Journey to the West is a novel, containing
many anecdotes and dramatic additions from popular
tradition, loosely based on the pilgrimage of the
Buddhist monk Hsüan-tsang (600-664) to India to
acquire scriptures (sutras) during the Chen-kuan
era (627-649) of the T'ang dynasty. The contents
narrate the story of how the T'ang Monk and his
three disciples traveled west to India to get original
sutras, encountering many perils and dangers on
their journey before finally fulfilling their mission.
In the Ming dynasty, Wu Ch'eng-en (ca. 1500-1582),
after years of gathering different versions of story-telling
scripts and folklore about the pilgrimage, made
a compilation and adaptation into this novel. Using
his extraordinary artistic talents supported by
a vividly fanciful imagination, he was able to create
a remarkably engaging story with unique characters
combining various personality traits, supernatural
powers, and attributes of animals. With his ingeniously
satirical and humorous style of writing, Wu conceived
of a fantastic and transformational world of wonder.
Journey to the West not only has become
one of the most popular and well-known tales in
Chinese culture, it has also found a wide audience
among foreign audiences.
This exhibition includes
a special selection from the Museum collection of
Buddhist and Taoist figure paintings on subjects
appearing in the novel Journey to the West,
a Wan-li era (1573-1619) illustrated imprint from
the Ming dynasty by the Shih-te Hall, and the exceptional
"Album on Journey to the West" by the modern
master P'u Hsin-yü that has been entrusted by the
Cold Jade Hall to the Museum. It is hoped that viewers
appreciate these works like a marvelously illustrated
handscroll of the novel being unrolled before one's
eyes, highlighting some of the lively and spirited
forms of memorable figures and marvelous scenes
from Journey to the West.
|
