How did Tang Priest's heart change?

If the Tang Priest goes directly to Lingshan, he won't feel the hard-won scriptures.

In ancient China, 99 was the highest realm.

The story of Tang Priest's learning from the scriptures was first seen in the Tang Dynasty's Records of the Western Regions. It is the experience of Master Xuanzang, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, who went to India to study. Later, it gradually evolved into folklore and fairy tales, and was finally compiled into The Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. The Journey to the West is one of the four most popular and influential classical novels in the history of China literature. It is closely related to the traditional culture of China and the national psychology of China people, and reflects the collective unconsciousness of China people to some extent. Analyzing the story of Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures is helpful to understand the psychological characteristics of China people.

I. Heroic tribulation

The story of Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures belongs to a typical heroic ordeal. In this kind of stories, heroes often come from noble families and are adopted by civilians for some reason. When the hero grows up, he knows his life experience, so he embarks on a difficult journey to find his parents and strive for fame. The myth of heroic suffering consists of two parts. The first part is "decline", from dignitaries to ordinary people, and the second part is "rise", from ordinary people to god-class heroes. Most people pay more attention to the second part and ignore the first part. In fact, the first part is essential. If there is no first one, it is not a heroic myth, but the entrepreneurial history of modern people.

There must be a reason for "decline". Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden because he violated God's will. Jesus was sent by God to save mankind. For Tang Priest, there are two reasons. He used to be a disciple of the Tathagata, named "Jin Chan", but he was banished to the world for desertion in class. At the same time, the Buddha asked him to take a trip to the world for another purpose, that is, to save all sentient beings in the eastern Tang Dynasty.

Like many condor heroes, Tang Priest was killed at birth. In order to save him, his mother put him in a wooden basin and let him drift on the water. Finally, he was saved by a monk and named "Liu Jiang". This experience is similar to that of Moses. According to the Old Testament, before Moses was born, Pharaoh had received the Oracle that the child would lead the Jews to resist Pharaoh's rule and take the Jews out of Egypt in the future, but he didn't know which child it was, so he decided to kill all the boys born at the same time. Seeing that the child was going to be killed, Moses' mother had to put him in a bucket and throw him into the river. Later, Pharaoh's daughter found him and saved him from the river. According to Freud's analysis, saving a person from the water is a symbol of childbirth, which is equivalent to giving birth to a person, because the process of childbirth comes from amniotic fluid. Liu Jiang's rescue was his second rebirth. If you are the son of a poor scholar when you are born for the first time, you will be the son of a monk when you are born for the second time. The social status of monks is lower than that of poor scholars, which shows that Tang Priest's "decline" is thorough.

Generally speaking, a hero has two identities, one is the descendant of God or the royal family, and the other is the child of civilians. Tang Priest has three identities: golden cicada, river and monk. Among them, the golden cicada and the monk are the main identities, and the river is only a transitional identity. Corresponding to dual identity, heroes have dual parents. This phenomenon of both parents reflects the psychological characteristics of adolescence. When people reach puberty, with the awakening of self-awareness and sexual awareness, the Oedipus complex resurfaces, but the object has shifted and turned to people outside the family. They are substitutes for parents, and they are spiritual parents. The task of the whole adolescence is to get rid of the bondage of parents, find spiritual parents and become one with them, that is, to get rid of the family and integrate into social life, but psychologically, biological parents have become adoptive parents, and spiritual parents have become pro-parents. This change is in harmony with the behavior of participating in society. Only spiritual parents are real parents, and boys and girls will bravely go to society; If the biological parents are biological parents, they will be content with the status quo and trap themselves at home. But this transformation is incomplete, which makes young teenagers have many inner contradictions, which are reflected in the heroic stories as endless difficulties and obstacles.

Second, immortals and demons

Tang Priest went through eighty-one difficulties. Nine is a mysterious number, the largest single digit, representing perfection. The "nine" is shaped like a dragon, which is the totem of the Chinese nation and a sacred object in itself. 998 1 symbolizes perfection, perfection and magic. Analyzing the eighty-one difficulties one by one, we find that this figure is pieced together, some are not difficult at all, some are difficult to solve, and only forty-one are difficult after rearrangement.

Of the 41 disasters, 365,438+0 were caused by goblins, accounting for three quarters, 5 were induced or challenged by God, and 5 were caused by humans and animals. Of the goblins in 3 1,1is a monster from heaven, and 20 are creatures cultivated from the earth, of which 5 were cultivated into positive fruits or collected by the gods. This shows that goblins and gods can be transformed into each other. As Buddhism says, heaven, man, Asura, beast, hungry ghost and hell are interlinked. Under normal circumstances, death is the intermediary of reincarnation, but under special circumstances, it can rise and fall directly. The so-called special situation is to obtain magical powers through cultivation. There are six kinds of psychic powers: opening eyes, ears, feet, happiness, life and leakage. Those who gain the omniscient knowledge of God can go to heaven, go down to earth and move freely among the three realms and six realms.

