Tracing the textual development: a look into “Journey to the west” Sun Qiang Thank you for sending me the updated version of your proposal. If I understand your proposal correctly, you are going to look at the formation or of the novel, i.e. to trace down the historical, environmental, and religious origins of the novel. In theory, it can be a very interesting topic. But because of the sheer scope as well as the abstract nature of the topic, I’m afraid that you probably will have to summarize lots of secondary scholarship on the topic and will not be able to have a chance to discuss the topic in concrete terms. Keep in mind that other things being equal, a well-focused paper with depth is much better than a broad and sketchy one. Perhaps it would be a better idea to focus on only one of the three aspects that you mentioned in your proposal. Reading the novel from a “religious” perspective seems to me a good and workable idea. You may briefly mention the first two aspects in your introduction, and make it clear that you are going to focus on only one of three aspects of the novel. You might want to say something about the religious origin of the novel, that is, how does the novel come into being from a religious context. Then I would encourage you to cite a paraphrase or two from the novel (in translation), and do a close reading analysis of the cited part. Explain and analyze the religious aspect of the text. I have attached a few articles that you might find useful: 1. Anthony Yu, “The Formation of Fiction in the ‘Journey to the West, ’”Asia Major, Vol. 21, No. 1, (2008), pp. 15-44 2. Francisca Cho Bantly, “Buddhist Allegory in the Journey to the West Author(s)” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 48, No. 3 (1989), pp. 512-524 3. Anthony Yu, “Two Literary Examples of Religious Pilgrimage” History of Religions, Vol. 22, No. 3 (1983), pp. 202-230. I think it will turn into a very interesting and promising paper, and I certainly look forward to reading your draft soon. Buddhist Allegory in the Journey to the West Author(s): Francisca Cho Bantly Source: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Aug., 1989), pp. 512-524 Published by: Association for Asian Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2058637 Accessed: 21-04-2018 02:50 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Association for Asian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Asian Studies This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Buddhist Allegory in the Journey to the West FRANCISCA CHO BANTLY THE NARRATIVE RICHNESS of the Chinese Ming (1368-1644) novel known as the Hsi-yu chi, or The Journey to the West, presents a daunting challenge to the interpreter. The bewildering array of cultural lore-especially from the three major religious traditions of China (Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism)-is so diverse and boldly interwoven that it almost appears as "simply furniture thrown in to impress, or mock, the reader" (Plaks 1977:181). Thus any interpretation faces the danger of exaggerating the importance of these cultural and religious elements, only to discover that the author offered them in jest. Fully recognizing the potential pitfalls of unearthing hidden or systematic patterns of meaning in the Journey, modern interpreters beginning with Hu Shih at the turn of the century have tended to accept the novel at its surface narrative level. They therefore proclaim it to be nothing more than it appears to be: a corking good read.1 More recent scholarship has taken a different tack. C. T. Hsia, for example, is content to leave the three teachings in a state of "unreconciled tension," crediting this condition for the stimulating effects of the best of Ming and Ch'ing novels. Recognizing, however, that this positive valuation of cultural diversity does not amount to an interpretive strategy, Hsia offers up a different principle-"the total acceptance of life in all its glory and squalor" (1968:21)-as the unifying social reality of the storyteller's audience that historically informed the development of the Chinese novel. Andrew Plaks picks up on a similar. theme of all-encompassing meaning, although he does this at a different level altogether. What he terms "the intelligibility of the whole" describes the Chinese religiophilosophical universe and forms the basis for his theory of Chinese allegory (Plaks 1977). The broader significance of this interpretation is his contention that the three-teachings rhetoric should be taken seriously: far from comprising mere literary ornamentation, the religious elements form deliberate and intelligible patterns of meaning, central to the structure of the novel as a whole. Scholars such as Hsia and Plaks, then, attempt to exorcise the specter of the redfaced hermeneut by turning the original problem into a solution. The diversity of religious lore in theJourney no longer poses the problem of meaninglessness; rather, it offers a special meaning consonant with what modern scholarship has revealed about the nature of syncretic Ming literati society. While bearing these points in mind, the body of this article argues that despite the concrete presence and reflection of a syncretic culture in the novel, the most com- pelling reading of theJourney is an explicitly Buddhist one. This is perhaps a polemical Francisca Cho Bantly is a graduate student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. 'I owe this colorful phrase to New Testament scholar Arthur Droge. The Journal of Asian Studies 48, no. 3 (August 1989):5 12-24. ? 1989 by the Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 512 This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ALLEGORY IN THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST 513 way of raising the question of why, despite the unequivocally Buddhist theme of the novel (the journey of five pilgrims to India for the purpose of obtaining Buddhist scriptures), scholastic interpretations of the Journey have by and large avoided a serious and thoroughgoing Buddhist reading of its subject. Beyond literary criticism, historical research on the origins of the Chinese novel by scholars such as Victor Mair, Jaroslav Prusek, and Glen Dudbridge have positively linked Buddhist sutras to popular tales and early Chinese fiction. Thus it is curious that even the latest literary interpretations of theJourney (the work of Plaks is the most prominent example) are still overtly NeoConfucian in orientation. My arguments here attempt to counterbalance this continuing interpretive trend. In arguing for a Buddhist interpretation of the Journey, much of my analysis uses Plaks's own work as a foil. His new book, Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel, is a significant contribution to the study of Chinese narrative and destined to become a classic in the field. The major thrust of his interpretation is a readily identifiable one, however, which filters the diversity of the three teachings through the "syncretic breadth of Ming Neo-Confucianism" (Plaks 1987:233), especially as formulated in the "philosophy of mind" (hsin hsiieh) of the sixteenth century (Plaks 1987:241). This Neo-Confucian strategy of envelopment not only denies a full-bodied representation of Buddhist allegory in the novel, but it also (at least in Plaks's version) challenges the authenticity of the Buddhist themes present in it. A significant example of this is Plaks's dismissal of the spiritual significance of the Journey as a tale of religious pilgrimage. My attempt to counter this view frames the following discussion of Buddhist allegory in the Journey. This Buddhist reading of the Journey stems from more than a desire to give the Buddhist tradition its just representation. My focus is on the integration of Buddhist concepts into the structure of the novel itself, especially by its literary techniques. Although the Buddhist doctrine utilized by the story is a standard Mahayana version, the text embodies these religious tenets in a new way: the familiar concepts of karma, compassion (karund), emptiness (ffinya), and skillful-means (updya) take the form of literary figures and plot structure. The successful demonstration of this integration of doctrine and literary form should lead not only to a convincing plea for a Buddhist reading of the Journey but also to a deeper appreciation of the technical virtuosity of the text. Finally, this integration suggests a fruitful reevaluation of the issue of textual genres. Can we not say that, because the Journey gives form to the content of Buddhist teachings, it is itself a religious text? Ultimately, the justifications for this conclusion are generated by such Buddhist concepts as the insubstantiality of distinctions between history and fiction or between canon and popular literature. By exploring such issues in the context of the journey, I hope to raise questions of concern to all religious communities with a textual tradition and a history of textual criticism. A proper illumination of Buddhist allegory in theJourney must take into account Plaks's general characterization of Chinese allegory. Observing that the foundations of Western allegory, derived from the Christian tradition, simply do not apply to the Ming masterworks, he suggests that one difference between China and the West is rooted in their divergent religiophilosophical traditions. Christianity tends overwhelmingly toward what Plaks terms "ontological dualism" -a vertical disjunction between evil and good, imperfection and truth, damnation and salvation. This theological reasoning, he points out, is worked out "through the logic of narrative . .. in the sense that meaning is something higher than, or at least separate from, the configurations of surface texture alone" (1977:166). The Western tradition of allegory began with Platonic reflections on cosmic dualism and was then appropriated by the exigencies of This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 514 FRANCISCA CHO BANTLY Christian scriptural analysis. The exegetical tradition in turn reinforced cosmic dualism by reiterating the ineffability of higher truths, which must then be mediated by the mundane plane of narrative. In China, on the other hand, dualism of the radical and ontological kind seems to be of little philosophical interest. The dualistic structures that do exist-yin and yang, essence (t'i) and function (yung)-are characterized by their interdependency. Rather than a system of radical disjunction and the ensuing problem of moving from one ontological state to the other, we find a "logical interpenetration of latent and manifest phases of being" (Plaks 1977:169) and a sense of the folly of making ultimate distinctions. This observation leads Plaks to a conception of the Chinese universe that forms the matrix of allegorical meaning: "a universe with neither beginning nor end, neither eschatological nor teleological purpose, within which all of the conceivable opposites of sensory and intellectual experience are contained, such that the poles of duality emerge as complementary within the intelligibility of the whole" (1977:168). Indeed, the "intelligibility of the whole" provides the locus of allegorical meaning. The vast array of narrative elements, which seem to mock the reader, can be viewed sensibly only within "larger patterns and cycles of recurrence that, taken as a whole, bear the meaning of the work" (1977:168). In this case, allegory is necessary not so much because of the ineffability of truth as because of the "sheer vastness" of the universe, which demands a certain economy of expression in order to be comprehensible. Rather than provide a medium for transcendent truths, an author structures the internal elements of a text into an intelligible world of meaning. Although the distinction between Western and Chinese allegory is obvious, Plaks makes a questionable assumption about a fundamental difference between the two: the presence in the West and the absence in China of spiritual progress as the subject of allegorical meaning. Plaks argues