idea of death as an a deity called yama, Yama is a fascinating figure. He rules over the afterlife, but is not one of the devas. This leads into the question Is Death only but a phase whereby we may pass through to receive immortality. Fear of death and mortality is the very reason why Monkey begins his quest for immortality. The story consists of Chinese legends, tales, and superstitions. Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism play a huge role throughout this story. Monkey: Journey to the West is a story that discusses religion, and moral issues.
The monkey acts the way he does due to underlying religious themes played throughout the story. At first understanding why the Monkey acts the way he does may seem difficult. However, after reading deeper through the story one learns that social satire in the Monkey is what gives him his rebellious personality. ama is one of the dharmapalas, or protectors of Buddhist doctrine. His fearsome appearance helps him to combat malevolent demons and other enemies of Buddhism. Originally, Yama was a Hindu god. Like many other Hindu gods, he has been adopted and worshipped by the Buddhists, together with all his original functions.
A Buddhist sign on his abdomen, a chakra or wheel, which is a mark of Buddhist doctrine, shows that the statue is part of Buddhist religion.
When Monkey learns ways of being immortal he returns home and he is more greedy than ever. Greed is looked down upon in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.
Monkey then continues his journey to the dragons and takes their treasures in an ungrateful manner. He uses immoral and threatening actions to obtain his goals, which are clearly looked down upon. At this time the Monkey is beginning to upset a lot of people, and even the Jade Emperor of Heaven is becoming upset. Monkey totally disregards everyone’s feelings and continues to act in such a rude and immoral manner. Monkey still has a desire for more so he eats the immortal fruits, drinks the immortal wine, and he even takes Lao Tzu’s special pills. At this point heaven is becoming even more angry over the Monkeys actions. The Monkey returns home and Heaven implements another attack on him. This attack was successful, Heaven defeated the monkey with the help of Buddha and Lao Tzu. In conclusion Monkey is imprisoned for 500 years.
He is thus a culture hero who opens the possibility of rebirth for Brahmin ritualists. The realm of ancestors starts off on the same level of the devas, and is progressively demoted until it becomes a place of torment and punishment. In parallel, the departed (preta) are transformed from the fortunate ones going to their ancestors, to a tortured group of ghosts stuck in limbo.
An example of the privileging of Buddhism over Taoism can be seen in the cosmological structure of the book. The trouble Monkey causes in Heaven (populated mostly by Taoist deities) early on in the book is a prevalent example of this. In Monkey’s rebellion against Heaven in chapter VI, Heaven sends its forces to arrest Monkey. Upon capturing and failing to execute him (due to his magical abilities), Monkey is beset by the Nine Planets, the kings of the Four Quarters, thirty six thunder deities and Wang Ling-kuan (73).
Despite their efforts, Monkey is successfully able to defend himself against them. In the end, the Jade Emperor must send messengers to the Western Region (the residence of the Buddha and many bodhisattvas) to plead for help.
Once the Buddha arrives, he calls off the deities doing battle with Monkey and captures him by wagering that he can’t jump over the palm of his hand (75). This episode is particularly indicative of Wu Ch’êng-ên’s partiality to Buddhism.
While Monkey is able to successfully defend himself against innumerable Taoist deities (using Taoist magic), he is quickly subdued by the Buddha’s powers and placed under five mountains.
Furthermore, in trying to capture Monkey, the Jade Emperor quickly realizes that his Taoist deities are no match for Monkey and calls upon the Buddha and his bodhisattvas to help. In this way, Monkey is shown to have a very pro-Buddhist stance while still allowing for the three religions to exist syncretically.
Another example of the power attributed to the Buddhist pantheon in Monkey can be found in the ever-present bodhisattva Kuan-yin. Throughout the entirety of their journey, Kuan-yin helps Tripitaka and his fellow pilgrims through their obstacles. Interestingly enough, many of these obstacles are actually imposed upon the travelers by Kuan-yin herself.
Even the pilgrims themselves – Pigsy, Sandy, and the horse – are all originally foes that Monkey must defeat along the way. In all three cases these characters were put there by Kuan-yin, and are sent by her to achieve redemption for past wrongs.
In being both the one who sets obstacles before the pilgrims and the one who saves them, Kuan-yin’s omnipotence is emphasized. This all-knowing, all-controlling trait of Kuan-yin is glaringly absent in any Taoist deity in Monkey. By giving the role of the omnipotent tester-cum-savior to a Buddhist bodhisattva, the novel once more established Buddhism as the preeminent teaching among the three religions.
Lastly and most prevalently, the privileging of Buddhism above Taoism can be seen in the incident at the city of Cart Slow.
