Degree Project
Level: BA in Chinese
Make a man out of a monkey:
Psychosexual development of Sun Wukong
Author: Besha Saied
Supervisor: Hu Lung Lung
Examiner: Billy Gray
Subject/main field of study: Chinese
Course code: KI2011
Credits: 15
Date of examination:
At Dalarna University it is possible to publish the student thesis in full text in DiVA. The publishing is open access, which means the work will be freely accessible to read and download on the internet.
This will significantly increase the dissemination and visibility of the student thesis.
Open access is becoming the standard route for spreading scientific and academic information on the internet. Dalarna University recommends that both researchers as well as students publish their work open access.
I give my/we give our consent for full text publishing (freely accessible on the internet, open access):
Yes ☒ No ☐
Dalarna University – SE-791 88 Falun – Phone +4623-77 80 00
西游记是明代吴承恩所攥写的。西游记的主角是孙悟空。孙悟空出生时，具有超自然 力量，但是一直很叛逆。因为孙悟空对天堂犯了大错，所以他受到惩罚，他必须帮助 玄奘去印度取经回中国。整个旅程中，孙悟空和朝圣者经历八十一场灾难，也让孙悟 空变成了一个更好的人。这篇论文应用西格蒙德·弗洛伊德的性心理發展分析为什么 孙悟空在朝圣中，行为和性格变的更好。孙悟空在生命的早期阶段发展了固着，通过 一直吃达到自我享乐。之后，孙悟空找到了他的阳具，如意金箍棒，孙悟空一直用如 意金箍棒试图征服。孙悟空也开始仿效他的父亲形象，玉皇大帝。因为孙悟空违反玉 皇大帝的法律，玉皇大帝试图处决孙悟空，但是失败了。所以，孙悟空认为强的人是 高于法律的。然而只有佛陀能给孙悟空惩罚，把孙悟空放在五阶山下。孙悟空在五阶 山下五百年以后，观音委任孙悟空保护玄奘去印度取经。孙悟空在玄奘身上找到了一 位父亲形象，在观音身上找到了一位母亲形象。孙悟空模仿玄奘不使用他的阳具，如 意金箍棒试图征服。反而，孙悟空用如意金箍棒做好事，不伤人。
关键字：孙悟空，西游记，西格蒙德·弗洛伊德，精神分析学，性心理发展。
The Journey to the West is written by Wu Cheng'en,1505-1580 A.D., during the Ming
Dynasty, 1368–1644 A.D. The protagonist in The Journey to the West is named Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong is born with supernatural powers and is always up to no good.
As punishment for his crimes against the Heaven, Sun Wukong must take a journey to India to help the monk Tripitaka, in order to retrieve Buddhist scriptures back to China. Throughout the journey Sun Wukong and the pilgrims will go through eighty- one calamities. The pilgrimage transforms Sun Wukong into becoming a better man.
This paper applies Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual development to Sun Wukong to understand his actions and personality and why it changes for the better during The Journey to the West. Sun Wukong develops a fixation to always pleasure himself
through eating in the early stages of his life. Later Sun Wukong finds his phallus, the Golden Rod, to conquer, imitating his first father figure, the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor tries to execute Sun Wukong for disobeying his laws, but fails. Therefore, Sun Wukong believes that strong people are above the law. The only one that is strong enough to punish him is Buddha by putting Sun Wukong under the Five- Phase Mountain. After five hundred years under the mountain, Sun Wukong is assigned by Guanyin to protect Tripitaka during the pilgrimage. Sun Wukong finds a father figure in Tripitaka and a mother figure in Guanyin. Sun Wukong imitates Tripitaka’s kind nature by not using his phallus, the Golden Rod, to conquer. Instead Sun Wukong uses the Golden Rod to do good merits and not hurt humans.
Keywords: Sun Wukong, The Journey to the West, Sigmund Freud, Psychoanalysis, Psychosexual Development.
