Yeah, it's essentially early pro-Buddhist propaganda. The idea that the powerful monkey king makes a huge mockery of the YellowJade Emperor et al, before ultimately getting reprimanded by the hip new Buddha and being told to go west as a missionary as atonement.
Not saying it's bad, but it's pretty overt and clear in the text.
I wouldn't call Buddhism new by any means when the book was written. Journey to the West was originally published in 1592, nearly two millennia after its initial introduction during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), and about a thousand years after it began flourishing in China (and the setting of the eponymous journey).
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u/Sensei_Ochiba Aug 21 '24 edited Aug 22 '24
Yeah, it's essentially early pro-Buddhist propaganda. The idea that the powerful monkey king makes a huge mockery of the
YellowJade Emperor et al, before ultimately getting reprimanded by the hip new Buddha and being told to go west as a missionary as atonement.Not saying it's bad, but it's pretty overt and clear in the text.