for this distinction at the structural level, focusing on the absence of ontological dualism in the Chinese setting. This dualism, as we have seen, automatically implies the problematic of moving from one condition (sin and depravity) to the other (enlightenment and salvation). Thus, movement, or spiritual progress, is the pivot on which Western allegory turns. The all-encompassing Chinese universe, on the other hand, renders the notion of progression illogical. Given the lack of ontological disunities, there is really nowhere to go. Appropriately, for the discussion of allegory, much of the problematic in the Buddhist Mahayana tradition is concerned with the externalization of salvation into manifest religious practices and techniques. The hero of theJourney himself, Tripitaka, embodies this concern as a well-meaning practitioner whose obsession with the outward forms of piety hinders him from true perception. Thus he cannot recognize the malicious forces that appear to him in pleasant guises. More important, he cannot see beyond the appearance of all forms to their innate insubstantiality-a lesson he needs to apply to his own religious techniques. The recurring theme of the illusory nature of all phenomena in the novel suggests the soteriological dilemma that Tripitaka personifies. Here Buddhist soteriology con- forms well with Plaks's interpenetrating Chinese universe by pointing to the multiplicity of forms and the problems they present for spiritual progress. The repetitious encounters with demons and monsters, for example, consistently prove to be false obstacles in that these creatures are ultimately unreal beings. In addition, standard Buddhist precepts themselves become spiritual hindrances. Nowhere is this clearer than at the very beginning of the journey, in chapter 14, when Tripitaka becomes infuriated with the perspicacious Monkey for unceremoniously slaying the six robbers who were threatening them. Tripitaka scolds, "How can you be a monk when you This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ALLEGORY IN THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST 515 take life without cause?" (2:308).2 Tripitaka's mulish adherence to the injunction against killing is doubly damning here. First, he is blind to the very real menace of the robbers. Second, this menace is his own shortsightedness, which is embodied in the robber figures: they are blatant personifications of the six senses, which in the Buddhist system imbue phenomena with a false sense of substantiality. Tripitaka's adherence to the virtue of noninjury only succeeds in blinding him to the deeper nature of all forms. Because both the standard religious tenets and the pilgrimage trials lead to de- lusion, the pilgrimage itself appears as a futile exercise- it would have been better just to stay at home. But when we apply an overtly Buddhist analysis to this bewildering universe, we begin to see how the situation actually makes spiritual realization certain rather than impossible. Such an analysis develops from an altered rendition of the differences between Chinese polysemous and Christian dualist cosmologies. The distinction is so polarized that it can be approached by way of typologies describing the continuity or discontinuity of salvation with the cosmos. Christian ontological dualism opts for the discontinuity of the world, where the really real lies in a distinct, separate realm from mundane existence. The resulting soteriological struggle, as Plaks has informed us, is the move from the lower realm into the higher. Buddhist soteriology, on the other hand, affirms the continuity of the cosmos. Salvation does not lie beyond in a nether realm; it is merely obscured in the present world. Thus spiritual opacity inheres in faulty knowledge rather than in ontological bifurcation. Buddhist spiritual realization is not, however, devoid of existential movement. Because truth cannot save beings if it remains latent, proper knowledge-even knowledge of a condition already there for the taking-is soteriologically transforming. Although Plaks is correct in suggesting that ontological dualism is absent from the allegory of the Journey, nevertheless epistemological dualism is present. This dis- tinction is vital to the Buddhist salvational schema. If we do not take its presence into account, then Plaks's "interpenetrating Chinese universe" is very bland indeed. The pilgrims might as well have stayed at home. The problem of how to bridge the episte- mological gap without violating the ontological reality of nondualism provides the essential problematic of both Mahayana soteriology and The Journey to the West. The tantalizingly immanent yet easily concealed quality of Buddhist realization is often suggested by the language of mind cultivation. As Monkey reminds the pouty Tripitaka toward the end of their journey, "Seek not afar for Buddha on Spirit Mount; Mount Spirit lives only in your mind." Monkey goes on to elaborate: "Maintain your vigilance with the utmost sincerity, and Thunderclap will be right before your eyes. But when you afflict yourself like that with fears and troubled thoughts, then the Great Way and, indeed, Thunderclap seem far away" (4:159). These lines use images of the simultaneous proximity and remoteness of their to reveal the vexing dual nature of Buddhist salvation. The images are appropriate a tale of both allegorical and physical travels that in turn reinforce the primacy spiritual progress in the novel. Although in Buddhist soteriology the goal of the goal to of spir- itual journey is not external to oneself, the goal of transformation through correct knowledge is nevertheless pivotal. The virtue of the Journey as a novel is its ability concretely to demonstrate how this process might work. More specifically, the Buddhist concept of emptiness frequently adduced from the novel supplies the key tool of interpretation. 2All citations are taken from Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation and edition of the Hsi-yu chi; see Yu 1977-83. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 516 FRANCISCA CHO BANTLY To perceive properly the subtle workings of the emptine we must return to the question of the true meaning of the pilgrimage. Plaks chooses to see the journey as meaningless, citing each pilgrim's lack of spiritual development and the anticlimactic finale: "The final irony of the 'wordless scriptures' is a rather transparent joke, unless we choose to emphasize the proverbial desirability of 'empty' scriptures in Chinese philosophical discourse, in which case the final restoration of the 'real' scripture itself further diminishes the ultimate attainment of the quest" (1987:243). Plaks concludes that the only method of salvaging the pilgrimage narrative is to internalize it into a "pilgrimage of the mind." Or, he continues, one can take the deliberate meaninglessness of the scripture quest as the didactic message "that the illusion of progress may itself be the greatest impediment to ultimate attainment" (1987:254). The thrust of Plaks's analysis reveals his own entanglement in the apparent parado of the emptiness claim: if all phenomena, including enlightenment itself, are devoid of reality, then how can one speak of spiritual progress at all? The attempt to progress by adhering to religious beliefs and practices only has the countereffect of demonstrating the adept's ignorance of the empty nature of all religious forms. The net effect is a spiritual paralysis, echoed in Plaks's view of the meaninglessness and even counterproductivity of the pilgrimage to the West. Despite Plaks's uncharacteristic deference to Buddhist doctrine in this instance, the emptiness paradox he implicitly points to is itself empty. As the novel makes clear by its use of the Heart Sutra, the converse of the emptiness teaching is that the insubstantial nature of reality takes on forms: form is emptiness, emptiness is form. There can be no devaluation of forms, because they are inherently equal to the truth of emptiness. This consummation of Buddhist teaching is conveyed in the Black Wind Mountain episode of the Journey, in which Kuan-yin transforms herself into a demon: "When Pilgrim saw the transformation, he cried, 'Marvelous, Marvelous! Is the monster the Bodhisattva, or is the Bodhisattva the monster?' The Bodhisattva laughed and said, 'Wu-kung, the Bodhisattva, and the monster-they all exist in a single thought, for originally they are nothing' " (1:363). The interpenetration of what might be regarded as Kuan-yin's "true" and "false" forms-the Bodhisattva and the monster-demonstrates the ontological equality of all phenomena in their insubstantiality. Thus the reciprocity of Bodhisattva and monster parallels the interpenetrating relationship of emptiness and form. Now that we have escaped the binds of the emptiness paradox, the possibilities for interpretation open up. For example, the role of delusory forms-the monsters and demons encountered on the way-takes on increased significance. To Plaks the cyclical encounters with these hard-to-dispel delusions (mara) only display the travelers' lack of spiritual and perceptual development. Nevertheless, we can begin to recognize that the delusions perform a positive narrative function. Rather than providing continuous proof of spiritual obtuseness, they form one part of a vast strategy of narrative intent. To explain this intent, it is easiest to begin at the most explicit level of Buddhist meaning: the ubiquitous presence of karmic law in theJourney's cosmology. Popular literary genres prior to the Chinese novel had already established a precedent for this. Both Victor Mair and Jaroslav Pri.ek point to the prevalence of karmic themes in the pao-chuan (precious rolls) texts. Mair describes pao-chuan texts as a product (along with the "transformation texts," orpien-wen) of the "fundamental revolution in the dramatic arts" that occurred in the T'ang (1983:23); Pri.ek maintains that the versified paochuan texts are a later development of the prosimetric pien-wen. The two are linked by the "chants about karma" that the former brings to completion with its verse form (1938:378). He adds "such themes had great influence upon all other branches of the This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ALLEGORY IN THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST 517 Chinese popular novel" (1938:386). Uchida Michio (1963), who generally holds to the influence of Buddhist belief and Buddhist tales in theJourney, reads the novel quite deliberately as a tale of karmic progress through incarnations. The dominant views of karmic causality in the Chinese popular novel suggest, however, that this theme creates questionable literature. Prusek equates karma with "facile moral explanation" that is "stripped of all the tragedy and pathos of undeserved misfortunes" and amounts to "no more than unreal moral schemes" (1938:386). Hsia concurs, speaking of the "air of childish unreality" imparted by karmic schemes that "only makes for melodramatic or pietistic contrivance in a novel" (1968:27, 29). The pronouncement is harsh enough to warrant some investigation. In the extended episode that begins with Monkey's first banishment by Tripitaka (chapters 27-31), interweaving plots with a consistent moral theme are in evidence. The moral tone is explicitly Confucian, with a double play on the themes of filiality and proper human relations as applied to the estrangement of Monkey and Tripitaka on the one hand and to the liaison of the Yellow Robe Fiend and the Precious Image Kingdom princess on the other. In the former case, the Confucian theme of filiality is played out simply and sincerely. The period of Monkey's banishment is portrayed as one of spiritual regression down the hierarchy of beings. When Pa-chieh, or Pigsy, finally succeeds in reenlisting Monkey in the pilgrimage, the latter insists on washing himself, saying, "You have no idea that the days since I went back there have caused me to pick up some monster odor. Master loves cleanliness, and I fear that he might be