When Monkey is sent ahead to discover the source of a clamorous noise, he discovers a city where Buddhism is outlawed and Buddhist priests enslaved. After freeing the enslaved priests and desecrating the town’s Taoist temple with Pigsy and Sandy, the pilgrims are challenged to a number of competitions with the three Taoist Immortals who control the town.
‘Next day they duly went to gather peaches and rare fruits, mountain herbs, yellow-sperm, tubers, orchids, strange plants and flowers of every sort, and set out the stone tables and benches, laid out fairy meats and drinks’ (Cheng-en, 15)
In the tasks of summoning rain, guessing objects in boxes, surviving being boiled alive and other tests, Monkey and Tripitka’s disciples prevail over the three Taoist immortals, who perish through the tests.
Upon the death of the Immortals and the completion of the tests, Monkey declares to the city’s king and his court:
“Now the whole pest has been extirpated and you see with your own eyes that Buddhism is the true way. Never again follow false doctrines nor follow foolish courses, but know that the Three Religions are one.” (248).
In connecting these two statements – that “the Three Religions are one” and that “Buddhism is the true way” – Monkey articulates both the syncretism of the religions and Buddhism’s position as the most important of them. By having these two different sentiments in the same sentence, Wu Ch’êng-ên illustrates their compatibility in the religious landscape of his time.
As we saw in an earlier essay, Yama has a twin sister Yamī. In fact the most likely meaning of the name Yama is ‘twin’. Yama has a counterpart in Iranian myth called Yima and, in Avestan myth, the incest of the twins helps to found the human race.
Yama, King of Death: Buddhas, Immortals, and Sages. He sails across the water and overhears a woodsman quoting Immortals. The woodsman points him in the direction of the Immortal who taught him these words, as he lives nearby. Yama, King of Death, discovers they were supposed to live to a ripe old age and sends them back to the land of the living.
“Yama is understood to be a living being, actually the King of the Preta (ghost) realm, who functions as the judge of beings entering hell. The reason why he is categorized as a ghost is because no being can actually exist in hell unless they have been born there due to bad actions committed in previous lives (karma). In various versions of Hinduism Yama is categorized as a god and in Indian literature Yama and Yami, a brother and sister, are associated with hell. The Wheel of Life and these depictions of Yama are based on Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism and this particular Buddhist understanding of the person of Yama and the hell realm is based on the Abhidharmakosha writings of Vasubhandu.”
Yama is a fascinating figure. He rules over the afterlife, but is not one of the devas. Vedic myth names him as the first man to find his way to the realm of the ancestors (pitṛloka). He is thus a culture hero who opens the possibility of rebirth for Brahmin ritualists. The realm of ancestors starts off on the same level of the devas, and is progressively demoted until it becomes a place of torment and punishment. In parallel, the departed (preta) are transformed from the fortunate ones going to their ancestors, to a tortured group of ghosts stuck in limbo.
As we saw in an earlier essay, Yama has a twin sister Yamī. In fact the most likely meaning of the name Yama is ‘twin’. Yama has a counterpart in Iranian myth called Yima and, in Avestan myth, the incest of the twins helps to found the human race. In the Ṛgveda the brother resists incest with his sister. I’ve written about the curious fact that the Pali suttas record that the Śākyas claim descent from a sibling incest mating, which I take to be evidence of their connection to Iran (see Possible Iranian Origins for the Śākyas and Aspects of Buddhism). Brother-sister incest was common amongst ancient Iranian royalty, a practice I believe them to have adopted on the Egyptian model. Some scholars have tried to link Yama to the Norse Ymir, but this is disputed.
Yama in RV 10.14 has two messengers which are brindle-coloured, four-eyed dogs (sārameyaú śuvā́nau caturakṣaú śabálau) with flared nostrils (urūṇasā́v). They wander among men, satisfying themselves on the breath of life (asu). However they are also keepers of the path (pathirákṣī) and watch over men (nṛcákṣasau). Note that some authorities think that śabala (brindle) is cognate with Greek ḱerberos (spotted), the name of the Hades’s 3-headed watchdog. Hades named his dog ‘Spot’. The Buddhist Yama also two messengers though their form as dogs seems not to be mentioned.
Yama as we know him in early Buddhist texts is the ruler (rājan) of the rebirth destinations known as Niraya (Pali) or Naraka (Pāḷi & Sanskrit). It might work if there was an ancestral term such as nṛ or nara a real word meaning ‘man, hero, person’.
Yama is influential in this story where Monkey is focussed on gaining immortality through the God of death.
Citation
- Wu, Cheng’en. Monkey. Ed. Waley, Arthur. New York: Grove Press, 1984. Print.
