《西游记》“车迟国”故事源流与宗教生态背景

Origin and Religious Ecological Background of the Story of Chechi Kingdom in Journey to the West

本文主要分析吴承恩著世德堂百回本《西游记》第四十四回至第四十六回“车迟国”故事,认为《西游记》“车迟国”故事这三回书在成书过程中,没有经过元末明初的“全真道染指”环节,而很有可能承袭、引用自另一种版本系统的《西游记》故事。本文试图在将《朴通事谚解》《西游记平话》视为这一类版本系统的前提之下,将《西游记平话》与世德堂本《西游记》进行对比,可见世德堂本《西游记》“车迟国”故事中妖怪形象、斗法情节承袭自《朴通事谚解》所引用的《西游记平话》“车迟国”故事。虽然两书的内容及叙事有很多相似之处,但其所呈现的宗教视角及意蕴,却存在着很大的差异性。这是由于两本著作相差约一百余年,在传承、演变的过程中,受到诸多政治、宗教、社会文化等因素影响,吴承恩难免把自身所处明中后期的时代背景融入《西游记》中,即他很有可能承袭引用《西游记平话》这一类系统版本,并在此基础上大幅度地添加塑造了“车迟国”故事。

This paper studies on the stories in Chapters 44 to 46 of Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng’en.According to the existing analysis,the story of Chechi Kingdom in three chapters was not influenced by Quanzhen Taoism at the end of the Yuan and early Ming Dynasty,but most likely inherited,quoted from another version of the system of the Journey to the West story.This paper attempts to consider the Park Tong Shi Yan Jie of the Journey to the West Ping Hua as the premise of this type of version system,and to compare and contrast Journey to the West Ping Hua with the Shi De Tang text of Journey to the West.It is evident that the image of the demons and the plots of the fighting in the Shi De Tang text of Journey to the West’s Chechi Kingdom stories are inherited from those in Park Tong Shi Yan Jie of Journey to the West Ping Hua.Although there are many similarities in the content and narrative of the two books,there are significant differences in the religious perspectives and implications presented.This is due to the fact that the two versions are about a hundred years apart from each other,and have been subject to many political,religious,socio-cultural,and other influences in the process of transmission,evolution.As a result,it is inevitable that the author,Wu Cheng’en,incorporates into Journey to the West the context of the middle and late Ming dynasty in which he lived.It is likely that he inherited a version of the Journey to the West Ping Hua,on the basis of which he added significantly to the story of Chechi Kingdom.