A Study Of The Character Symbols In Journey To The West

Journey to the West is not only a well-known literary masterpiece,but also a work with rich symbolic significance.Many researchers in the past dynasties have interpreted the symbolic art of Journey to the West in different degrees,and explored the profound thoughts expressed in this masterpiece from various angles.However,so far,no scholar has carried out a comprehensive and systematic study of this work from the perspective of symbolism.Therefore,on the basis of inheriting the relevant research results of predecessors,the study of the main characters in Journey to the West from the perspective of symbolism can not only further reveal the superb artistic expression techniques used in the works,tap the literary value of Journey to the West,but also open up a way for readers to understand and interpret its ideological content,and provide the theme,author,version,etc.of Journey to the West Relevant research provides important reference value.The main characters in Journey to the West are typical symbolic images with multiple symbolic meanings.From the comprehensive perspective of the story,characters and the author’s interpretation,the five characters of Monkey King,pig Bajie,Tang Sanzang,Sha monk and Bai Longma mainly symbolize ancient philosophy,especially the heart,emotion,body,nature and meaning in Confucian philosophy.Heart,emotion,body,nature and meaning are the five most important characteristics of these five artistic images,such as identity,character and learning function,which are also the most consistent with the author’s expression in the original work.This paper focuses on the symbols of Monkey King and Zhu Bajie,and makes a systematic and comprehensive study of the five characters of Monkey King,Zhu Bajie,Tang Sanzang,Sha monk and Bai Longma from three aspects of identity,character and the function of learning from scriptures,so as to reveal the profound origin of Journey to the West and ancient philosophy,especially Confucian philosophy.Although Journey to the West is a work accumulated from generation to generation,the transformation and creation of Wu Chengen’s "turning iron into gold" make the story of Journey to the West change and sublimate in essence.The key to this transformation and creation is the symbol.The whole book of symbolic art structure,with ancient philosophy as the core of literary works,makes the works broad and profound,and embodies the author’s extremely serious and rational creative attitude.The symbolic study of characters not only provides important clues for the research fields such as the theme dispute and the author dispute of Journey to the West,but also reveals an important way for the creation of literary works.Generally speaking,Journey to the West,as an excellent symbolic work,takes the important concepts in ancient philosophy as the symbolic core,has broad and profound ideological content,vivid expression,and represents the peak of symbolic art in Chinese literature.