The author of "Journey to the West" is Wu Chengen, a writer from the Ming Dynasty. Since the birth of "Journey to the West", many writers and scholars have interpreted it in depth. Some people think that this is a novel of gods and demons, and some people

The author of "Journey to the West" is Wu Chengen, a writer from the Ming Dynasty. Since the birth of "Journey to the West", many writers and scholars have interpreted it in depth. Some people think that this is a novel of gods and demons, some people think that it is a "success study", some people think it is a "mind cultivation", and some people think that it is a "power game" full of conspiracy...... With the development of the times, there may be more interpretations from more angles. No matter from which angle people interpret and study, they all think that the numbers in the novel are very mysterious, from the "three" in "Three Dozen White Bone Spirits", "Three Tone Banana Fan", "Three Explorations of the Bottomless Pit", etc., "Six-eared Macaque", "Six Pure Roots", "Six Robbers", "Ninety-Nine Eighty-One Difficult", Sun Wukong's "72 Changes", and more huge numbers "One Thousand Three Hundred and Five (1350)", "Thirteen Thousand Thousand Five Hundred Jin (13,500)", "One Hundred and Eight Thousand Miles (108,000)", etc., etc., etc., These figures are by no means created in a vacuum, they are all based on deep meanings and contain Zen Buddhism.

Let's start with Sun Wukong's somersault cloud. Sun Wukong studied under the Bodhi Patriarch and learned the ability of a somersault cloud for 108,000 miles. Why "108,000 miles"? What's the mystery of this number? The hundredth chapter of "Journey to the West" wrote that Taizong asked Sanzang how far to go west? The Three Tibetan Paths, always remembering the words of the Bodhisattva, are 108,000 miles away. This number is also the distance from the Eastern Earth to the Western Heaven to the Holy Land of the Western Heavens. What Sun Wukong can do with a somersault cloud, why do you have to measure it step by step with your steps? Because the "ten" in "108,000 miles" refers to the "ten evils" and "eight" refers to the "eight evils", only by experiencing suffering can we eliminate our own "ten evils and eight evils", realize their ways, obtain the true scriptures, and cultivate the true Buddha.