Chapter 1: Introduction ... 5
Chapter 2: Literature Review ... 7
Chapter 3: Psychosexual development ... 10
Chapter 4: Analysis ... 13
4.1. Oral Stage ... 13
4.2. Anal Stage ... 15
4.3. Phallic Stage ... 16
4.4. Latency Period ... 17
4.5. Genital Stage ... 18
Chapter 5: Conclusion ... 20
Works Cited ... 22
Chapter 1: Introduction
The Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng-En of Huai-an, in Jiangsu. Waley
wrote, Wu Cheng-en seems to have lived between 1505-1580 A.D (7). The story is based on a real person, Xuan Zang’s pilgrimage to India in the 7th century A.D. to recover Buddhist scriptures and bring them back to China (Waley 7-8). The story is one hundred chapters long and is divided into three main parts: The story of the monkey (Ch. 1-7), The story of Xuan Zang and the origin to the pilgrimage to India (Ch. 8-12), The pilgrimage to India (Ch. 13- 100) (Hu Shih 4). This research paper will analyze Anthony C. Yu’s full version translation of The Journey to the West. The main protagonist of The Journey to the West is Sun Wukong.
Sun Wukong is mysteriously born from a stone egg on top of the Flower-Fruit Mountain.
Being born with supernatural powers, Sun Wukong gains the trust of the other monkeys and turns into their king. One-day, Sun Wukong starts fearing his own death and goes on a journey to learn about immortality from a Taoist patriarch named Subodhi. Subodhi accepts Sun Wukong as his student and teaches Sun Wukong the way to become immortal and gives him the name Sun Wukong, Aware of Vacuity. After Sun Wukong shows off his skills in front of Subodhi’s students, Subodhi orders Sun Wukong to leave and go back to the Flower- Fruit Mountain. Sun Wukong believes a man of his power needs to have a weapon, therefore visits the Dragon King of the Eastern Seas, where he acquires the Golden Rod. Sun Wukong keeps causing problems on Earth, this leads to Sun Wukong being reported to the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor sends some of his Celestial soldiers for the capturing of Sun Wukong, but ends up failing. To not waste more resources, the Jade Emperor gives Sun Wukong a low position in Heaven. Sun Wukong is not satisfied with the position and therefore ends up creating havoc in Heaven. The Jade Emperor tries to stop more damage from occurring and therefore gives Sun Wukong the duty to take care of the Garden of Immortal Peaches. Sun Wukong still does not follow his duties and starts eating up the rarest
peaches, stealing Laozi’s elixir and drinking the Jade Emperor’s royal wine. This time the Jade Emperor sends out Erlang and his brothers and ends up capturing Sun Wukong and orders him to be executed. The execution fails and Sun Wukong escapes. The Jade Emperor then asks Buddha for help. Buddha gives Sun Wukong a bet that he cannot leave his palm, Sun Wukong accepts the bet and somersaults away from his palm as far as possible, until only seeing five pillars. He believes that the five pillars represent the end of Heaven. To prove that he has reached the end, he marks the pillars with his urine. Later Sun Wukong finds out the pillars represent Buddha’s fingers. Before Sun Wukong can escape, Buddha turns his hands into a mountain, which imprisons Sun Wukong for 500 years, until he will accompany Tripitaka and the other two disciples, Eight Rules and Sha Monk to the journey to the west in order to acquire Buddhist scriptures. Together they undergo eighty-one ordeals before
reaching the Thunderclap monastery, where they acquire the Buddhist scriptures from Tathagata.