Some people believe it, others think it is false and impossible, and others try to explain it with specious quasi-scientific theories such as psychic force and time tunnel. In fact, orthodox Buddhism never took it seriously. According to the sect that only knows the law, people can cross the three realms and six realms because they are already in their hearts and are born entirely from their hearts. This is what the so-called "three realms of idealism" means. Master Xuan Zang, the prototype of Tang Priest, is the founder of China Buddhism, and the myth of Tang Priest's learning from Buddhist scriptures naturally has the color of only knowing Sect. Since the three realms of idealism, the mind has given birth to all kinds of laws, and all external things are illusory, only knowing or sincere. Then, heaven and hell are just a change of heart, and gods and demons, immortals and demons are just changes of mentality. On the seventeenth journey to the West, when Guanyin Bodhisattva was invited by the Monkey King to accept the bear monster in black wind mountain, the Monkey King turned Guanyin into a monster and then made fun of him and said, "Wonderful! Wonderful! Still a demon bodhisattva or a bodhisattva demon? " The Bodhisattva smiled and said, "Bodhisattva fairies are always thinking about one thing. If they are talking about the original, then they are nothing. "

1 1 among the mortal scum, there are manjusri Qingshi Mountain, Taishang Laojun's Qingshi Mountain, Guanyin's Golden Donkey Mountain, Pu Xian's Camel Mountain, Bailuyuan of Antarctic Xianweng, Jiutoushi Mountain of Yuanshi Tianzun, Maitreya's boy, Taishang Laojun's boy, Kuixing, Moon Jade Rabbit and so on. According to the original thinking, anything that is related to each other and has been "connected" is actually one thing. Manjusri's mount is Manjusri, Laojun's mount is Laojun, Maitreya's boy is Maitreya, and Guanyin's goldfish is Guanyin. In a word, the mount, servant or pet of God is actually God himself, or the other side of God. Everyone has two sides, a good side and a bad side, and immortals are no exception, but immortals show the good side and suppress the bad side. Psychoanalysis theory holds that the repressed things are often manifested as external things through projection. The negativity of the gods is projected in the form of pets, and they come into the world to run amok. In a sense, projection also has positive significance. The gods release their negativity and indulge it, which has the function of maintaining psychological balance and is good for mental health. Therefore, when the gods found the lost mount, goldfish or boy, they remained relaxed and elegant, and then slowly recovered it. The Monkey King was disgusted with this practice of immortals, and thought it was irresponsible and thoughtless. In fact, in the eyes of immortals, there is no difference between bodhisattvas and goblins. Bodhisattvas and goblins are both illusions and unconscious projections. Eighty-one is not difficult at all. Everything is for yourself. There are no demons, only demons.

Third, Tang monk meat.

4 1 difficulty, 15 difficulty is that the demon wants to eat the meat of Tang priest, and 5 difficulty is that the demon or queen wants to marry Tang priest, which shows that nearly half of the difficulties are related to food and sex. This ratio is appropriate. People are both human beings and animals, and they have both material needs and spiritual needs, which are equally divided, accounting for about half each. In instinct, food and sex are the most fundamental, but in Freud's theory, the most basic instinct is "self" and sex. Self is the instinct of self-protection, which is a larger category and consists of smaller instincts such as foraging, defense and attack. The instinct to eat is the core component of self-instinct. In the Journey to the West, goblins eat Tangseng meat not only to fill their stomachs, but also to hear that eating Tangseng meat can make them live forever. In other words, eating Tangseng meat is not caused by eating instinct, but by self-protection instinct.

As we all know, death is inevitable. Self-protection is only a process or means, and the ultimate goal is racial reproduction. Therefore, Freud proposed that sexual instinct is more important than self instinct, and the desire for diet or oral sex is only a manifestation of sexual instinct. However, mankind has never really accepted the fact that death is inevitable. People refuse to die in various ways, or imagine that the soul will not die, or imagine that people can live forever. The concept of immortality of the soul is worldwide, and many nationalities have the belief of immortality of the soul, but the pursuit of immortality is the characteristic of China.

It is generally believed that China people's concept of immortality or immortality originated in the pre-Qin period, which is recorded in Shan Hai Jing. The most famous story is that Yi asked the Queen Mother of the West for the elixir of life, which was stolen by Chang 'e and flew to the moon. Later, with the emergence of Taoism, the concept of immortality spread among the people. Kings of all ages wanted to live forever, and some even died of poisoning by taking elixir of life. Why does the belief of immortality have a long history in China, but it is not popular in the West? This problem may touch the collective unconsciousness of China people.

