Friends who are familiar with classical Chinese novels know that the traditional classics of the mainland, such as "Journey to the West" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", are always interspersed with many poems.
Some of these poems are arranged at the beginning of the novel and chapters to point out the themes of the whole book and the whole chapter. Others are arranged in the middle of the article as a complement to the depiction of scenes in the story and the description of the characters.
In the first episode of Journey to the West, there is a poem that complements the description of the scene. This is an untitled "Seven Laws", which contains an easy-to-understand philosophy of life and breaks the cause of the world's suffering.
Appreciation of the Seven Laws of "Untitled"
Competing for fame and fortune for a few hours to rest, getting up early and sleeping late is not free.
Riding a donkey mule on a horse, the official residence is the prime minister to look at the prince.
If you only worry about food, clothing, and toil, why are you afraid that Yan Jun will take the hook?
The stepson Yin Sun Tu is rich, and none of them are willing to turn back!
The content of the poem involves Buddhist Taoists, whose perception of the pursuit of life belongs to the category of ancient simple philosophy. The author wrote such a poem because he wanted to add some supplements to the narrative of the scene mentioned above.
In order to facilitate the explanation of the author Wu Cheng'en's motivation for writing this poem, we still have to introduce some things that Wu Cheng'en said before writing this seven laws.
At the beginning of the journey to the West novel, Sun Wukong becomes the "Monkey King" of HuaguoShan. He "traveled towards the Flower and Fruit Mountain, and stayed in the Water Curtain Cave" and did not obey the constraints of the king's law on earth, nor was he afraid of the mighty birds and beasts.
Seeing that "fruit freedom" has been achieved, Monkey Sheng no longer has to struggle. But one day, Sun Wukong launched a sadness. Because it suddenly occurred to him that as he grew older, such a good day would sooner or later be gone.
So Sun Wukong, like the emperors of the world, wanted to get "immortality". Next, Sun Wukong bid farewell to his monkey monkey grandchildren and rode alone on a raft from Dongsheng Shenzhou to Nanshengbu Continent.
When Sun Wukong landed on the coast, he saw many people fishing, geese, clams, and salt on the beach. At this time, Wu Cheng'en wanted to criticize the lives of these "ordinary people" from the perspective of the Monkey King, so he wrote such a poem.
Why, then, does Wu Cheng'en have to express his thoughts through poetry rather than direct narration? This is actually because of the "poetic" characteristics of classical Chinese literary novels.
In the past, the highest form of Chinese literature has always been "poetry", and fiction is considered to be something that does not fit in. Therefore, when many authors create novels, they will incorporate a large number of voluminous poems and chapter poems.
On the one hand, it is to "show off" to the reader, such as the author of "Mirror Flower Edge", half of the book is in the show; on the other hand, the expression of ancient poetry has been tempered for thousands of years, which can concisely convey emotions to the reader and create "memory points".
In this place, Wu Cheng'en is from the perspective of Sun Wukong, the "Daoist", guided by Buddhist Taoist thought, and in the form of poetry, he writes down the protagonist "Monkey King" and his feelings about the mediocre people in the world.
Through the naïve philosophical ideas conveyed in these seven laws, a "identity" is created between the reader and the protagonist. In this way, people who listen to the story will "automatically substitute" into the perspective of Sun Wukong to enjoy this adventure.
In fact, the vast majority of people understand the truth in the novel "Journey to the West", and even do not have to read the sage books, as long as they listen to the stories of the elderly, they will find this law.
To put it simply, it is the poor who desire wealth, the rich yearn for power; when the official comes to an end, he wants to be the emperor. If a person is even an emperor, will his desires reach their end? This is by no means the case.
Because he became emperor, he wanted to pursue "immortality" again. So is "immortality" the ultimate goal pursued by human beings? In fact, this point is answered in "Journey to the West".
Sun Wukong later learned the Seventy-Two Changes from Bodhi Laozu, and later ran to the Underground Mansion and changed the Book of Life and Death, so that he and his monkey Monkey Sun could live forever. It is reasonable to say that he has attained immortality, and then he can return to Huaguo Mountain to live happily.
However, Sun Wukong was not willing to be an ageless immortal only in the "Huaguo Mountain", and he also wanted to sit on an equal footing with the Jade Emperor, so there was the "Qi Tian Dasheng", and then there was the "Great Haunting Heavenly Palace". As a result, things were bound to be reversed, and he was finally crushed under the "Five Elements Mountain".
It can be seen that whether it is a monkey or a person, the pursuit of fame and power is endless. Of course, in the first episode of the opening chapter of "Journey to the West", Sun Wukong did not know that he would be crushed under the "Five Elements Mountain" in the future because he wanted to create the Rebellion of the Jade Emperor.
