To people of my
generation, the 1986's CCTV version of Journey to the West is the one and only
classic version that should ever exist.
I don't care whether or
not a costume designer from Lord of the Rings had designed the monsters' masks.
They don't matter at all. As a matter of fact, I don't like all the colourful
dresses and make-ups on these monsters's faces in the 2012 version. They looked
odd.
Over the few weeks, I have
been watching DVDs of the original series, reminiscing my childhood. I remembered
Singapore's broadcasting station only played this series on Saturday at 3 pm.
At 2.30 pm, I will be making my way down to my Grandmother's house to get ready
to watch it.
I remembered Channel 8
will also show an animal documentary after the Journey to the West episode.
While watching the animals eating each others up, my Grandmother will add in
her views about these animals. It was such great time spending my
weekend.
As I grew older, I have
different interpretations on the show. In the past, things are just black and
white. All those monsters who stopped Tang San Zang in his journey to the
west are all evil. They should all be eliminated. When I looked back at some of
these monsters, I realised that some of them are actually not that evil.
One example is the spider
sisters demons They didn't plot to harm Tang San Zang. It was Tang San Zang who
bumped into them and disrupted their lives. At the end of the story, you
will see that the Mother of Hen God took them in as maids. She only killed their
senior, the evil centipede demon.
And of course most of the
demons are pets belonging to Gods. They were bored with life at the celestial
palace. When fate presents them with the opportunity to escape, they run and
have fun down at the earth.
However, there is one part
of the show baffled me. At the very last
episode, you would have thought that Tang San Zang and his disciples have
finally made it to the wonderful Western paradise to get the scriptures after
overcoming all these challenges.
To much of their
disappointments, the western paradise isn’t that perfect at all. There are
beings with ugly personalities in the paradise and they happened to be Buddha’s
disciples.
So what happened is that
these two disciples were instructed to pass on the scriptures to Tang. However
before they agreed to pass the scriptures, they have asked for a bribe from
Tang. Tang and gang couldn’t understand what is going and why the two Buddha
disciples have asked for a bribe. They didn’t give any.
To get back to Tang, the two
disciples decided to pass them the fake scriptures with no writings. Unknown to
the Tang San Zang, he and his gang left the Western paradise happily.
On their way out, they were
attacked by a large eagle who snatched the scriptures parcel from them. The
books fell out and revealed that they have been duped.
Of course, the jumpy Monkey
God wouldn’t have any of these nonsense. He brought everyone back to Buddha’s
court and confronted him why they were asked for a bribe from his disciples.
Instead of chiding his two
disciples for committing the ugly act, Buddha sided with them explaining that
he is aware of the rule and that they were acting on his behalf. He explained
that scriptures are not to be given away freely and definitely not free for
anyone to take.
He related that many nuns
and monks who have collected the scriptures over the centuries were only given
meager returns for their efforts of chanting the scriptures. The Buddha thought
they were too selling their services too cheaply. Henceforth, he implemented a
rule that whoever wants to collect the scriptures should give something
precious in return.
I don’t understand this part
of the show.
- Why are there ugly beings in
Western Paradise?
- Why did they extort a bribe
from Tang Sang Zang?
- Haven’t Buddhism taught us
that wealth and riches aren’t important? So why did
Buddha tolerate their acts and even agreed that he wouldn't let Tang have the
sutras for free?
- Didn’t Tang and disciples overcome numerous challenges? Aren’t these enough to prove that they can have
the sutras for free?
- What are the morals behind this story plot?
Can anyone
explains this? If not, let's have a discussion about it.
Here is the video of the last episode.