In the past, many literary critics have applied archetypal criticism on the protagonist of The Journey to the West, Sun Wukong. His personality and behavior have been justified by
blaming his nature, that he represents a trickster or a naughty boy that exists in the collective unconsciousness of all human beings. This paper argues that Sun Wukong’s choices in life reflects his upbringing and not his nature. Therefore, this paper will apply psychosexual theories regarding Sun Wukong’s development, because compared to psychologists during Sigmund Freud’s time, Sigmund Freud believed that early childhood experiences form our personality and behavior in adulthood. Through The Journey to the West, Sun Wukong grows from a misbehaving monkey into an enlightened man. Therefore, by applying Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages to the fictional character Sun Wukong, this paper will reveal, why Sun Wukong transforms from a misbehaving monkey into an enlightened man.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Previous studies have not been found to apply Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical concept or specifically the concept of psychosexual development to Sun Wukong. Other research papers have applied archetypal criticism to Sun Wukong to understand Sun
Wukong’s personality and the causes for his actions. The three research papers that this paper will review are by K. Zhang, Lou and Y. Zhang. These papers apply Carl Jung’s, Northrop Frye’s or Joseph Campbell’s Archetypal literary criticism to Sun Wukong. This paper will look at how these research papers analyze the relationships between Sun Wukong and the other characters with the environment. This paper will also look at how these three papers characterize Sun Wukong’s personality, the causes of his actions and the motivation for joining the pilgrimage. In Lou’s research paper, Sun Wukong is identified as the perfect example of the Archetype, described by Carl Jung as a trickster. A trickster is a person that always desires pleasure, power and reputation (Lou 8). Lou’s research paper’s purpose is to show why Sun Wukong is a trickster through comparing him with other tricksters especially Hermes and why the Chinese society has turned Sun Wukong into a cultural hero. In Chapter two of K. Zhang’s research paper, Joseph Campbell’s Archetypal literary criticism has been applied to understand why Sun Wukong as a hero must go through the journey to the west and what different characteristics and elements of Sun Wukong represent that of a hero. Y. Zhang regards instead Sun Wukong as a naughty boy and compares him to Peter Pan. In Chapter three of Y. Zhang’s research paper, Northrop Frye’s Archetypal literary criticism is introduced in order to compare Sun Wukong with Peter Pan.
In K. Zhang’s research paper, Sun Wukong’s biological parents are described with the story of “Pan Gu”. One of the main themes of the story of “Pan Gu” is the separation of the earth and the sky, the Earth representing female and the sky representing male (K. Zhang 32).
Moreover, in the beginning of The Journey to the West, Sun Wukong is revealed as being
produced from Heaven and Earth. Lou and Y. Zhang also both describe that the Three Teachings: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, play an important role in The Journey to the West (Lou 32; Y. Zhang 48). Confucianism’s role in The Journey to the West shows the
relationship between the Five Bonds (Lou 32). Sun Wukong treats Xuan Zang as a father and takes the role of a big brother during the pilgrimage (Lou 33). K. Zhang writes that Guanyin is a mother figure, because Guanyin always aids Sun Wukong when he seeks help or when Sun Wukong is in trouble. Guanyin is also able to punish and inflict pain on Sun Wukong when he acts naughty, like a mother figure (K. Zhang 57-58).
Lou writes that Sun Wukong’s primary motive as a trickster is his hunger for reputation. Sun Wukong’s appetite does not get satisfied, even when he achieves the title of
“Great Sage, Equal to Heaven”. Lou calls this phenomenon “self-absorbed desires” (Lou 9).
Sun Wukong like many other tricksters likes challenges and to take risks to achieve a greater reputation for himself (Lou 10). Sun Wukong like other tricksters is neither born good or evil (Lou 12). Many tricksters like Sun Wukong have a strong sense of humor to lighten a
dangerous situation or to make fun of others (Lou 17). Y. Zhang instead believes it is Sun Wukong’s optimistic nature, which is the reason for him using positive statements to release tension in dangerous situations and also a way to encourage and influence his group members (Y. Zhang 50). Sun Wukong as a naughty boy loves to play games. Even though Sun Wukong behaves like a child, he can sometimes utter words and idioms like that of a scholar (Y. Zhang 50-52).