disgusted with me" (2:85). If "monster odor" is interpreted as a metaphor for spiritual regression, then it becomes clear that reconciliation lies in acknowledging the inextricable bond between disciple and master. When, in another scene, Yellow Robe challenges, "If you were banished by your master, how could you have the gumption to face people here?" Monkey replies, "You impudent creature! You wouldn't know about the sentiment of 'Once a teacher, always a father,' nor would you know that 'Between father and son, there's no overnight enmity' " (2:91-92). Monkey's chastisement of the fiend for his ignorance of Confucian principles i appropriate considering Yellow Robe's unnatural sexual alliance with a human princess. The princess expresses the depths of her anguish in a secret letter to her parents, wh she claims to have corrupted the great human relations and perverted morals (2:5 5). Monkey insists on driving the lesson of filial piety home by questioning, "How could you entrust your body to be the mate of a monster spirit and not think of your parents at all?" (2:88). The theme of unnatural alliances appears throughout the novel, but the peculiar solution to the moral dilemma offered in this episode is karmic destiny. When we find out that in their previous heavenly existences, the fiend and the princess vowed to assume human form and be together in the mortal world, the moral am- biguities of their present situation are rather easily dissipated in the light of their karmic past. However, the formula "Not even a sup or a bite is not foreordained" (2:95), which presents the plot's denouement, seems to many to have as much literary finesse as a deus ex machina in Buddhist robes. But surely these previous interpretations miss the point. Karma is merely the point of entry into a broader Mahayana strategy of salvation, which is in turn supported by the very literary contrivance that some disdain. Karma provides both the literary and salvational frame for the novel. Anthony C. Yu has already recognized the structural necessity of reading the Journey as a pilgrimage of karmic redemption (1983:124; 1987:219). Because of the store of karmic demerits built up by the past transgressions of each pilgrim, all must undertake the journey to atone for their sins and wipe their karmic slates clean. This level of meaning is presaged by the comment "Lo, this one This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 518 FRANCISCA CHO BANTLY journey will result in [a] son of Buddha returning This comment is made in reference to Tripitika, who incurred bad karma in his previous incarnation by falling asleep during the Buddha's sermon, but all the journeyers have a parallel karmic history to tell. Viewed through karmic lenses, the meaning of the cyclical ordeals become clear. Consider, for example, the function of the delusory demons. On the narrative level, the pilgrims' struggle with demons illustrates the expiatory suffering they must undertake to pay for their karmic past. The exactions of retributive law are so precise and inexorable that the amount of compulsory suffering has been computed to exactly eighty-one ordeals. Given the preordained necessity of these trials, the emptiness of demons no longer points to the boneheadedness of Tripitaka, who falls for them every time. Instead, the empty delusions conspire with karmic law to deliver the pilgrims to their destination. Delusions then are part of the necessary process rather than obstacles to it. More broadly put, empty forms are not the harbinger of religious paralysis that the emptiness paradox suggests. Instead, they succinctly demonstrate the equality of ultimate and manifest realities-inasmuch as both participate in the dynamics of spiritual realization. The true paradox is that Tripitaka, with his tenacious grip on the outer forms of religious adherence, may not be so wayward after all. The pervasiveness of karmic law at all levels of the Journey points to a complexity of meaning that goes far beyond a mere cosmic mechanism of rewards and punishments. Its broader significance is suggested first by its very pervasiveness: the pilgrims' journey of karmic expiation is intricately entangled with the karmic destiny of others, and as many episodes reveal, the merit-making opportunities of the pilgrims are intertwined with the karmic fruition of other characters. Hence the pilgrims play a crucial role in completing the destinies of beings who are otherwise peripheral to their own goal of reaching India. This dynamic is observable in the Black Rooster and Scarlet-Purple kingdoms chapters, which tell parallel tales of monarchs fated to suffer for offenses against Bud- dhist figures. The agents of retribution are delusory demons whose pivotal role is again signaled by the statement that they "dispel calamity" for the kings. By subjecting the monarchs to various horrors, the demons dissipate bad karmic energy that would otherwise bring greater disaster. These scenarios allow the pilgrims to meet and subdue the fiends at the appointed hour, completing the royal tenure of karmic expiation and simultaneously creating merit for themselves. Such opportunities allow the pilgrims to benefit both themselves and those en- countered on the road. By facing their own ordeals, the pilgrims often bring others into the Buddhist fold. This theme is repeatedly played out by the uncomprehending demons who plaintively ask Monkey, "If you have been released to accompany the T'ang monk to the West, you should simply stay on your journey. Why must you mind someone's business?" (3:349). One answer is simply the karmic link between the pilgrims' and others' spiritual progress. Beyond this mechanical connection, however, lies the Buddhist tenet of compassion, which mandates the salvation of all beings. At this level of intent we can transcend the mechanism of karma: the saturation of the narrative with cause-and-effect equations may convey an air of ethical determinism, but their consistently liberating results suggest instead the conscious manipulation of karmic laws for compassionate ends. The deliberate manipulation of forces for larger purposes is indeed apparent throughout the novel. One could easily multiply examples of the "unreal moral schemes" to which Prusek refers. To begin, the preordained trials themselves possess an air of overcontrivance. This is especially brought out in chapter 99 when Kuan- This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ALLEGORY IN THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST 519 ordeals. She hastens to manufacture one more, despite the fact that the monks have already completed their mission of acquiring scriptures. The near artificiality of the pilgrimage trials sends even Monkey into a fit of exasperation on Level-Top Mountain after Lao Tzu informs him that Kuan-yin has transformed his Taoist attendants into demons in order to test the pilgrims' mettle. Monkey responds: What a rogue is this Bodhisattva! At the time when she delivered old Monkey and told me to accompany the T'ang monk to procure scriptures in the West, I said that the journey would be a difficult one. She even promised that she herself would come to rescue us when we encounter grave difficulties, but instead, she sent monster-spirits here to harass us. The way she double-talks, she deserves to be a spinster for the rest of her life. (2:162) Even though Monkey is justifiably piqued at Kuan-yin's machinations, her maneuvers still bespeak a plane of purposeful intent that is best summarized by the Buddhist term skillful-means. Encompassing both infinite wisdom and compassion, the Bodhisattva possesses knowledge of the most expedient means of bringing beings into Buddhist submission. This activity not only includes, but even requires, deliberate ploys to guide individuals to karmic and spiritual fruition. This level of perspective imparts a transkarmic significance to the pilgrimage: Rather than a compulsory exercise in the dissipation of bad karma, it is a deliberate attempt to achieve a goal about which the novel is rather forthcoming-spiritual enlightenment. Once we allow the skillful-means interpretation to constitute the most salient framework of textual meaning, we can also see its duplication in the preface to the pilgrimage. Between the accounts of Monkey's and Tripitaka's careers and the beginning of the journey, there is a long chain of seemingly disparate events ending with Emperor T'ai-tsung's trip through the underworld. Its ultimate result is Kuan-yin's discovery of a suitable scripture pilgrim in the person of Tripitaka. The primary interest, however, is T'ai-tsung's own pilgrimage in microcosm to the underworld, which brings merit to countless souls, both dead and alive. T'ai-tsung's journey recalls the Buddhist transformation text, "Great Mu-lien Rescuing His Mother from the Hades."3 Although the story of Mu-lien displays a great Confucian sensitivity to the virtue of filial piety, the dynamics of Buddhist compassion are fulfilled in the deliverance of suffering beings from hell. Kuan-yin's journey from India to China in chapter 8 represents another pilgrimage in microcosm. Again her travels create a wake of deliverance as she converts Chu Pa- chieh, Sha Monk, and the Dragon Horse from their present wretched existences 'to the promise of fulfillment as disciples of the T'ang monk. Each sequence of pilgrimagesof T'ai-tsung, Kuan-yin, and the five pilgrims-is part of an ever-expanding framework of plot contrivance that triggers the spiritual liberation of the multitudes. This dynamic is the quintessence of skillful-means. Plaks wonders "why the cloud-soaring monkey cannot simply somersault over the Himalayas and fetch the long-sought scriptures without further trials on the part of his earthbound master" (1987:243). The question mirrors Pa-chieh's challenge to Monkey on the Eastern shore of the Flowing Sand River: "Elder Brother, if [cloud- somersaulting] is so easy, all you need to do is carry Master on your back: nod your head, stretch your waist, and jump across. Why continue to fight this monster?" Pilgrim's didactic reply puts the matter plainly: But it is required of Master to go through all these strange territories before he finds deliverance from the sea of sorrows; hence even one step turns out to be difficult. You 3See Mair 1983 for a translation of this story. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 520 FRANCISCA CHO BANTLY and I are only his protective companions, guarding his bo exempt him from these woes, nor can we obtain the scrip (1:436). Given the previous discussion, the issues implicated in the monkey pilgrim's answer are presumably manifest. The tangle of karmic redemption, ordeals, skillful means, and compassion that forms the machinery of Buddhist liberation brings the incontrovertible conclusion that the pilgrimage is not only necessary, it is the whole point. Without it the mechanics of salvation could not operate. This mechanism is needed in turn because of the axial problematic of the discontinuity of truth and knowledge in the novel's cosmology. The fact that transforming knowledge is gained by active involvement within the world and with religious effort is consistent with our earlier solution of the emptiness paradox, in which even delusions are an effective means for spiritual progress. If the necessity and importance of religious means has been duly represented, then what about the end of the pilgrimage? What can be said about Plaks's insistence that the ending is an anticlimax consisting of the "final irony" of the wordless scriptures? The literal emptiness of the pilgrims' achievement poses no irony at all. As noted in the discussion of Buddhist soteriology, enlightenment does not exist beyond the self and thus cannot be an object of attainment. And yet its easy accessibility is by no means assured. The spatial imagery of the simultaneous distance and proximity of salvation effectively conveys the mutual contingency of religious effort and attainment. On another level there is no need to be heavy-handed in the interpretation of the outcome: it can be seen simply as a final and irresistible poke at the language of "emptiness." This bit of irreverent humor need not detract from the serious side of the message. With their direct echo of Ch'an Buddhism's proverbial disparagement of texts here, these irreverent jibes pose no threat to the Buddhist teaching. Ch'an Buddhism's own tendency to debunk the icons of its own tradition points didactically to the propriety of taking serious matters not too seriously. The Buddhist allegorical interpretation of the Journey cannot be complete without addressing the question of the novel's status in relation to the broader tradition of Chinese Buddhist texts. I would like to suggest that theJourney-as a work of fictioncan be viewed as a Buddhist religious text. The question is not with whether the reputed author Wu Ch'eng-en saw it as such but rather what qualities the text itself displays. These qualities are best highlighted within the continuum of Chinese cultural history. Within it, the development of Chinese Buddhist thought and it concomitant textual genres display a poetic interpenetration of doctrinal content and textual form, in which the loosening-up of Buddhist soteriology from the narrow preoccupations of self-cultivation to the spontaneity of Buddha-nature is paralleled in the liberation of textual modes. Viewing the Journey as religious text means more than merely taking the Buddhist elements of the novel seriously. In fact, it means inducting a piece of popular fiction into a corpus of sacred texts. Such an incongruity raises some assumptions for reconsideration. Just as Yu (1987) has challenged the expectation that anything religious is a solemn and reverential affair, we need to poke at the associations encumbering the notion of sacred texts. Here we encounter the sticky concept of canonicity, which refers to the identification of a tradition's sacred and authoritative texts. Although all religious traditions proclaim to possess a body of recognized sacred texts, either written or oral, some also stipulate that these texts form an unalterable body of literature. Although Asian Buddhist traditions generally have had little use for the conscious closure of its canonical corpus, the criteria of textual legitimacy have been a continuous source of sectarian contention. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ALLEGORY IN THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST 521 The earliest Pali literature set the standard for authority by styling itself the authentic voice of the Buddha (Buddha-vacana). The claim of Buddha-vacana, however, has been interpreted in two opposing manners: first, the historicists have interpreted it literally as the direct representation of Shakyamuni's actual speech; second, the functionalists have suggested that Buddha-vacana is whatever is religiously efficacious. Certainly the above exposition of the Journey's use of skillful-means to liberate all beings points to the dominance of the second interpretation within the Mahayana tradition. By this reasoning it is not problematic to include the Journey in the corpus of religious texts. This kind of argument is rather facile and doctrinal, but it does make the serious point that we need to make explicit the criteria of canonicity in the Chinese Buddhist context. The first question is the one of fiction, or rather the presumed fictitiousness of the Journey, which relates to the questionable status of popular texts within the religious corpus. To establish that Chinese fiction took much of its initial impetus from Buddhist sutras does little to embue it with their authority. The fictive text may be concerned with pious matters, but it is still assumed to be essentially a different animal; at worst, it is a degeneration (equivalent to popularization) of religion. When Mair stresses that the pien-wen is the product of storytellers and thus distinct from the sutra lectures (chiang-ching-wen) of religious specialists, he is making assumptions about privileged and nonprivileged texts (1983:9). These assumptions may not, however, be culturally operative in Chinese Bud- dhism, as we will see when we examine how religious texts have changed in relation to both religious ideas and religious practices. Tzvetan Todorov's work on genre theory (1976) provides a suggestive theoretical base for such work, which is conducted in a more historical manner by Judith Berling in a recent article on the Ch'an Buddhist yii-lu (recorded sayings) genre (1987). Her survey of the evolution of Buddhist texts not only shows the historical development of textual forms (all of which claimed the status of canonicity) but also examines the constitution of a literary genre itself, making the point that "the form as well as the content [of genres] embodies the discourse of the community" (1987:58). Interested generally in the question of religious change, Berling focuses on how the iconoclastic and belligerent tradition of Buddhist yii-lu in the Sung (960-1279) came to be seen as normative Buddhist discourse. As uncanonical and antitraditional as the recorded sayings appeared, certain precedents stretching as far back as the Indian Jataka tale tradition allowed it to maintain continuities to more established textual traditions. The yu-lu genre points to a high degree of ambiguity and somewhat playful subversiveness in the Chinese Buddhist textual tradition. The recorded sayings, for example, is a contradiction by its very textual retention of teachings proclaiming the ineffability of truth. Although the irony of textualizing a tradition that derides the value of words threatens to vitiate the integrity of the teaching, the yii-lu also gives evidence of a set of historical practices. The travel of Buddhist adepts from temple to temple put the kung-an (public cases) of Buddhist masters into general currency and ultimately led to the redaction of these spontaneous utterances and actions into texts. The creation of these texts in turn generated religious practices, such as the use of kung-an as homiletic devices and even as the object of meditation (1987:76-83). Berling suggests that this mutCual penetration of text and practices was a "distinctive Ch'an solution to the problem of Buddhist discourse in the world of radical Mahayana Buddhism" (1987:83)-that is, the emptiness paradox that theJourney itself overcomes with irrepressible panache. The similarities between the yui-lu and Journey go further. By embodying concrete solutions to the potential religious paralysis implied by the radical emptiness doctrine, they both suggest the crucial functional role of texts in and of themselves. Precedents This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 522 FRANCISCA CHO BANTLY for this tendency can be located in a seminal work of the Mahayana tradition, the Lotus Sutra, which exhibits a peculiar self-reflexivity in its awareness of itself as an object of the text. The most pertinent example occurs in chapter 16 (Kern 1963), where the sutra states that a single thought of trust in the Lotus produces more merit than the practice of the Perfections and explicitly equates the Lotus with the Buddha. The significance of this claim is the "subtle but significant shift in the power of Dharma from the person [voice and actions) of the Buddha to the sutras he has bequeathed to his followers" (Berling 1987:67). The consequent shift and development of religious practices is also implicit in this statement. The copying of sutras, as exhorted by the Lotus, was considered a supremely meritorious act. On the popular level sutras were often treated as talismans, whose recitation was a potent guard against demonic and evil forces. This practice is loudly spoken for in the Journey when Tripitaka receives the Heart Sutra from the Crow's Nest Zen Master. Teaching the sutra to the itinerant monk, the Zen Master instructs, "When you meet those mara hindrances, recite the sutra and you will not suffer any injury or harm" (1:393). A face-value reading of this episode cannot help but refer to the popular notion of the magical powers of Buddhist sutras. This idea is buttressed by the text of the Heart Sutra itself, which refers to the Perfection of Wisdom tradition, of which it is a part, as "the great spell," a magical incantation or formula (Conze 1958: 101). The salvational role of religious texts (beyond mere expository functions) was di- versified and nuanced beyond physical and talismanic views. The Ch'an yi-lu offers a creative solution to the question of religious practices while maintaining the teachings that engendered the tensions between doctrine and practice in the first place. This solution, however, cannot be understood without accepting the relationship of texts and their communities, which is also reflected in the content and form of the textual genre. In the final analysis, I can adduce no evidence that theJourney was used as a religious text in the same manner as the Lotus Sutra and the recorded sayings. The skillful embodiment of Buddhist ideals in the novel extends the tradition of the previous texts, but the absence of a community context of use and practices may prevent its induction into the sacred corpus. The debate over canonicity, however, brings into question the whole tradition of previous interpretations of the Journey, which has displaced specifically Buddhist appreciations of the masterwork. Because of the technical virtuosity with which the Journey solves the central problematic of doctrine and practice- the ontological continuity conflated with epistemological discontinuity in the Mahayana cosmos-it is possible to imagine this text as an object of religious practice. If such conjectures seem unconvincing, let me address one last question: authorial intent. This article has diverged from the usual historical-critical concern with authorial intent that plagues much scholarship on textual hermeneutics. Instead I am mainly interested in the doctrinal and literary integrity of the journey. I do not mean to trivialize Wu Ch'eng-en's understanding of his work. I do, however, question Plaks's conclusion that because the Ming masterworks derived from a uniform Neo-Confucian literati milieu, we must read them strictly as Neo-Confucian works. No matter how convincingly we unravel the historical and biographical details of the author, the text itself must constitute the primary evidence, and it is difficult to disentangle the masterful web of Buddhist threads in theJourney without believing that it was intentionally crafted. I do not wish to argue that Wu Ch'eng-en was exclusively a Buddhist or that the Neo-Confucian analyses are incorrect. The Chinese cultural response to diversity and conflict, after all, has generally been to subsume rather than to negate. The true genius This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ALLEGORY IN THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST 523 of the author's creation is its ability to transmit all the salient elements of his heritage. Yu seems to imply this when he speaks of the "unself-consciously syncretic tone of the narrative" (1983:229), which suggests that the author is acting as a reflector of his culture. Whatever the author may have thought about the ultimate meaning of it all, his text retains an integrity that allows others to filter it through their own diverse sensibilities. A true masterpiece takes on an existence and completeness of its own, apart from the limited intentions of the author. Given this background, could we not see the Journey as a text in which content and form intermesh on a new level? The form reflects the cultural materials of the novel's own day, primarily the popular tradition of Buddhist miracle tales. The doctrinal content, as I have sought to show, is a faithful reflection of Mahayana ideals, the very ones that make their embodiment in a piece of fiction so unproblematic. Form is simultaneously subservient to and liberated by the primacy of the effect of reading the novel-its efficacy in revealing the nature of salvation. The Journey's success in both describing and captivating the reader with this soteriology encourages the view that the text itself is a concrete embodiment of the supreme Buddhist virtue of skillful means. The fact that it is a bawdy, irreverent story rather than a solemn and discursive treatise would only have delighted the Buddhists even more. List of References BERLING, JUDITH. 