Four-hundred-year Academic History Of "The Journey To The West"

"The Journey to the West", the classic works, was written in the late of Ming Dynasty (about A.D.16), meanwhile, it opened the prologue to the magnificent academic history which is worth being summarized and studied. It was begun with two primeval documents: "Preface" by Chen Yuanzhi and "Forward" by Yuan Yuling in the twentieth year during the reign of Emperor Wanli(1592). After more than 400 years' accumulation, especially three period's work: the flourishing annotation criticism in Ming and Qing Dynasty, the form of modernist learning study in the May 4^th Movement Period and the unprecedented prosperity of the May 4^th Movement Period tribune in the new time, it has formed a completed academic history with complicated process and abundant achievements.This article tries to make an overall observation of four-hundred-year academic history of "The Journey to the West", and uprightly thread together the three periods: the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the May 4^th Movement Period and the new time. At the same time, crosswise link up the relative independent study of author, origin, thought and art, etc in order to construct an academic system which includes all the learning achievements of "The Journey to the West".The article consists of three parts: the notes and comments of "The Journey to the West" in Ming and Qing Dynasty, the modernist study in the May 4^th Movement Period and the many-faceted development in depth in the new time. Speaking in detail, the article is supported with three main parts: the study of the commented edition of"The Journey to the West" in the period of Ming and Qing Dynasty-----Shi Edition, LiEdition, etc; the great scholars in the May 4^th Movement Period: Luxun, Hushi, Zheng Zhenduo, Sun Kaidi, Liu Xiuye, etc and the proposition of writer, origin, and edition in the new time. The three parts are not only relative independent individuals but also a relative connected whole. By the study means, the author tries to unite macroscopic and microcosmic methods ,combine the Chinese traditional scholarly research way and western popular literary criticism and integrate literary study and the study of the theory of culture, sociology and other relative subjects. All in all, the purpose of this article is to probe the truth and to solve problems. During the discussion procedure, the author insists on basing on the reality and true materials, believing the truth, suspecting the doubtful points, praising the advantages and denouncing the shortcomings. The author tries to make a just commentary on the relative learning phenomenon and theory as possible.