Lou proposes that Sun Wukong must take the pilgrimage to convert from a trickster into a cultural hero. The difference between trickster and cultural hero is Sun Wukong has learned to absorb the rules of society and turned into a sophistical individual (Lou 24). Y.
Zhang believes the pilgrimage is set as a punishment for Sun Wukong’s past and to convert Sun Wukong into a Buddhist (Y. Zhang 41).
In these three research papers, Sun Wukong has been portrayed as three different archetypes: the hero, the trickster and the naughty boy. This paper agrees with K. Zhang that Earth and Heaven represent Sun Wukong’s biological parents and that Guanyin represents a mother figure. This paper also agrees with Lou that Xuan Zang represents a father figure and Sun Wukong also takes the role of Eight Rules’s and Sha Monk’s big brother, moreover, this paper believes that Sun Wukong’s first father figure is the Jade Emperor. This paper does not agree with the three previous studies that Sun Wukong’s behaviors and actions originate from an archetype like that of a trickster or a naughty boy. This research paper instead believes that by applying Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, Sun Wukong’s behaviors and actions can be understood.
Chapter 3: Psychosexual development
Psychological literary criticism is when modern psychological theories are applied to an author, a fictional character or the reader. During the early twentieth century Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis was the most dominant psychological theory, therefore it was also the most dominant field of literary criticism (Griffith 208). Sigmund Freud developed
psychoanalysis to treat patients with mental illness. He would let his patient lie on a couch and let the patient talk freely about his/her symptoms, the goal was to let the patient release repressed emotions and experience from the unconscious. Freud also applied psychoanalysis to fictional characters, as he believed diagnosing fictional characters was a great way to explain and make people understand how the human mind worked.
In The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud applies psychoanalysis on the fictional character Oedipus in the Greek drama named Oedipus Rex. In Oedipus Rex, King Laius father of Oedipus is informed by an oracle that his unborn son will become a murderer (Freud, Dreams 199). The son who is rescued and raised in a neighboring city, later consults the oracle which tells him he should avoid his native place. If not, he will end up murdering his own father; therefore Oedipus sets out on a journey away from what he thinks is his native land. On the journey he ends up quarreling with a man and kills him, which we later find in the story is King Laius, his real father. Reaching his native land Thebes, he defeats the Sphinx by solving his riddle. After defeating the Sphinx, the Thebans elect him “King of Thebes”. He then marries Jocasta, the queen, which is his real mother and has two sons and two daughters.
After a plague, the Thebans consults the oracle. The oracle says that the plague will stop as soon as the murderer of King Laius is driven out of the country (Freud, Dreams 200). Oedipus later finds out that he has killed his father and married his mother, in reaction he blinds
himself and leaves his native land. Sigmund Freud believes that the fame of the story comes from our own wish to exclusively sexually possess our mother and to do so he must get rid of
the father (Freud, Dreams 201). Sigmund Freud calls this theory “The Oedipus complex”.
Many other psychoanalysts later followed Sigmund Freud footsteps and applied psychoanalysis to fictional characters to support their theories.
