1、天路历程与西游记的对比研究A Comparative Study on The Journey to the West and The Pilgrims Progress1. Introduction Necessarily, different cultural characteristics of nationality derive from varieties environment, lifestyle, tradition, faith and appreciation. However, cultures of different nationalities have somet
2、hing in common for peoples thought, emotion, and behavior. As Mr. Meng Zhaoyi points: Human development is a trend which brings about a transnational or trans-regional culture exchanges. Characters of cultures, such as development, synchronism, transmission, enculturation and backwardness make it pr
3、ogresses. The development of culture bursts the restrains of communication. Nowadays, we can not find nothing where a culture is impacted by others.Throughout the world history literature, the suffering processes of believers is one of the main themes of religion works, such as The Pilgrims Progress
4、 and The Journey to the West. Absolutely the writing of the Pilgrims Progress is based on Christianism particularly The Bible, while The Journey to the West is based on Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Similar historical circumstance and religion atmosphere coincidentally make the two authors choo
5、se religion subject and the form of imagination to write which makes the works a carrier of religion ideology, salvation concept and peoples acknowledgment and exploration to the other side of the world. The Pilgrims Progress is honored as “a perfect work of allegory” by westerner, while the Journey
6、 to the West is honored as “a medieval legendary of China”. They are written according to social matters. They criticize on social evils, greatly show the sense of mission social responsibility. The two works differ from each other for their heroes aims to the journey, authors attitudes toward risin
7、g businessmen and writing techniques. We could have a better understanding of the two works by exploring their similarities and differences.2. Differences of the two novels2.1 Different imagery of names The first section of The Pilgrims Progress tells a story in form of dream where the christian kno
8、ws the ruin of hometown from a book. A man called “preacher” warns him of leaving for heaven. Then he starts his journey. The second section of the book tells a story about Christians wife, whose name is Woman Christian, taking a journey to heaven with her children. She is guided by a man called Fea
9、rless. Based on The Bible, the two sections of The Pilgrims Progress has many symbolic names. For example, there are the Pond of Despair, Mountain of Difficulty (difficulties that the christian must to overcome), Village of Doubt, Giant of Despair (the Christian is held back by Giant of Despair at V
10、illage of Doubt), and Vanity Fair, Preacher(who guides the journey of Christian) and Mr.Fearless(who guides the journey of Woman Christian). Having suffered from countless difficulties, and dangers, the Christian arrives in heaven, making his dream of salvation come true. He is modeled as an incarna
11、tion of virtue and an example of puritans at revolution age. Mr Brave, modeled as a representative for rightness as well. As for negative roles, there are Arrogant, Haughty and so on. They are hated by God according to The Bible. Besides, conceptualized roles are used to imply the figures in real so
12、ciety. For example, Devil Apollyon is a tyrant. Mr “Bashfulness” is a saint when being at outside but a devil when being at home. They are the symbols of evil and guilt. Many names and roles in the book originate from the history of Christianity. For example, the Christians four kids, they are Mathe
13、w, Samuel, Joseph and Jacob. According to The Bible, Mathew is one of the 12 apprentices of Jesus, Samuel is a famous prophet at judges age, Joseph is the twelfth son of Jacob and Jacob is Jesus brother. In The Journey to the West, Tang Monks three apprentices represent three kind of bad habits, the
14、y are avarice, anger and simpleton. Pig represents people who have a strong desire of avarice. He lust for wealth, beauty, fame, profit, food and sleep. Pig is warned to observe the eight commandments so that he can quit the desire of avarice and gain wisdom. As a result, he is named as “Eight Comma
15、ndments”. Conversely, Pig fails to observe. Monkey King represents anger, he always wants to control when an accidents happen unfairly. But he will be angry when he is misunderstood and blamed by his master. Being endowed with magic power and having an ability of seventy two metamorphoses, Monkey Ki
16、ng is more powerful than Tang Monk, nevertheless, Tang Monk is the master while Monkey King isnt. When I was a little boy, I couldnt understand why Tang Monk is the master as he looks so weak, rather than Monkey King is as he is so powerful. But finally I got it after I study Buddhism, which tells m
17、e that the ultimate pursuit of Buddhism is not being powerful but to eliminate humans anger. Monk Sha is a man of simpleton and honesty, being lack of common sense. He has no idea of what is right or wrong. Studying Buddhism can help him avoid confusion.2.2 Different attitudes toward rising bourgeoi
