浅议《西游记》道书化与“作者”邱处机的关系

On the Relationship between the Taoist Canonization of A Journey to the West and the Alleged Author Qiu Chuji

清代读者一般认同邱处机为小说《西游记》的作者,这无疑是一个"张冠李戴"式的误会。但细究之,这与当时《西游记》"经典化"为宗教道书的趋向有关。首先,对小说作者邱处机的认定,首先是道流传布出来的,且似与清代佛道相争有一定关联,借此道流们获得了该书的主流阐释权;其次,邱处机作为小说《西游记》作者说法的出现,直接影响到《西游记》为"证道之书"观点的成形,给《西游记》道书化一个合理的解释和说明;最后,认可邱处机为《西游记》的作者,主要是基于传统的知识观念体系以及思维模式,这在当下已不太合时宜了。

In the Qing Dynasty, Qiu Chuji was commonly considered as author of A Journey to the West, which was an obvious mistake in the present eyes. In fact, the viewpoint in the Qing Dynasty had some connection with the fact that A Journey to the West were canonized by Taoism. Taoists were the first to claim that Qiu Chuji wrote the novel of A Journey to the West, which seems to help with comparing to Buddhists. By considering Qiu Chuji as the author, Taoists mastered active advantageous position of expounding the novel. The statement that Qiu Chuji wrote the novel would strongly confirms A Journey to the West was a'Sermonic Book of Taoism', and support the viewpoint better that the novel was an important Taoist Scriptures and justified Taoism. In addition to the above reasons, due to the traditional idea and the mode of ancient thinking, the people in the Qing Dynasty preferred to believe that Qiu Chuji wrote the novel. Of cause, the view was wrong.