神圣与讽刺——从“无字真经”看《西游记》艺术风格的确立

Sacredness and Satire:The Style Formation of the Novel Journey to the West Based on an Analysis of“Sutra without Words”

“无字真经”出现于百回本《西游记》第九十八回,这个词汇并非出自作者虚构,而是小说对现成知识的吸纳和加工。“无字真经”一词出自佛教,后被民间宗教话语系统广泛采用。既与禅宗不立文字、以心传心的思想密切相关,又受到道教内丹思想影响。明中叶以还,西游故事逐渐流行于民间宗教,与“无字真经”处于伴生的状态。主要有三种表现形态:与西游故事编成同一传承谱系的“无字真经”;与西游故事同为宗教譬喻的“无字真经”;作为西游取经故事有机部分的“无字真经”。这些都证明了“无字真经”与西游故事的纠葛之深。这从一个侧面也见出,“无字真经”出现在百回本《西游记》中,当是故事流传的某个阶段,宗教因素渗透文学叙事的结果。当然,《西游记》写定者幽默、谐谑的审美趣味,消解和祛魅了故事的宗教神圣,使之成为一部优秀的神魔小说。

The“sutra without words”appears in the ninety-eighth chapter of the hundred-chapter edition of the novel Journey to the West.This term is not fictionalized by the author but is the absorption and processing of ready-made knowledge by the novel.The term“sutra without words”evolved from Buddhism and has later been widely adopted by the discourse system of folk religions.It was not only closely related to the thought of Zen Buddhism that does not establish words and transmits the mind through the heart;but also was influenced by the thought of Taoist inner alchemy.Since the middle of the Ming dynasty,the story of Journey to the West has gradually become popular among folk religions and has been in a concomitant state with the“sutra without words”.There are mainly three manifestations:the“sutra without words”compiled into the same inheritance pedigree as the story of Journey to the West;the“sutra without words”that is the same religious metaphor as the story of Journey to the West;and the“sutra without words”as an organic part of the story of seeking scriptures in Journey to the West.All these prove the deep entanglement between the“sutra without words”and the story of Journey to the West.From one aspect,it can also be seen that the appearance of the“sutra without words”in the hundred-chapter edition of Journey to the West is the result of religious factors infiltrating literary narration at a certain stage of the story's circulation.Of course,the humorous and jocular aesthetic taste of the author who finalized Journey to the West has dispelled and demystified the religious sanctity of the story,making it an excellent novel of gods and demons.