1987. "Bringing the Buddha Down to Earth: Notes on the Emer- gence of YII-lu as a Buddhist Genre." History of Religions 27, no. 1:56-88. CAMPANY, ROBERT. 1985. "Demons, Gods and Pilgrims: The Demonology of the Hsi-yu Chi." Chinese Literature. Essays, Articles, and Reviews 7:95 - 115. CONZE, EDWARD. 1958. Buddhist Wisdom Books. London: George Allen and Unwin. DUDBRIDGE, GLEN. 1970. The Hsi-yu Chi: A Study of Antecedents to the SixteenthCentury Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. GROOT, J. J. M. DE. [1892-19101 1969. The Religious System of China. Taipei: Reprint, Ch'eng-wen Publications. HSIA, C. T. 1968. The Classic Chinese Novel. A Critical Introduction. New York: Columbia University Press. KERN, H. 1963. Saddharmapundarika, or the Lotus of the True Law. New York: Dover Publications. LOPEZ, DONALD S., JR., ed. 1988. Buddhist Hermeneutics, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. MAIR, VICTOR. 1983. Tun-huang Popular Narratives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ORZECH, CHARLES. 1986. "Cosmology in Action: Recursive Cosmology, Soteriology in Chen-yen Buddhism." Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago. PLAKS, ANDREW. 1977. "Allegory in Hsi-yu Chi and Hung-lou Meng." In Chinese Narrative. Critical and Theoretical Essays, ed. Andrew Plaks. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1987. Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel. "Ssu-ta ch'i-shu'" Princeton: Princeton University Press. PRCJSEK, JAROSLAV. 1938. "The Narrators of Buddhist Scriptures and Religious Tales in the Sung Period." Archiv Orientlni' 10:375-89. 1939. "Researches into the Beginnings of the Chinese Popular Novel." Archiv Orientilnz' 11: 91- 13 2. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 524 FRANCISCA CHO BANTLY TODOROV, TZVETAN. 1976. "The Origin of Genres." New Literary History 8, no. 1. UCHIDA MICHIO. 1963. "Saiyuki no seiritsu ni tsuite" [On the establishment of the Hsi-yu Chi]. Bunka 27, no. 1:23-46. Yu, ANTHONY C. 1977-83. TheJourney to the West. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. * 1983. "Two Literary Examples of Religious Pilgrimage: The Commedia and The Journey to the West." History of Religions 22, no. 3:202-30. * 1987. "Religion and Literature in China: The 'Obscure Way' of The Journey to the West." In Tradition and Creativity: Essays on East Asian Civilization, ed. ChingI Tu. New Brunswick, N.J.: University Publications. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:50:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Tracing the textual development: a look into “Journey to the west” Sun Qiang Thank you for sending me the updated version of your proposal. If I understand your proposal correctly, you are going to look at the formation or of the novel, i.e. to trace down the historical, environmental, and religious origins of the novel. In theory, it can be a very interesting topic. But because of the sheer scope as well as the abstract nature of the topic, I’m afraid that you probably will have to summarize lots of secondary scholarship on the topic and will not be able to have a chance to discuss the topic in concrete terms. Keep in mind that other things being equal, a well-focused paper with depth is much better than a broad and sketchy one. Perhaps it would be a better idea to focus on only one of the three aspects that you mentioned in your proposal. Reading the novel from a “religious” perspective seems to me a good and workable idea. You may briefly mention the first two aspects in your introduction, and make it clear that you are going to focus on only one of three aspects of the novel. You might want to say something about the religious origin of the novel, that is, how does the novel come into being from a religious context. Then I would encourage you to cite a paraphrase or two from the novel (in translation), and do a close reading analysis of the cited part. Explain and analyze the religious aspect of the text. I have attached a few articles that you might find useful: 1. Anthony Yu, “The Formation of Fiction in the ‘Journey to the West, ’”Asia Major, Vol. 21, No. 1, (2008), pp. 15-44 2. Francisca Cho Bantly, “Buddhist Allegory in the Journey to the West Author(s)” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 48, No. 3 (1989), pp. 512-524 3. Anthony Yu, “Two Literary Examples of Religious Pilgrimage” History of Religions, Vol. 22, No. 3 (1983), pp. 202-230. I think it will turn into a very interesting and promising paper, and I certainly look forward to reading your draft soon. Two Literary Examples of Religious Pilgrimage: The "Commedia" and "The Journey to the West" Author(s): Anthony C. Yu Source: History of Religions, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Feb., 1983), pp. 202-230 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062504 Accessed: 21-04-2018 02:51 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062504?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to History of Religions This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Anthony C. Yu TWO LITERARY EXAMPLES OF RELIGIOUS PILGRIMAGE: THE COMMEDIA AND THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST Although the definition may vary among scholars fairly widespread agreement that certain fundamen are common to all true religious pilgrimages. I recent study, at least three elements must be prese d'un lieu consacre ou l'on se rend specialemen collectif ou individual vers ce lieu, et enfin le bu qui est l'obtention d'un certain bien material ou s An abridged version of this essay was delivered as the fo Wentz lecture in Oriental Religions at Stanford University. T my hosts is hereby gratefully acknowledged. Freddy Raphael, "Le Pelerinage, approche sociologique, l'antiquite biblique et classique a I'occident medieval, ed. M. p. 12. The literature on pilgrimage in various religious cultur study, I have consulted Jonathan Sumption, Pilgrimage: Religion (Totowa, N.J., 1975); Sidney H. Heath, Pilgrim (Boston, 1912), and the enlarged edition retitled In the Ste York, 1950); Donald J. Hall, English Mediaeval Pilgrimage ( Percival Newton, ed., Travel and Travellers in the Middle A * 1983 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0018-2710/ 83/ 2203-0002$01.00 This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms History of Religions 203 protracted journey of adventures or in which the traveler or travelers engage in various heroic or dangerous exploits will perforce qualify to be called a pilgrimage. What renders the individual or collective act religiously significant, according to the cited definition, has to do with the notion of sacred space, the modes of participation, and the peculiar benefits conferred by such an undertaking. In this essay I propose to examine the meaning of pilgrimage in two well-known literary texts: the Commedia of Dante Alighieri and The Journey to the West, most likely the product of the sixteenthcentury Chinese writer and minor official, Wu Ch'eng-en. Following some necessary remarks on historical matter, I shall center my discussion on how the understanding and use of religious pilgrimage in each of the two representative texts may provide an interestingand, it is to be hoped, illuminating-comparison of different literary and religious cultures. The discussion properly begins with the Commedia, not merely because of temporal priority, but because the fundamental idea of pilgrimage emerging from the work as a whole seems most consistent with the religious tradition which the text presupposes. That pilgrimage has played a significant part in the life of the medieval Christian church is too familiar to require special notice. Though the evidence for its institution in the New Testament is virtually nonexistent, a Mitchell, The Spring Voyage: The Jerusalem Pilgrimage in 1458 (London, 1964); Thomas Wright, trans., Early Travels in Palestine (London, 1848); Victor Turner and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (New York, 1978); "Pilgrimage," in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings (New York, 1921), 9:10-28; A. Fowler, "Patterns of Pilgrimage" [review article], Times Literary Supplement (November 12, 1976), pp. 1410-12; Nancy Falk, "To Gaze on the Sacred Traces," History of Religions 16 (1977): 281-93; and C. E. King, "Shrines and Pilgrimages before the Reformation," History Today 29 (1979): 664-69. For studies dealing specifically with literature and pilgrimage, I have found the following particularly useful: W. H. Mathews, Mazes and Labyrinths: Their History and Development (1922; reprint ed., New York, 1970); Georg Roppen and Richard Sommer, Strangers and Pilgrims: An Essay on the Metaphor of Journey, Norwegian Studies in English no. 11 (Oslo, 1964); F. C. Gardiner, The Pilgrimage of Desire: Theme and Genre in Medieval Literature (Leiden, 1971); Harold Bloom, "The Internalization of Quest Romance," in The Ringers in the Tower: Studies in Romantic Tradition (Chicago, 1971), pp. 13-35; D. L. Maddox, "Pilgrimage Narrative and Meaning in Manuscripts A and L of the Vie de saint Alexis," Romance Philology 27 (1973): 143-57; Christian Zacher, Curiosity and Pilgrimage: The Literature of Discovery in Fourteenth-Century England (Baltimore, 1976); Ronald Paulson, "Life as Journey and as Theater: Two Eighteenth-Century Narrative Structures," New Literary History 7 (1976): 43-58; Donald R. Howard, Writers and Pilgrims: Medieval Pilgrimage Narratives and Their Posterity (Berkeley, 1980). An indispensable bibliographical source on accounts of pilgrimages to the Holy Land from the fourth to the nineteenth centuries will be found in Reinhold Rohricht, Bibliotheca Geographica Palestinae: Chronologisches Verzeichnis der von 333 bis 1878 verfassten Literatur uber das heilige Land mit dem Versuch einen Kartographie (Berlin, 1890), rev. ed. David H. K. Amiran (Jerusalem, 1963). This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 204 Religious Pilgrimage reference like that of Jesus in Matt. 23:29 to "the tombs of the prophets and ... the monuments of the righteous" (cf. also Matt 27:52, 53) already implies the existence of sacred sites and sanctuaries establishments certainly familiar also in the religion of Israel. Certain locations associated with the life and ministry of Jesus we quickly marked out as holy places of worship by the early Christians In fact, pilgrims going to Palestine tended to regard Jesus as the fir pilgrim, and his postresurrection journey to Emmaus (Luke 24:13 was often interpreted by medieval commentators as a pilgrimage Again, the description of tombs opening after the death of Jesus Matt. 27:51-53 and the rising of "many bodies of the saints" sub quent to his resurrection may exemplify the proleptic eschatology Gemeindetheologie, but the statement may also have been colored regard for sacred sepulchres and relics. It must be remembered, of course, that group pilgrimages bef the time of Constantine were quite rare. The legendary excellence the Roman roads notwithstanding, economics and government h tility toward large-scale movements of a frequently persecuted s undoubtedly served to inhibit such a practice. Journeys underta by clerics and ecclesiastics for both scholastic and religious reaso were more often acts of individual or small group devotion than of mass piety. With the establishment of the peace of the Church and the active encouragement of writers like Lady Paula and Saint Jerome, the popularity of pilgrimage grew steadily from the fourth century onward. Motivated as much by spiritual zeal as by worldly curiosity, Christians sought to visit the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem. Their ardor perhaps can best be felt through the experience of someone like the author of the Peregrinatio aetheriae (ca. 400), who sallied forth, in the words of one recent scholar, "Bible en main, utilisant le texte sacre comme un veritable guide touristique."3 Her desire to visit the prominent locales recorded in holy writ, however, was more than a developed case of Wandertrieb. By retracing scriptural events and sites in her itinerary, and by performance of liturgies spontaneously and appropriately adapted for specific locations, she becomes personally a participant of those events and places. Her 2 Cf. Herbert Thurston, The Stations of the Cross: An Account of Their History and Devotional Purpose (London, 1906), p. 3; Gilbert Cope, Symbolism in the Bible and the Church (New York, 1959), pp. 52-53; M. D. Anderson, Drama and Imagery in English Medieval Churches (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 150-51; John Plummer, The Hours of Catherine of Cleves (New York, 1966), pl. 75; The Little Flowers of St. Francis, ed. Damian J. Blaher (New York, 1951), p. 457. 