This research paper will argue that Sun Wukong’s upbringing, leads to his personality and his actions and not a predisposed nature. Therefore, this paper chooses to apply
psychosexual development, because compared to other psychological theorists Sigmund Freud believed that sexual impulses were manifested in the infantile period of a person (Freud, Three contributions 37). The mind which represent a person’s personality is
developed through a person’s libido, which is developed from birth, through two phases and 5 stages. The first phase is called pregenital, in the pregenital phase, the libido is not focused on the genital as an erogenous zone. In the pregenital phase, the libido is not directed to an
object, rather the child draws pleasure from its own body (Freud, Three contributions 37). The child draws pleasure from two erogenous zones, the oral zone and the anal zone (Freud, Three contributions 46). In the oral stage, the child sucks on his thumb for pleasure, which the child has learned from breast feeding (Freud, Three contributions 37). A person might later in life try to strive for the same pleasure through kissing. Therefore, a child who has the lips as an erogenous significant zone would end up becoming a habitual kisser in adulthood or have great desire for drinking and smoking (Freud, Three contributions 37). In the anal stage, the child’s erogenous zones are the anal and the bladder and they can from these zones achieve sexual excitement by voiding of urine or by controlling the bowel movement (Freud, Three contributions 39-41). The second phase is called the genital phase, in this phase the erogenous zone is the genitals. In comparison to the pregenital phase, in the genital phase the impulse of the sexual activity is directed to an object. Sigmund Freud believed that in the first stage of the genital phase, the genital represented only one genital, the male one, therefore he called it the phallic stage (Freud, Three contributions 47). In the Oedipus complex from the Oedipus
Rex we can see that sexual impulses are directed towards the mother. Before they develop further they are inhibited by a stage called the latency period (Freud, Three contributions 47).
During the latency period the child turns away from sexual utilization to other aims such as education (Freud, Three contributions 35). The last stage starts in puberty, in this stage, the sexual development for a man and woman is different compared to the phallic stage, therefore is called the genital stage. In this stage, the individual develops strong interest in the opposite sex (Freud, Three contributions 55).
If a person goes through these stages successfully, it will result in a person having a healthy personality, otherwise if a person like, e.g., Sun Wukong is unsuccessful at a certain stage he will develop fixations, meaning he will get stuck at a certain stage unable to move on which can be observed from traces of his personality.
Chapter 4: Analysis 4.1. Oral Stage
Sun Wukong’s birth is revealed in the first chapter of The Journey to the West, “Since the creation of the world, it had been nourished for a long period by the seeds of Heaven and Earth and by the essences of the sun and the moon, until, quickened by divine embryo. One day, it splits open, giving birth to a stone egg about the size of a playing ball” (Wu, The Journey 1: 101). In this quotation, Sun Wukong’s biological parents are revealed as Heaven
and Earth. Earth was impregnated by Heaven with the essence of the sun and moon, therefore Heaven is the father and Earth is the mother of Sun Wukong. As soon as he is born he can walk, run and leap. Sun Wukong also gets his nutrition from his mother Earth, everything from grass, shrubs and drinking from streams and springs (Wu, The Journey 1: 102). Because Sun Wukong compared with other children is born with teeth, therefore his oral pleasures are achieved through eating and not through sucking. In Flower-Fruit Mountain, Sun Wukong gets all the nutrition he wants from his mother Earth. In the oral stage, the Earth, his mother does not have authority over Sun Wukong or teach him how to control his oral satisfaction, which leads to Sun Wukong facing problems with society. This chapter examines how Sun Wukong’s constant aim for self-pleasure leads to conflicts with deities with high social status and how these deities try to teach Sun Wukong to control his aim for constant oral self- pleasure.
Sun Wukong’s constant desire for oral self-pleasure leads to challenging the authority of the Jade Emperor. When Sun Wukong gets in charge of the Garden of Immortal Peaches, he starts eating the rarest peaches instead of guarding them, because “if eaten, will make a man’s age equal to the Heaven and Earth, the Sun and Moon” (Wu 1:161). During the Peach Festival he ends up drinking wine prepared for the Peach Banquet, because he cannot control his oral self-pleasure, therefore even Sun Wukong’s saliva starts dripping out of the corner of
his mouth (Wu 1:165). After getting sober he finds himself in Laozi’s house, Tushita Palace.
In Tushita Palace, Sun Wukong also eats elixirs made by Laozi, once again because of the longevity qualities of the elixir. After Sun Wukong escapes Laozi’s brazier, the Jade Emperor invites Buddha to control Sun Wukong’s constant aim for self-pleasure. Buddha punishes Sun Wukong by putting him down with the help of the Five-Phases Mountain (Wu 1:195) and feeds him iron pellets when he is hungry and melted copper when he is thirsty (Wu 1:199).
