Chinese Don Quijote: An analysis of "Journey to the West"

By Javier Estremera Castro

Cover art of the Revised Edition, Volume 1 of the novel The Journey to the West

When you think about the most influential pieces of literature, what comes to mind? Most people would answer with Western or European classics like Don Quijote, the Iliad, Romeo and Juliet or more modern classics like: Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow, The Twilight Series, and Harry Potter. However, on the other side of the world the case is very much different. Over on the Asian continent there are 5 literary books that are considered to be the most influential pieces of Asian literature. Various modern tropes and styles of writing have originated from these 5 classic novels with one of these being the center of today's article. Journey to the West By Wu Cheng'en, is an episodic novel about the 3 primary religions in the Chinese region in the 1500s: Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucius. In this world all of these 3 religions coincide in the universe, and just like the typical Greek gods in literature, live life with different stories.

What makes a story a classic isn’t its age but how prevalent it is in modern day and how it still influences our writing. Journey to the West, while it's set a mythical world, is an allegory for human nature. During this historical period, authors wrote characters in a simple and one dimensional way, usually being either drastically good or maniacally evil, lacking any sense of depth or realness to them. However, Cheng'en introduces us to a new set of multi-dimensional characters. In this novel, every character feels intricate and complex emotions while having multiple sides to their personality.

Sun Wu Kong, also known as the “Monkey King”, is the figure that most people know this text for. More than anything, this character brought what we know today as the impulsive, goofy, and strong archetype that stories implement, especially in fiction. Character's inspired Sun Wu Kongs' archetype are seen modern works like the anime show "Dragon Ball" with the character of Goku. Although the "Monkey King" is the most impactful character, he isn’t the protagonist of this story. We don’t meet our protagonist until the 2nd part of the book, at around Chapter 8. The actual protagonist is a Buddhist monk who has been tasked by the Buddha himself with the pilgrimage towards the West of China to give Buddha a scroll that can purify anyone in the world. During this journey the monk along with a group of demons travel all across China's different kingdoms facing various and diverse adventures such as: entering a kingdom of only women, entering a theocratic kingdom, and constant demon brawls.

Journey to the West is an impeccable book, and although its very long, i recommend all fans of fiction to give it a try. This book has vast amounts of adaptations both in the video game genre and in movies. The world has a lot to appreciate of Wu Cheng’en’s work and we should all appreciate the literary impact his creativity had on all the writers that came after him.