In the opening chapter, Sun Wukong simply sees all kinds of suffering in the world. The people are driven like mules and horses, busy all day. In order to compete for the position of prime minister and prince, people wasted their time.
In the end, before these people could enjoy the joy of life, they were blinded by the king of Yama. Therefore, Sun Wukong believes that with those busy times, it is better to pursue "immortality".
But the story of "Journey to the West" tells us that even if we get "eternal life", we are still troubled. I don't believe you see that the Jade Emperor, after seventeen thousand five hundred disasters, sat on the Lingxiao Treasure Hall, and from time to time had to worry about Sun Wukong and others coming to seize the throne.
Therefore, Wu Cheng'en wrote these seven laws, one is to show that Sun Wukong (who was not called this name at that time) lived a lot more transparently than people, and the other is to explain that this monkey thought that he had seen through the red dust and understood the true meaning of monkey life, and as a result, he fell into the cage of desire.
When Sun Wukong really understood the essence of the Dharma, it was already after he came out from the bottom of the Five Elements Mountain, accompanied the Tang monks, and took the Eight Precepts of the Pig and the Sand Monk with him to go through the ninety-nine eighty-one difficulties and become a Buddha.
In the novel "Journey to the West", there are many interesting small poems interspersed, and at the same time, many idioms have been created. For example, "Golden Eye of Fire", "Three Heads and Six Arms", "Smiling Proud of the River", etc., these are just as interesting as this little poem.
When Wu Cheng'en created this novel, he did not understand the creation techniques of modern novels, so of course he did not know that the personality and thoughts of the protagonist of the story needed an upward "arc", but we did see sun Wukong's "growth" in this book.
From the original "Qi Tian Dasheng" who was not afraid of heaven, he became the loyal guardian of the Tang monks on the way to the Western Heavens to learn the scriptures, and finally became a true Buddha- fighting and defeating the Buddha.
When Sun Wukong truly became a Buddha, if he had returned to Nanzhan Buzhou and once again seen the people who were fishing, geese, clams, and salt, he might not have issued a senseless sigh of "stepchildren are rich and noble, let alone willing to turn back".
Or at this time, Sun Wukong should be as compassionate to the world as the Bodhisattva of Jizo King, and cannot bear to be harsh. Then I made a vow: Hell is not empty, and I will not become a Buddha!
epilogue
The seven laws at the beginning of "Journey to the West" are just a relatively ordinary small poem. Through Buddhist and Taoist thought, Wu Cheng'en reflects the philosophical perception of the meaning of life by Sun Wukong, the monkey king who first came out of the jianghu.
Human beings are tired of fame and fortune all their lives, and they are busy all day long, and they live very hard. The poem argues that the way for human beings to attain liberation is to become immortals, but becoming immortals does not solve the fundamental problem.
After all, after Becoming An Immortal, Sun Wukong was still fantasizing about "the Jade Emperor taking turns to do it and coming to my house next year"! Does Sun Wukong live through? Non-also, non-also! If he lived a thorough life, he wouldn't be stupid enough to be a "Great Sage of Qi Tian".
The reason why Sun Wukong wanted to be the Great Sage of Qi Tian, to put it bluntly, was still not willing to be subordinated, so he had to put up the banner of "Qi Tian Da Sheng", wanted to get the Jade Emperor down, and he himself did the position of the Jade Emperor and gave orders.
Of course, Sun Wukong had such an idea, which was not impossible. It's just that he didn't know how to find the right time and place, and he underestimated the strength of the Jade Emperor.
Because Sun Wukong wants to "unveil the pole", only the basic territory of "Huaguo Mountain" is impossible to succeed. Because there was no one on the whole mountain besides him.
If you want to overthrow the Jade Emperor, you should wait until someone fights with Rulai and beats Rulai until he is "reincarnated", and then see the opportunity to make an alliance with the "Marshal of the Canopy" who has not become the "Marshal of the Canopy" of the Eight Precepts of the Pig, and the "Rolling Curtain General" who has not become a sand monk.
Man is one of the most fickle and most likely animals to forget their original intentions. Sun Wukong, the monkey, had not yet cultivated into a Buddha, and he had learned a human stink.
When he had not learned the seventy-two changes, he still understood the crude truth in this poem; when he had cultivated immortality, he completely forgot the truth in this little poem. Fortunately, in the end, after eighty-one difficulties, he finally became a Buddha.
Wu Cheng'en did not write about the changes in Sun Wukong's thinking after he became a Buddha, but with reference to the standards of the Bodhisattva Of the Jizo King, even if Sun Wukong became a Buddha, he did not want to go to hell in order to save the world, and in the end he would not be bored, and then give everyone a "chicken soup for the soul".
If human beings want to attain spiritual liberation, in fact, there should be other answers besides cultivating immortality and even "becoming immortals and becoming Buddhas." But what it is, it belongs to other categories of thought.