Just like the Jade Emperor and Buddha, other characters with high authority, in The Journey to the West try to punish Sun Wukong and teach him how to control his aim for oral self-
pleasure.
Equally, when the pilgrims arrive at Long Life Mountain, which is under the authority of the Great Zhenyuan Immortal. Two young disciples of Master Zhenyuan had been ordered to hand Tripitaka two out of thirty holy ginseng fruits (Wu 1:454). Tripitaka believes the fruits are new-born infants, therefore he refuses to eat them. The Ginseng Fruits were eaten instead by the disciples of Master Zhenyuan (Wu 1:457-458). Eight Rules tells Sun Wukong about the rareness of the Ginseng Fruits and their ability to prolong a person’s life. When Sun Wukong hears about this, he goes to the ginseng garden and steals ginseng fruits. When the young disciples find out they accuse Tripitaka of stealing the fruits. Sun Wukong, in fury at the young disciples’ behaviour, go back to the garden and push down the Ginseng tree with his golden rod. Master Zhenyuan comes back to the Long Life Mountain and his disciples tell him about what has happened to the tree. He finds the pilgrims and captures them for Sun Wukong’s crime. To teach Sun Wukong a lesson, Master Zhenyuan orders him to find a way to revive the tree or else he will punish Tripitaka, Eight Rules and Sha Monk by frying them in a pan.
Through The Journey to the West, Sun Wukong learns to control his aim for constant oral self-pleasure. At Black Rooster Kingdom, Tripitaka orders Sun Wukong to revive the
true King or else he will recite the Tight-Fillet Spell. To revive the King Sun Wukong must ask Laozi for an elixir. This time Sun Wukong does not eat the elixir for himself, either because of learning from experiences with the Jade Emperor, Buddha and Master Zhenyuan or because of the fear of the punishment from the Tight-Fillet Spell from his new father figure Tripitaka.
4.2. Anal Stage
During The Journey to the West, Sun Wukong has great control of his aim for self- pleasure through the anal zone, but during two episodes he is not able to control this aim for self-pleasure through the bladder. Because Sun Wukong was raised by himself, therefore he never had someone in authority to teach him how to control his bladder. The first time Sun Wukong urinates in an inappropriate place is when he marks the base of a pillar, which he believes is the edge of Heaven. That pillar happens to be Buddha’s middle finger. Buddha scolds Sun Wukong by calling him, “You pisshead ape!” (Wu 1:195). The second time happens in the Cart Slow Kingdom, during an offering to the Three Pure Ones. Sun Wukong lets out a whirlwind to disperse the Daoist from their Abbey during their prayers, then the three brothers take on the form of the Three Pure Ones and start to feast on the offering. The Daoist hear a sound coming from the abbey and finds out all offering have been eaten. They therefore pray to the Three Pure Ones for holy elixir, in which Sun Wukong tells them to bring some vessels and leave the hall and they will bring some holy water. Sun Wukong and his two brothers then urinate in the vessels. After the Daoist Immortals have drunk the urine, Sun Wukong tells them that they are the pilgrims going West and the holy water is just their urine. Sun Wukong and his brothers then escape the abbey (Wu 2:280-287). Except for urinating on Buddha’s hand, Sun Wukong has full control of his anal and bladder. Therefore, Sun Wukong does not have a fixation in the anal stage.
4.3. Phallic Stage
After defeating the Monstrous King of Havoc and taking the Monstrous King’s scimitar, Sun Wukong still feels there is something missing in his life and this maybe is because the scimitar does not fit him. Therefore, Sun Wukong travels to the Dragon Palace of the Eastern Seas. In the Dragon Palace, Sun Wukong finds the Complaint Golden-Hooped Rod. The Golden Rod itself acknowledges Sun Wukong as its owner by suddenly glowing (Wu 1:137). Therefore, the Golden Rod represents Sun Wukong’s phallus. In the phallic stage, Sun Wukong will use his phallus, the Golden Rod, to gain more power of mother Earth.
