|
|translator = |image = Evl53201b pic.jpg |caption = Earliest known edition of the book from the 16th century |author = Wu Cheng'en |country = Ming dynasty China |language = Chinese |genre = Shenmo, Chinese mythology, fantasy, adventure |release_date = c. 1592 (print)〔Anthony C. Yu, translated and edited, ''The Journey to the West'' Volume I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), p. 14.〕 |english_release_date = |media_type = Print |pages = |isbn = 7-119-01663-6 }} ''Journey to the West'' is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. In English-speaking countries, the work is widely known as ''Monkey'', the title of Arthur Waley's popular abridged translation. The novel is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to the "Western Regions", that is, India, to obtain sacred texts (sūtras) and returned after many trials and much suffering. It retains the broad outline of Xuanzang's own account, ''Great Tang Records on the Western Regions'', but the Ming dynasty novel adds elements from folk tales and the author's invention, that is, that the Buddha gave this task to the monk and provided him with three protectors who agree to help him as an atonement for their sins. These disciples are Sun Wukong, Zhu Wuneng and Sha Wujing, together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuanzang's steed, a white horse. ''Journey to the West'' has strong roots in Chinese folk religion, Chinese mythology, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy, and the pantheon of Taoist immortals and Buddhist bodhisattvas are still reflective of some Chinese religious attitudes today. Enduringly popular, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment by the power and virtue of cooperation. ==Authorship== ''Journey to the West'' was thought to have been written and published anonymously by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century.〔In the Introduction to Waley's 1942 abridgement, ''Monkey,'' 〕 Hu Shih, literary scholar and then Ambassador to the United States, wrote that the people of Wu's hometown attributed it early on to Wu, and kept records to that effect as early as 1625; thus, claimed Ambassador Hu, ''Journey to the West'' was one of the earliest Chinese novels for which the authorship is officially documented.〔 Recent scholarship casts doubts on this attribution. Brown University Chinese literature scholar David Lattimore states: "The Ambassador's confidence was quite unjustified. What the gazetteer says is that Wu wrote something called ''The Journey to the West.'' It mentions nothing about a novel. The work in question could have been any version of our story, or something else entirely."〔("The Complete Monkey," ''New York Times'', March 6, 1983 )〕 Translator W.J.F. Jenner points out that although Wu had knowledge of Chinese bureaucracy and politics, the novel itself does not include any political details that "a fairly well-read commoner could not have known."〔Jenner, W.J.F. (1984). "Translator's Afterword." in trans. W.J.F. Jenner, ''Journey to the West'', volume 4. Seventh Edition.〕 Anthony C. Yu states that the identity of the author, as with so many other major works of Chinese fiction, "remains unclear" but that Wu remains "the most likely" author.〔Anthony C. Yu, translated and edited, ''The Journey to the West'' Volume I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), p. 16, 21.〕 Yu bases his skepticism on the detailed studies made by Glen Dudbridge.〔"The Hundred Chapter Hsi-yu Chi and Its Early Versions," ''Asia Major'', NS I4, Pt. 2 (I968-69), reprinted in ''Books, Tales and Vernacular Culture: Selected Papers on China''. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2005. ISBN 9004147705. ()〕 The question of authorship is further complicated by the preexistence of much of the novel's material in the form of folk tales.〔 Regardless of the origins and authorship, ''Journey to the West'' has become the authoritative version of these folk stories,〔 and Wu's name has become inextricably linked with the book.〔Shi Changyu (1999). "Introduction." in trans. W.J.F. Jenner, ''Journey to the West'', volume 1. Seventh Edition. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. pp. 1–22.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Journey to the West」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|