3 Marcel Simon, "Les Pelerinages dans l'antiquite chr6tienne," in Simon, ed., p. 100. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 205 History of Religions physical pilgrimage, in sum, provides the occasion for the union of salvation history and sacred geography, and the coveted trek from Egypt to Palestine is transformed into an experiential replication of both the old and new Exodus. In addition to the desire to visit sacred sites consecrated redemptive history, the motivation of the Christian pilgrim, unlike that of many of his non-Christian counterparts, is oft governed by the quest for such personal gain as physical healin spiritual renewal. For an undertaking that can be so fraught deprivations, hazards, and perils of all varieties, it is only natural t it has come to be regarded in the life of the Church, and on occasio exploited no less than by "the vicar of Christ" himself, as an a special merit and meaning. Ach, schwer drtickt mich der Sunden Last, kann langer sie nicht mehr ertragen: drum will ich auch nich Ruh' noch Rast, und wahle gern mir Muh' und Plagen. Am hohen Fest der Gnad' und Huld in Demuth siihn' ich meine Schuld; gesegnet, wer im Glauben treu! er wird erlost durch Buss und Reu'. [Tannhauser, 1.3] So sing the aged pilgrims in Wagner's musical drama. And the idea o the pilgrimage as the penitential act par excellence whereby one may obtain in this life assured absolution finds its most vivid dramatiza- tion both in history (in that turbulent encounter between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII at Canossa in 1077) and in operatic art (Tannhduser). What broadens the significance of pilgrimages has been the particular biblical portrayal of the Christian believer as an exile and homeless wanderer. The classic text for such a notion, Heb. 11:13-16 refers to the faithful as "strangers and exiles on the earth," people "seeking a homeland" and desiring "a better country, that is a heavenly one." This idea has been developed both as "a homileti topic and in expanded form as a literary plot"4 in countless writer 4M. H. Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature (New York, 1971), p. 165. See also Gerhart B. Ladner, "Homo Viator Medieval Ideas of Alienation and Order," Speculum 42 (1967): 233-59; George H Williams, Wilderness and Paradise in Christian Thought (New York, 1962); W. G Johnsson, "Pilgrimage Motif in the Book of Hebrews," Journal of Biblical Literatur 97 (1978): 239-51. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 206 Religious Pilgrimage across the centuries. In a deft conflation of Homeric language, Plotinian image, and Christian sentiment, Augustine, for example, exhorts in On Christian Doctrine: "Thus in this mortal life, wandering from God, if we wish to return to our native country where we can be blessed we should use this world and not enjoy it...."5 The Christian in exile, as Jean Leclerq and others have reminded us, is in fact the dominant ideal of the Middle Ages.6 Not until the twelfth century does the journey emerge as the distinctive symbol of spiritual quest, and through such a development comes the rapid coalescence of the physical and the spiritual, wherein the actual journey to a specific locality-Jerusalem, Canterbury, Compostela, Rome-is also taken to mirror the meaning and process of the larger Christian pilgrimage in life. Consistent with certain strains of medieval scholasticism emphasizing the priority of mind in the human person, the upward movement of the soul is now termed, echoing the actual title of a treatise by Bonaventura, an itinerarium mentis ad Deum. Thomas Aquinas, too, has written that "we are called wayfarers by reason of our being on the way to God, who is the last end of our happiness: In this way we advance the more the nearer we get to God, who is approached 'not by steps of the body but by affections of the soul'" (Augustine, Tractatus in Joannis evangelium 32).7 The emphasis in Augustine's words quoted by Thomas concerning how the deity is to be approached is, of course, dictated by the strict spiritualism of Christian theology proper. In Dante's Commedia, however, God is approached indeed by "steps of the body" when we witness the poet-pilgrim's perilous descent into Hell, his strenuous climb up Mount Purgatory, and finally, his dizzying ascent into the empyrean. The physical realism of his poem, for which Dante has been justly praised through the ages, represents much more than the poet's willful and errant departure from received doctrines occasioned by the necessary anthropomorphism of poetic art. Erich Auerbach has written perceptively that "a whole century before Dante, scholastic philosophy with its striving for concordance had gone beyond 5Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, trans. D. W. Robertson, Jr. (Indianapolis, 1958), 1.4, p. 10. Cf. Augustine's quotation of Plotinus in The City of God, trans. Marcus Dodds (New York, 1950), 9.17, p. 296. Cf. also Christine Mohrmann, Etudes sur le latin des Chretiens, vol. 2, Latin Chretien et medieval (Rome, 1961), pp. 75 ff. 6 See, e.g., Dom Jean Leclerq, "Monchtum und Peregrinatio in Frihmittelalter," Romische Quartelschrift fur Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte 55 (1960): 212-25, and "Monachisme et peregrination du IXe au XIIe siecle," Studia monastica 3 (1961): 33-52; Giles Constable, "Monachisme et pelerinage au moyen age," Revue historique 258 (1977): 3-27; and Hans Frhr. von Campenhausen, Die asketische Heimatlasigkeit im altkirchlichen und friihmittelalterlichen Monchtum (Tiibingen, 1930). 7Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica 2-2, 24.4. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms History of Religions 207 the mechanical conceptions based on the traditions of late antiquity and on Vulgar Spiritualist allegory and, in the Summa theologica of Thomas Aquinas, had achieved an organic, systematic order. It employs the method of listing and classifying, beginning with God and going on to deal with the creatures who have issued from Him. It is a didactic system, which, in accordance with its purposes, treats of its subject as in being and at rest."8 By giving nearly all the abstract constituents of this didactic system "a local habitation and a name," the poet in effect "transforms Being into experience; he makes the world come into being by exploring it. ..." In the course of his poem Dante turns dogma into drama and succeeds in revealing through the embodied content of the doctrine, "grounded in Christian history of salvation and theoretically formulated by St. Thomas,"9 that it is through the enlightenment of intellect and the awakening of love that man will achieve final union with God. The tale of someone embarking on a journey thus provides th most appropriate means for the poet to depict this process o transformation, since the temporal and spatial ramifications of t undertaking allow for the maximal exploitation of such dramat ingredients as stasis and motion, trials and ordeals, reversals an delays. To show that this highly complex journey beyond the grave is at once a chronicle of the poet's own spiritual growth and illumi tion and the intended guide for all mortals seeking eternal blesse ness, the poet has drawn extensively on the known literatures o pilgrimage. Dante's appropriation of that tradition, as recent schol ship has shown, is nothing short of massive,10 though our discuss here must of necessity be selective. It is important to note, first of a that, although Dante at the poem's beginning is told by Virgil to take a different path if he is to get out of the dark wood (selva oscura 8 Erich Auerbach, Dante, Poet of the Secular World, trans. Ralph Manheim (Chicago, 1961), p. 94. 9 Ibid. '0 A brief review of some of the pertinent literature may conveniently be found in John G. Demaray, The Invention of Dante's "Commedia"(New Haven, Conn., 1974), pp. 51-52. For more recent studies, see R. H. Lansing, "Two Similes in Dante's Commedia: The Shipwrecked Swimmer and Elijah's Ascent," Romance Philology 28 (1974): 161-77; D. Heilbron, "Dante's Gate of Dis and the Heavenly Jerusalem," Studies in Philology 72 (1975): 167-92; G. D. Economou, "Pastoral Simile of Inferno XXIV and the Unquiet Heart of the Christian Pilgrim," Speculum 51 (1976): 637-46; D. J. Donno, "Moral Hydrography: Dante's Rivers," Modern Language Notes 92 (1977): 130-39; J. C. Boswell, "Dante's Allusions: Addenda to Toynbee," Notes and Queries 24 (1977): 489-92; A. A. M. Paasonen, "Dante's Firm Foot and Guittone d'Arezzo," Romance Philology 33 (1979): 312-17; J. B. Holloway, "Semus Sumus: Joyce and Pilgrimage," Thought 56 (1981): 212-25. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 208 Religious Pilgrimage which he has lost his way (Inferno 1.91-93)," nowhere in the Inferno is there any actual indication that the poet is about to embark on a Christian pilgrimage. The awful descent into Hell may comport with Christian eschatology, but it is made for the sake of acquiring rational knowledge of the beyond, not salvific grace that heals and transforms. Allusions in Hell to pilgrims and pilgrimages are often made with enormous irony, such as the simile in Inferno 18.28-33 where the contrary movements of the panderers and seducers are likened to the bustling throng of Rome in the year of Jubilee. Symbolically, Hell is most frequently identified with Egypt, the region of luxury, worldliness, apostasy, and bondage. Once the poet has reached Purgatory, his understanding of his journey undergoes a perceptible change. Not only does he refer to himself specifically as a novo peregrin (Purgatorio 8.4), that is, one who has entered on the first day of his pilgrimage, but throughout the rest of the poem there appear increasing concordances of details between pilgrim literature, travel literature, and even medieval cartography and the movement and landscape of the poem. By the valley of the princes, for example, Dante at dusk recalls the hour which stabs the new pilgrim with love, when he hears from a distance the chimes that mourn the dying day (Purgatorio 8.4-6). It has been observed by many commentators that Mount Purgatory itself is a composite recreation of Mount Sinai. Standing at the antipodes opposite Jerusalem with a summit touching the sphere of the moon, Purgatory with its precipitous cliffs (Purgatorio 3.46-48), circular paths and winding ridges (Purgatorio 7.70-72), narrow open- ings in the rocks (Purgatorio 9.74-78; 12.97), and sharply angled slopes (Purgatorio 4.40-43) powerfully recalls the topography of "The Thundering Mountain of God" depicted in Scripture and in pilgrimage literature. Both mountains are symbolically linked because they provide the tangible union of Heaven and Earth for the mortals. Just as Sinai is the mountain which both the biblical Israelites and the historical Christian pilgrims must scale before they reach the promised destination of their sojourn, and just as the Law given on Sinai must precede the Grace