The Jade Emperor tries to separate Sun Wukong from Earth by exercising authority over him and show that he is control of Sun Wukong’s mother Earth. This shows that the Jade Emperor represents an early father figure for Sun Wukong. The Jade Emperor tries to inhibit Sun Wukong’s aim to conquer using his phallus, the Golden Rod by giving him different official duties in Heaven. The first duty that the Jade Emperor appoints Sun Wukong to is
BanHorsePlague (Wu 1:143). During the time Sun Wukong is BanHorse, Sun Wukong seems to be able to control his aim for self-pleasure and stay away from using the Golden Rod.
When Sun Wukong finds out that the position as BanHorse is of the lowest rank in Heaven, he battles with the Golden Rod back to the Flower Fruit mountain. After Jade Emperor finds out Sun Wukong has left his duty in rebellion, the Jade Emperor sends Devarāja Li, Prince Nata and some celestial soldiers to capture Sun Wukong for disobeying him and to show authority. Sun Wukong beats Prince Nata and the celestial soldiers and wants the title of
“Great Sage Equal to Heaven” (Wu 1:151). The Jade Emperor accepts his offer and also gives Sun Wukong the duty to take care of the Garden of Immortal Peaches from fear that idleness in Heaven will lead Sun Wukong to go to using the Golden Rod to cause problems (Wu 1:160). Sun Wukong learns from this that strong people are above the Jade Emperor’s laws.
Therefore, Sun Wukong disobeys the Jade Emperors orders again by disrupting the Peach
Festival. Sun Wukong still knows that the Jade Emperor as a father figure will still try to punish him for disrupting the Peach Festival, therefore he says to himself, “Bad! Bad!” (Wu 1:165). After Erlang and Laozi capture Sun Wukong, the Jade Emperor gives the order to execute Sun Wukong (Wu 1:187). To execute Sun Wukong, he first must be put to in Laozi Brazier of Eight Trigrams. After forty-nine days, Laozi opens the Brazier, which leads to Sun Wukong’s escape. Now Sun Wukong starts fighting his way to the Jade Emperor. Sun
Wukong wants to take over the position of his father figure, the Jade Emperor. Sun Wukong has also learned by looking at the Jade Emperor, that if you have the highest position you can make your own laws. After the Jade Emperor has failed as a father figure to turn Sun Wukong into a man who functions in society, the Jade Emperor summons Buddha. Buddha then
punishes Sun Wukong by putting Sun Wukong under the Five-Phase Mountain.
4.4. Latency Period
Sun Wukong was for three or four hundred years constantly self-pleasuring himself through eating from mother Earth (Wu 1:106). Realizing that one-day Sun Wukong will grow old and die, “Though we are not subject to the laws of man today, nor need we be threatened by rule of any bird or beast, old age and physical decay in the future will disclose the secret sovereignty of Yama” (Wu 1:106), suddenly stops pleasuring himself through oral pleasure such as eating and is instead forced to mature to learn the ways of immortality. During this journey Sun Wukong’s constant aim for self-pleasure is inhibited. In the Southern Continent he learns through imitation to talk, walk and dress like an adult man (Wu 1:109). After eight to nine years of studying humans in the South Jambudvipa Continent, Sun Wukong realizes that he should travel to another continent to find the way of immortality. In the Western Aparagodaniya Continent Sun Wukong finds the immortal Subodhi. Subodhi represents Sun Wukong’s teacher in The Journey to the West and he teaches him the ways of Dao and gives
him the name Sun Wukong. Although Sun Wukong learns several things from Subodhi and his students, his sexual life is only inhibited because he wants to learn about immortality.
