老师要求：

PART ONE:  As two of the four classic Chinese novels, Outlaws of the Marsh and Journey to the West (titled Monkey in Literatures of Asia) have much in common.  On the surface, both are narratives of adventure and comic farce.  However, both novels intersperse spiritual concerns into the narratives.  Based on your reading of the excerpts from the two novels (pp. 325-357 in Literatures of Asia), do you think these texts genuinely engage with spiritual themes, or are Buddhism and Daoism mere backdrop in comic adventure stories?  Support your analysis with specific details from the novel excerpts.

 我的回答：(老师给满分了)

Although both novels are great classical works  of Chinese literature,  tone and setting of these two novels are quite different.  In both novels, Chinese religions (Buddhism and Daoism) are interspersed between several places in the two stories.

In the excerpt of Outlaws of the Marsh in our textbook, the main character Lu da is a military person who is willing to help people in need. After he killed butcher Zheng to take a revenge for Old Jin, he becomes a person Wanted by the government. Later, with the help of Old Jin, Lu da goes to a monastery for a safe shelter and become a monk there. After being supervised by elders in the monastery, Lu da wears clothes of monks, eat vegetarian food and he even has a monk name called Sagacious Lu. From this point, we could clearly see that Lu da is related to Buddhism, at least from his outside appearance.

However, just like what Lu da’s master (abbot) said, “I shall teach him gradually to recite the prayers and scriptures, perform services, and practice mediation”(p331), Lu da cannot become a real monk overnight.  Therefore, he continues to drink, eat meat, yell to the other monks, wreck the pavilion, damage two idols and drive the monks from the meditation room (p340). All the bad things that Lu da does to upset the pure life in the monastery make us deeply confused. Is Lu da a real monk?

  In my view, he is.  Although Lu da is not good at reciting the prayers and following the monk rules, his help to other people is without conditions and he is a selfless person. One doctrine in Buddhism is to help all the people out of the bitter world (普渡众生), what Lu da does to Old Jin partially reflects this doctrine. In addition, because Lu da is a kind of person who is not willing to be controlled by any social rules, he is like a Daoism hermit to some extent. Lu da likes to behave in a natural way without any cunning thoughts involved. Therefore Lu da represents both Buddhism and Daoism in his social adventure.

In the excerpt of Journey to the West in our textbook, the main character Monkey king (Wu Kong) is closely linked to Buddhism based on our professor’s general lecture on this novel. Since the novel tells the story of Tang Seng's journey to the "west" to obtain buddhist scriptures, it is natural to have many Buddhism theme and characters built into the novel. For example, Tang Seng( Xuanzang) and Guan Yin are two powerful  Buddhism characters in this novel.  

After reading the excerpt of this novel in our text book, I have a taste of Daoism, too.  One doctrine in Daoism is immortality,  and the main content in our textbook really supports this doctrine. After birth from a magic stone, the Stone Monkey becomes a king of many monkeys after his piercing the water curtain in the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit.  Although Monkey King enjoys the artless existence in perfect independence and entire happiness for several hundred years (p344), he suddenly feels sad and  worries about his life one day, as stated in our textbook, “…But the time will come when I shall grow old and weak. Is there no way by which, instead of being born again on earth, I might live forever among the people of the sky?”    

 Occupied with worries about  an eternal life,  Monkey king eventually follows an advice from a monkey commoner and he wants to find three kinds of Immortal( Buddhas, Immortals and Sages)(p345).  On his journey to find Immortals, Monkey king first meets a woodman who sings a Daoism song (p346). Later, with the guidance of the wood man, Monkey King finally become a disciple of an Immortal called the Patriarch Subodhi (P346) and learns many skills (transformations) to be immortal. Like Lu da, Monkey king also represents both Buddhism and Daoism in his spiritual and daily life.