Fourth, the cultural era.

According to primitive thinking and the law of association, death means death, and death means death. In the theory that the Queen Mother of the West lives in the west, the Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, the east is matched with wood, which symbolizes the growth of everything in spring, and the west is matched with gold, which symbolizes the withering and death of trees in autumn. Pursuing eternal life and believing in immortality are actually the same thing, and that is the fear of death. In order to eliminate this fear, people take psychological defense. The defense mechanism of westerners is sublimation, while that of orientals is negation, believing that people can live forever. Some people believe that the concept of longevity stems from the alternation of agricultural production and seasons according to a sentence in Laozi's Tao Te Ching: "The god of the valley never dies". Some people think that "Valley God" should be pronounced as "Bath God", but it is actually the moon god or the moon. It changes repeatedly, symbolizing death and resurrection. The Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon's story has actually linked immortality to the moon. It is said that there is an immortal tree in the middle of the month. WU GANG cuts every day, and it will never be finished. China people's concept of Yin and Yang originated from the sun and the moon. The sun represents day, light and life, and the moon represents night, darkness and death. This proves once again that the concept of immortality is related to death.

In addition, denying "death" is also a manifestation of children's mentality. Children have never seen anyone die because they don't have much experience, so they think people won't die. China people believe that people can live forever. Does it mean that the psychological age of China people stays in childhood? Biological research has found that the appearance of individuals repeats the appearance of species. The research of cultural anthropology shows that the history of social development is similar to the history of individual psychological development. The social form is not static, but constantly developing and changing. The earliest social form is primitive group, followed by consanguineous family and clan commune, collectively referred to as primitive society, which is often compared to human childhood. China's culture didn't take shape until it developed to a certain stage, so it always had the color of that stage. China's traditional culture is characterized by primitive thinking, such as the unity of heaven and man, the distinction between things and me, reverence for nature, respect for motherhood, pragmatism, lack of rational analysis and indifference to the origin of the universe. In contrast, civilizations such as Egypt, India, Judaism and Greece were formed at a later stage. Egyptians already know that people can't live forever, but they still hope that people can come back from the dead. As a result, they made mummies and built pyramids for the dead, and their worship objects turned from nature and plants to animals. Indians have a broad vision and know the origin of the universe like the back of their hands, but they still worship animals and respect maternal rights; Jews advocate patriarchy and believe in monotheism; Greeks have a broader vision. They not only care about the origin of the universe, but also know that heaven and earth have similar structures, and the gods also have emotional entanglements and joys and sorrows. Why is China culture stereotyped at such a young age? This may be related to words. Pinyin is a record of pronunciation. When the pronunciation changes, the words will change, and the continuity is not strong. Ideographic characters are not directly related to pronunciation and will not change because of the change of pronunciation. They are relatively stable and conducive to cultural stereotypes.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) personality mask

The Tang Priest's character has many defects. Freud divided the personality structure into three parts: id, ego and superego. Tang Priest has only superego, but no id and ego. It is said that he doesn't have an id because he has never been near a woman, and he has never touched meat at all, which is a bit far away from human fireworks. On the one hand, because he is a monk, monks must abstain from sex; On the other hand, he is also a lonely hero. Lonely heroes have no parents and never fall in love, which is the psychological reflection of children in the incubation period. He is said to have no ego because his ability to deal with real problems is extremely poor, and he has no ability to identify bad guys and monsters at all. This is mainly because he lived in a temple since childhood and had no chance to get in touch with the outside world. Tang priest has no id and ego, or it may be that the author deliberately arranged it to create a dramatic effect. The ID of Tang Priest was all transplanted to Pig Bajie, while the ID was all transplanted to the Monkey King. Master and apprentice represent ID, ego and superego respectively, and * * * together form a complete personality.

Freud believed that the images in dreams were the reflection of objective reality, while Jung believed that the images in dreams were the reflection of inner world, and different images reflected different aspects of personality structure. According to Jung's view, the image created by a writer is a reflection of the writer's own personality, and the relationship between the characters in his works reflects the inner conflict of the writer, that is, the interaction between various personality aspects. Zhu Bajie, the Monkey King and Tang Priest are the reflections of Wu Cheng'en's id, ego and superego, while Liangshan's 100 singles and 8 will reflect Shi Naian's 65,438+008 personality outline. This personality profile is what Jung called a personality mask. Everyone has many masks, and people use different masks on different occasions. The Monkey King has 72 changes, that is, 72 masks, while Pig Bajie has only 36 masks.

Generally speaking, the more masks, the richer personality and the healthier psychology.