18、sie The Journey to the West was written when capitalism rises, while The Pilgrims Progress is written at the time of England bourgeois revolution. Inevitably, rising businessmen are involved in both works. Although the Journey to the West is a story about Tang Dynasty, it presents a situation of flo
19、urishing development of capitalism at middle and later Ming Dynasty. Being at the feudal age, Wu Chengen, the author, dare not to advocate business activities directly. So he just holds a cautious attitude toward the promotion of capitalism. Yet, we can find the authors promotion to the rising busin
20、essmen in the book. Every destination of the journey owns praise from the author, even pubs are described as paradise. It is a breakthrough that the author equate the lowly-considered business activity with the lofty journey of Tang Monk. For example, when Tang Monk sees a group of businessmen walki
21、ng on dangerous layer of ice, he says, “Benefit is more important than anything. They risk their life for gaining benefit while my emperor brother be loyal to fame. It makes no difference”. Meanwhile, there is much praise for humanity and aspiration for freedom spirit. Monkey King, whatever he repre
22、sents in the book, represents the liberation of personality. The author is a person of lower-level. He has a close experience to the benefit brought by development of bourgeoisie therefore, he advocates the rising bourgeoisie. Some writers of history regard The Journey to the West and The Plum in th
23、e Golden Vase as works of two age. But that is incorrect. Greatly The Journey to the West continues to tell the kind of story of The Plum in the Golden Vase. Both the novels have a similar attitude toward rising class. To the rising businessmen, Bunyan accepts and criticizes. If there is no descript
24、ion of Vanity Fair, The Pilgrims Progress would be a mere religion work written to exhort. It is the description that presents features of that age. Vanity Fair is described as a materialistic and vile place. There are many goods such as country, desire, happiness, whore, children and anything to be
25、 purchased. When the christian and his partner Mr Loyalty buy truth, they are mocked, attacked and even be sentenced to death. In fact, the “Vanity Fair” mirrors the life of England bourgeois noblemen. And is the author, weather or not, an opponent to the capitalism class as he describes the Vanity
26、Fair such a corrupt place? Bunyan had joined the Cromwells New Model army and edified with bourgeois ideology. He is not the opponent to capitalism but an opponent to “those people who are opposed to the supreme of God”. Namely, he is opposed to those noblemen who disobeys the edification of God, an
27、d the clergy who exploit churches. 2.3 Different aims of journeys Although the two novels reveal reality by religion, they have different cognition to it, which hat can be explored in protagonists aim for their journeys. The Journey to the West is a subverting work for it satires feudal culture of T
28、aoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. And the author expresses his satire by another buddhist and taoist works as well. The Journey to the West is “a work of game”, it contains “sharp realism”, and conveys the truth by games.The satire is radiated by authors unsatisfied tone to feudalism society. At the
29、 period of middle and later Ming Dynasty, emperors become more and more incompetent and corrupt. The country falls down and their people live in misery. That situation generates thoughts of salvation and loyalty that are greatly advocated by the author. Therefore Tang Monk starts his journey. Howeve
30、r, it is not for himself but for the salvation of all and for his emperors everlasting power. Jambudvipa, where Tang Dynasty locates, is a place filled with avarice, slaughter, deception, lies, cheat, ingrate and murder. Obviously the place is not a real place of Tang dynasty. It is a plot conceived
31、 to show the degeneration of middle and later period of Ming Dynasty. Faced with that situation, the author wants to find a way to reform, which means to change the situation and peoples soul by good ideologies and moral cultivation. At Bunyans age, the emperor of England was a believer of Roman Cat
32、holic, and Christian church was badly corrupt. It is not the same as what is described in The Bible. Therefore, what Bunyan wants to do is to correct the wrong reality with his pen. Just as it is written in this book, “Why the christian starts his journey? He is oppressed by the great burden. He wor
33、ries about the ruin of his hometown by heavens fire. He cries, “How can we be saves?” . Although the ways of salvation is different, it differs from the ideologies between China and foreign countries. The aim of The Journey to the West lies in helping from others, while the aim of The Pilgrims Progress lies in self-rescue. Any
