Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature -- Journey to the West

Author: Wu Cheng'en
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: The most outstanding artistic feature of Journey to the West is its humor. Although the novel still tells the story of Tang Sanzang's pilgrimage to India, within this established framework, it is filled with diverse heterogeneous content, revealing a rebellious spirit akin to children. In the novel, everything is secularized, and the author uses worldly experience and psychology to depict and observe this world of gods and buddhas. By secularizing the gods and buddhas, the author occasionally casts them with disrespectful ridicule and satire, which, to some extent, alleviates their mystery and sanctity, creating a fundamental style of combining solemnity and humor in this novel. Additionally, the formation of the humorous effect relies on the characteristics of the characters created in the work, specifically the unity of their animal nature, divine nature, and human nature. Sun Wukong embodies the agility, restlessness, and love for showing off of a monkey, possesses the divine abilities of 72 transformations and flying on clouds, and also demonstrates the perseverance of a religious devotee.