Is The Journey to the West a true story?

It is not a true story, but a historical event of "Tang Priest's learning from the scriptures", which deeply depicts the social reality at that time through the author's artistic processing.

The Journey to the West is the first romantic novel with chapters and sections in ancient China. There are hundreds of The Journey to the West published in Ming Dynasty, and there is no author's signature. Wu Yuju, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, first proposed that The Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng'en in Ming Dynasty. .

The book mainly describes the story of the Monkey King's encounter with Tang Priest, Pig Bajie, Friar Sand after his birth, and his disturbance to the Heaven Palace. He went west to learn from the scriptures, and all the way down to the devil. After eighty-one difficulties, he finally arrived in the Western Heaven to meet the Tathagata, and finally the Five Saints died.

Extended information book evaluation

In The Journey to the West's book, we can see the decline of Taoism in China feudal society and the invasion of Buddhism as a heresy. First of all, we must make clear how the Heaven exists and the relationship between the factions.

Heaven is composed of Taoism, Buddhism and scattered immortals. (Heaven is actually a puppet government. We should start with the worship of gods and even the ancient times, which is another narrative. ) From The Journey to the West, we can see that Taoist forces are dominant.

As a front-line figure of Taoism, Taishang Laojun often lives in heaven, although he doesn't work in heaven. In fact, he can "rely on the Jade Emperor to make the immortals". Buddhist figures such as Guanyin only "invited" them on occasions such as flat peach banquets. The power of scattered fairy is weaker. After all, they have no organization.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-journey to the west