of the Christian evangel, so the poetpilgrim in the Commedia must go through the experience wherein his progressively felicitous ascent comes with the gradual purging of his errors and sins (Purgatorio 12.115-36). " The Italian text of the Commedia is that of Giorgio Petrocchi's edition published for the Societh Dantesca Italiana and reprinted in the edition of C. H. Grandgent, rev. Charles S. Singleton (Cambridge, Mass., 1972). This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms History of Religions 209 Consonant with its religious significance and function, therefore, Purgatory is the place where the solitary wayfarer begins to acquire a deeper sense of community and communion among the redeemed. Whereas the feeling characteristic of the poet's experience in the first book is one of loneliness and terror (Inferno 2.3-"e io sol uno"), Dante discovers early in the second book that his own experience may now be seen as part of a larger one when he and Virgil are joined by a group of visitors on the desert island before Mount Purgatory (Purgatorio 2.22 ff.). Unlike those damned spirits assembled on the bank of the River Acheron and ferried to Hell by the demon Charon, wailing and traveling in isolation (Inferno 3), these some one hundred souls carried in a boat piloted by an angel are beings who, like the poet, have begun their purgatorial path to Heaven. Disembarking together, the spirits sing with one voice ("ad una voce") the song "In exitu Israel de Aegypto," the opening verse of Psalm 114 and the text used by Dante himself in his famous letter to Can Grande della Scala for illustrating the fourfold interpretation of redemption. The manner in which the dead souls arrive-how they sing together in the boat, how the angel steering the boat makes the sign of the cross, how they fling themselves joyously on land, and the general sense of camaraderie and fellowship-has invited comparison with the accounts of actual pilgrim landings in the Holy Land. More significant, however, than the polysemous relations between text and events is the gentle irony structured in the encounter of the two poets with the boatload of souls. When the latter ask in excitement to be shown the way to the side of the mountain (Purgatorio 2.59-60), Virgil declines by pleading ignorance of the place, for, he says, "we are strangers even as you are" ("noi siam peregrin come voi siete" [Purgatorio 2.63]). The wordplay on peregrin, which may have the meanings of both stranger and pilgrim, is perhaps deliberately intended by Dante. As someone whose eternal destiny is confirmed in Limbo, Virgil cannot use the word peregrin to describe himself in this context except in the nonreligious sense of a sojourner in a strange and unfamiliar land. On the other hand, Virgil's use of the first person plural, noi, is no poetic license, for in his company is indeed a true pilgrim, one who shares the destiny of the other redeemed souls and from whose guardianship Virgil will resign in due time. The separation of the poet-pilgrim from his guide occurs when the travelers arrive at the top of the mountain, where Dante will have his will made "free, straight, and whole" ("libero, dritto e sano" [Purgatorio 27.140-42]) and all his past sins purged prior to his final ascent into Paradise. The drama of that moment is carefully prepared for and meticulously wrought in the final cantos of the Purgatorio. As This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 210 Religious Pilgrimage M. H. Abrams has aptly summarized for us in his Natural Supernaturalism, the Christian notion of life as "a toilsome peregrinatio" carries with it both the image of a linear progression and a circular return. It is linear to the extent that this central trope of life as a pilgrimage attracted into its orbit various O Testament stories of exiled wanderers, especially the account of the exodus the chosen people from their bondage in Egypt and of their long wanderin in the wilderness before the entry into the promised land. The goal of t journey was usually imaged as the New Jerusalem, which is both a city and woman; and the longing for the goal was frequently expressed, followin Revelation 22:17, as an insistent invitation to a wedding: "And the Spirit an the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that athirst come."'2 Along with this image of the linear journey is also the image of t circular return, epitomized in the tale of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), who collected his inheritance and "took his journey int far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living before repenting and returning to a rejoicing and forgiving fath The story has long been regarded in the Christian tradition as t supreme parable of man's sin and redemption. In the Commedia, both figures of the linear journey and the circular return are brough into play when we witness the stages of the poet-pilgrim's justificatio and sanctification. Consistent with the theology of his poem, Dante has placed Eden, the terrestrial paradise, at the summit of Mount Purgatory and made it the first goal to be reached by the poet-pilgrim in his long and arduous quest. Since the Fall of the first couple and their expulsion from the primal garden, the human race, according to the geography of the poem, has been transferred from the southern to the northern hemisphere, and the seat of human blessedness and first innocence has been forever barred from mortal sight (cf. the poet's lament in Purgatorio 1.22-28). "The proper view of the particular and concrete shape which Dante gave to [his] journey," as Charles Singleton's detailed studies have shown us, is thus "a return to Eden, ... a regaining of what man had lost in his fall from that lofty place."13 At the dawn of the third day during their climb of Mount Purgatory, the poet-pilgrim, aware that they are near the summit, likens his feelings to those of pilgrims gladdened by the thought of their 12 Abrams. 13 Charles S. Singleton, Journey to Beatrice, originally published as Dante Studies 2 (Baltimore, 1977), pp. 224-25. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms History of Religions 211 proximity to their homeland ("che tanto a' pellegrin surgon piu grati, / quanto, tornando, albergan men lontani" [Purgatorio 27.11011]). He is then told by Virgil that his craving for that sweet fruit ("dolce pome") long sought by all mortals (cf. Inferno 16.62) will on that day be satisfied (Purgatorio 27.115-17). Before Virgil leaves, he invests his companion with miter and crown, those symbols of spiritual and temporal authority on earth, and his act in turn reflects the perfection of the poet-pilgrim's will and its achievement of mastery over itself. The recovery of inner rectitude is not complete without spiritual cleansing and renewal. Singleton argues that there is in the final cantos of the Purgatorio a vivid portrayal of man's restoration both to his natural perfection and to a state of grace, two conditions which find correspondence in the venerable Catholic doctrine which holds that Adam, created in God's image, had further received from his Creator added gifts of grace.14 Whether Dante's poetry is in fact a fastidious allegory of these notions of justitia originalis and donum superadditum is too complicated an issue to be taken up here. There is little question, nonetheless, that it is the advent of Beatrice, seen by many commentators as a type of Christ, which initiates for the pilgrim the transformation necessary to his final redemption. Early in the poem, the intercessory role of Beatrice has already been firmly established, when Virgil discloses (Inferno 2) that it is this fair lady, prompted by Saint Lucy at the instance of the Virgin Mary herself, who descended into Limbo to enlist Virgil's assistance for her beloved. It is she who, as Dante later exclaims in grateful retrospect, leaves her footprints in Hell in order to bring him salvation ("e che soffristi per la mia salute / in inferno lasciar le tue vestige" [Paradiso 31.80-81]). The tale of her solicitude, in fact, has helped to strengthen the Florentine bard at the commencement of his difficult journey (Inferno 2.127-33). Toward the end of the Purgatorio, the mere sight of her at once produces in Dante the powerful awakening of love, just as her eventual fierce reprimand drives him to overwhelming contrition for his past sins and errors and readies him for the ultimate visio Dei. Critics have recognized that real affection exists between the poetpilgrim and his childhood sweetheart.15 It is no less apparent, however, that their "old love in all its great power" ("d'antico amor senti a gran potenza" [Purgatorio 30.39]) can never be regarded as an end 14 Ibid., pp. 101-16, 223-83. 15 See Charles Williams, The Figure of Beatrice: A Study in Dante (New York, 1961), esp. chaps. 2-3, 8-12. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 212 Religious Pilgrimage in itself, for it serves, within the theological framework of the poem, as that decisive, enabling force in moving the lover to love "that Good beyond which there is nothing which man may long for" ("Per entro i mie' disiri, / che ti menavano ad amar lo bene / di lk dal non e a che s'aspiri" [Purgatorio 31.22-24]). At the summit of Mount Purgatory, after having regained entrance into the earthly Eden, Dante as the Christian pilgrim is granted the sight of "the advance of a pageant whose stately movement, banner-like lights, and holy songs have suggested to critics a procession of Church clerics bearing with them Christ in the form of the Host. The pilgrim has confessed his sins, done penance, and been cleansed by holy water. Fortified spiritually by four cardinal virtues, the pilgrim is next redeemed by Christ through reception of the Host, a 'food which, satisfying of itself, causes thirst of itself.' And this action brings the three theological virtues near to the pilgrim's soul."16 Throughout this entire episode and on to the next canto, the symbolic character of Beatrice, as the reflected image of the Divine Light, finds magnificent and sustained poetic development. In the dazzling luminosity of her eyes and her smile, the poet-pilgrim sees a double image: "As the sun in a mirror, so was shining within the twofold animal, now bearing with the one, now with the other" ("Come in lo specchio sol, non altrimenti / la doppiafiera dentro vi raggiava, / or con altri, or con altri reggimenti" [Purgatorio 31.12123]).17 Despite this intense focus on her, her person, as Dante is careful to show, always points beyond herself. From the moment of her encounter with her lover through their final dizzying ascent toward the empyrean, her action directly inspires the action and reaction of the pilgrim. "As Beatrice looks upward, and I on her" ("Beatrice in suso, e io in lei guardava" [Paradiso 2.22]) is the characteristic pattern. The light of her gaze at the sun which then strikes into the vision of the mortal now entrusted in her care and causes him in turn to gaze upward has been compared, in a controversial line, with "a falcon which darts down and rises" or "a pilgrim who would turn homeward" ("come pellegrin che tornar vuole" [Paradiso 1.51]).18 The wordplay on pellegrin (falcon or pilgrim) 16 Demaray, p. 123. 17 For the significance of the image, see Dorothy Sayers, trans., The Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Cantica II: Purgatory (Baltimore, 1955), p. 321: "In the mirror of Revelation (the eyes of Beatrice), Dante sees the double Nature of the Incarnate Love-now as wholly divine, now as wholly human...." 18 On the problem of translating this passage, see Dorothy Sayers and Barbara Reynolds, trans., The Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Cantica III: Paradise (Baltimore, 1962), pp. 352-53. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms History of Religions 213 again may be deliberate, since both interpretations can reinforce the meaning of her action as a double movement of descent and ascent that launches the pilgrim on his celestial path. Of the residents in Heaven T. S. Eliot has said that "at first, they seem less distinct than the earlier unblessed people; they seem ingeniously varied but fundamentally monotonous variations of insipid blessedness."'9 Perhaps what Eliot should remember here is that he (as reader) is seeing Heaven through the vision of Dante, whose aim in the Paradiso is to depict, with all the cunning and craft he possesses, the salvific transformation of the pilgrim. The fundamental feature marking the pilgrim's experience in Paradise, as it is beforehand, is growth-the enlargement of intellect and the intensification of love-and not immediate knowledge and clarity. When Beatrice instructs him about the souls appearing to him on the moon, the first circle of Heaven, she pointedly refers to the venerable doctrine of divine accommodation (Paradiso 4.37-43), which is utilized here for Dante's (and by extension, the reader's) benefit. Later she exhorts him to open his mind and keep what she has revealed to him, since there is no knowledge without retention and internalization (Paradiso 5.40-43). The interior transformation of the pilgrim thus provides the true dynamic element in the plot; it is not the description of rank, hierarchy, and spheres, but of his progressive experience of these that unifies the action and endows it with the verisimilitude of motion and excitement. If the saints appear "less distinct than the earlier unblessed people," as Eliot says, this is because the pilgrim's sight has yet to adjust to the blinding intensity of celestial radiance. When at last the power of his vision has grown to such extent that it equals his station in the empyrean (Paradiso 31), the identity of the host of blessed souls becomes distinct, for they are now individually perceived. To vent that rhapsodic sense of wonder, awe, and joy that accompanies his vision at this final stage of his journey, the poetic narrator once more makes use of the images of pilgrimage. The setting of his grand epic, after all, is Easter week in the fateful year 1300. On February 22 of that year, Boniface has issued his papal bull which promises: "We . .. grant to all ... who being truly penitent, '9 T. S. Eliot, "Dante," in Selected Essays (New York, 1960), p. 225. For more recent treatments of the theme of development in the Paradiso, see J. Leyerle, "Rose-Wheel Design and Dante's Paradiso," University of Toronto Quarterly 46 (1977): 280-308; J. L. Miller, "Three Mirrors of Dante's Paradiso," University of Toronto Quarterly 46 (1977): 263-79; D. M. Murtaugh, "Figurando il paradiso: The Signs that Render Dante's Heaven," PMLA 90 (1975): 277-84; J. A. Mazzeo, "Dante and the Pauline Modes of Vision," Harvard Theological Review 50 (1957): 275-306. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 214 Religious Pilgrimage shall confess their sins, and approach these Basilicas [of Peter and Paul] each succeeding hundreth year, not only a full and copious, but the most full pardon of all their sins."20 Dante may not have believed the efficacy of plenary indulgence in exactly this manner, and his disdain for the corruption of the Roman papacy needs no elaboration. Nonetheless, his regard for the city of Rome itself cannot be denied, for as the most celebrated and revered goal of all earthly pilgrimages, the city has become the supreme type of the final destination sought by all spiritual wayfarers. It is fitting, therefore, that when the poet-pilgrim nears his own destination, the city of the rose in Heaven, he compares his stupefaction with that of the barbarians who, approaching Rome from the north, first catch sight of the magnificent Lateran towers ("Se i barbari, . . . / veggendo Roma e l'ardiia sua opra; / stupefaciensi, quando Laterano / a le cose mortali and6 di sopra" [Paradiso 31.31-36]). Twice he likens himself to a pilgrim-as one who is renewed in the temple of his vows when he looks around and already hopes to tell how it was (Paradiso 31.43-45), and as one who has come from Croatia to stare at Saint Veronica's veil in Rome (Paradiso 31.103-4). The object, one of the deepest veneration, was displayed at Saint Peter's during January and in Holy Week. But Dante, as he will soon realize, need no longer be content with mere symbol or relic, just as the sacrality of place is finally assimilated entirely into the ecstasy of vision and praise. He will be granted shortly the unmediated sight of Infinite Goodness, vision greater than speech can show, and in seeing, the pilgrim has at last been brought from bondage to liberty. * * * The plot of the imaginary journe has taken. On the the Inferno mov into the realms mountain identif as guardian and g the earthly sphe journey, a Christ 20 The original Latin Storia e bolle pontifi pp. 30-31. The English of Jubilee: An Acco (Westminster, Md., This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms History of Religions 215 Egypt of the Inferno, climbed uphill over the globe to Jerusalem which is situated at the earth's center on Mount Zion opposite Purgatory, and then sailed from Palestine to Rome to look on Saint Veronica's veil at Saint Peter's. The poem, as John Demaray correctly observes, "points back to this world, but not as has been claimed to a world that is essentially secular. The pilgrimage pathway revealed here below is the most blessed that living men can tread, for it passes through the holiest lands, sites, and places in the entire iconographic Book of God's Works. And the goal of the journey for the persevering pilgrim is a glimpse in this life of God's Divine Visage."21 Inasmuch as the poem in the deepest intentionality of its author is meant to be regarded as both fiction and truth, the traditional debate among the critics on whether it is an allegoria poetica or allegoria theologica is actually rather moot.22 On one level, the poet's experience and vision are indeed entirely fictive and poetical. But even as poetry, its verity, at least according to the self-understanding of its author, approximates that of Holy Writ, for the Commedia is intended literally to bring other pilgrims also to the beatific vision (cf. Paradiso 1.13-36). When we take up the Journey to the West (hereafter cited as Journey), a work written almost two centuries later and half a world away in China, we find remarkable instances of similarity and contrast in the two texts. Unlike the Commedia, the Chinese epic narrative is based squarely on one of the most celebrated pilgrimages in Chinese religious history, the seventeen-year (in the narrative, the span is given as fourteen) trek of the monk Hsuan-tsang from T'ang China to India to acquire Buddhist scriptures. Furthermore, although both works may be said to belong to the high comic mode in the sense that both have so-called happy endings, the Journey has a far greater abundance of low comic, indeed Chaucerian, elements of farce, ribald humor, and irreverent satires of religious and political institutions. This vast contrast in narrative tonality and character, however, should not obscure the fact that very much like the Commedia, the Journey is at once a magnificent tale of fiction and a 21 Demaray, p. 92. 22 Cf. Charles S. Singleton, Dante Studies I (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), chap. 1; Jean Pepin, Dante et la tradition de l'allgorie (Montr&al, 1970); R. H. Green, "Dante's 'Allegory of the Poets' and the Medieval Tradition of Poetic Fiction," Comparative Literature 9 (1957): 118-28; Charles S. Singleton, "The Irreducible Dove," Comparative Literature 9 (1957): 129-35; R. H. Hollander, Allegory in Dante's "Commedia" (Princeton, N.J., 1969), and "Dante 'Theologus-Poeta,'" Dante Society and Annual Reports of the Dante Society 94 (1976): 192-93; J. A. Scott, "Dante's Allegory," Romance Philology 26 (1973): 558-91. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 216 Religious Pilgrimage complex allegory, in which the central drama of its protagonist's "approach to God" unfolds within the interplay of the literal and figurative dimensions of the work. The Chinese text, I would like to propose, can be read on at least three levels, as a tale of physical travel and adventure, as a story of Buddhist karma and redemption, and as an allegory of philosophical and alchemical self-cultivation. To the extent that the story of Hstian-tsang is not only well-known and well loved but has already received popular elaborations fo nearly a millennium before it is finally worked into the form of a 100chapter narrative, the author of the developed Journey may be said to have found at last the formal solution most appropriate to th substance of his story. Even in dramatic form (tsa-chii) at an earlie stage in the history of the story's evolution, the distinguishing feature of this early and rather unique Ming play (also entitled The Journe to the West) is its length of some forty scenes.23 But the drama, however long, cannot equal the inherent capaciousness of a narrativ in portraying the duration, magnitude, and vicissitudes of a pro- tracted pilgrimage. In deciding to retell this familiar story in the form of the long, chapter-divided "novel" (chang-hui hsiao-shuo) then in the peak of its development and popularity, Wu Ch'eng-en or whoever the author might be has provided himself with sufficient length and space to incorporate not only most of the known antecedents o the tale he favors but also to add whatever details he chooses to invent. Invention, in fact, is the most immediate distinguishing feature of the 100-chapter work when one compares it with either its antecedents or the accounts of the historical pilgrim. For, although the actual exploits of the real Tripitaka are readily accessible in the standard dynastic history and in his biography compiled by his dis ciples, the operative assumptions of the novel are hardly those guiding a work of historical fiction. Not only has the author made little use of known historical materials to constuct his narrative journey, but, as recent Chinese criticism has firmly established, the Sitz im Leben of the work can be found in nowhere else other than southeastern China of the sixteenth century.24 Geographical details 23 The Chinese text may be found in the Yuan-ch'u-hsuan wai-pien, ed. Sui Shushen, 3 vols. (Peking, 1959), 2:633-94. 24 See Su Hsing, "Chui-tsung Hsi-yu-chi tso-che Wu Ch'eng-en nan-hsing K'ao-ch'a pao-kao" [A report on a critical southern expedition in pursuit of the author of The Journey to the West, Wu Ch'eng-en], Chi-lin shih-ta hsueh-pao [Journal of Chi-lin Normal University] 61 (1979): 78-92, and his "Chui-fang Wu Ch'eng-en ti tsung-chih" [In pursuit of the traces of Wu Ch'eng-en], Sui-pi ts'ung-k'an 3 (1979): 131-51. This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 02:51:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms History of Religions 217 alone surfacing in the narrative would indicate that the author has virtually ignored the Record of Western Territories (Hsi-yii chi) written by Hsiian-tsang himself and has, instead, made use of many place names found in the Huai-an region of Chiang-su province. Such authorial manipulations of familiar sites and locations no doubt serve to incite interest in his immediate readership as well as to underscore the imaginary character of the pilgrimage itself. This is not to say, of course, that the author of the Journey has no regard at all for the actual pilgrimage. Where appropriate, certain details are utilized with great effectiveness, as when the T'ang emperor, T'ai-tsung, offers his "Preface to the Holy Teaching" (Shengchiao hsii) to the scripture-pilgrim as a gesture of imperial gratitude. Historically, this preface was bestowed by the emperor many years after Hsiian-tsang's return to China and after he had successfully completed the translation of the epic Yogacdryabhumi sastra.25 In the narrative, however, the preface is orally presented by the emperor moments after the pilgrim arrives back at the capital of Ch'ang-an, and this minor alteration not only enhances the drama of reunion between...
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