After Sun Wukong has learned the seventy-two transformations and cloud somersault from Subodhi, he turns back to his naughty behaviours by showing his skills to Subodhi’s students (Wu 1:124). Subodhi realizes that there is nothing more for him to teach Sun Wukong and Sun Wukong’s aim for self-gratification has therefore been released, “Once you leave, you’re bound to end up evildoing.” (Wu 1:125). After Sun Wukong goes back to Flower-Fruit Mountain he will go back to self-pleasuring with the new knowledge he has learned.
4.5. Genital Stage
In The Journey to the West, Guanyin is addressed with the pronoun she and her, which shows that Guanyin represents Sun Wukong’s first mother figure. Guanyin gives Sun
Wukong a new aim in life by assigning him to protect Tripitaka during the journey to the west. This new aim in life teaches Sun Wukong to stay away from self-pleasures and begin to help others by becoming a monk. When Sun Wukong faces an adversity that he cannot solve he will always ask Guanyin for help, for example, when Sun Wukong cannot find a way to revive the Ginseng Tree after he has asked many other deities, he then asks Guanyin for help.
Guanyin tells Sun Wukong, “Why didn’t you come see me earlier?” (Wu 2:12), which shows Guanyin’s affection for Sun Wukong as a mother figure. Other times that Guanyin helps Sun Wukong is, for example, when facing Red Boy (Wu 2:237-251) and the goldfish in Chen Village (Wu 2:349-359). This chapter will also look at the relationships assigned by Guanyin between Sun Wukong and Tripitaka to force Sun Wukong to become a better man.
First Guanyin has assigned Sun Wukong to become Tripitaka’s disciple and protector during the journey. This turns Tripitaka into a father figure for Sun Wukong. The first time Sun Wukong kills six robbers when traveling with Tripitaka, Tripitaka tells him, “you are not
worthy to be a monk, nor can you go to the Western Heaven. You’re wicked!” (Wu 1:316).
Tripitaka compared to other father figure like the Jade Emperor, does not punish people by giving them a death sentence and tries to teach Sun Wukong the way of a Buddhist monk. Sun Wukong cannot withstand the scolding of Tripitaka and leaves (Wu 1:316). When Sun
Wukong returns to Tripitaka, Tripitaka gives him a flower cap inlaid with gold, which he has received from Guanyin. Afterwards, Sun Wukong wears the cap and Tripitaka starts using a Tight-Fillet Spell learned from Guanyin to punish Sun Wukong (Wu 1:319). Whenever Sun Wukong does not listen to Tripitaka’s instructions, Tripitaka uses the Tight-Fillet Spell to inflict pain to Sun Wukong’s head. Tripitaka also teaches Sun Wukong to use the Golden Rod not kill innocent humans, but only to fight evil spirits during the pilgrimage. This teaches Sun Wukong to aim the Golden Rod, his Genital, for greater good, instead of conquering. After the pilgrims have left Long Life Mountain, they meet a monster that first changes itself into a girl, then an old lady, at last an old man. Sun Wukong recognizes that they are all
transformations of the monster and strikes them down with the Golden Rod. Tripitaka believes that Sun Wukong has killed three innocent people and banishes Sun Wukong from the pilgrimage. The second time Tripitaka banishes Sun Wukong from the pilgrimage is when Sun Wukong kills several human bandits. After Sun Wukong has been banished by Tripitaka the second time, he goes to tell his mother figure, Guanyin. When Sun Wukong tells Guanyin about what has happened he starts weeping (Wu 3:92), something he has not done to anybody else. Guanyin explains to Sun Wukong why Tripitaka has banished him and that she will tell Tripitaka to take Sun Wukong back. Guanyin tells Tripitaka to take back Sun Wukong and Tripitaka obeys her order (Wu 3:117). Sun Wukong always imitates his father figure,
therefore Tripitaka succeeds in transforming Sun Wukong into a man. Tripitaka compared to the Jade Emperor follows the lessons in life that he preaches. Tripitaka never inflicts the punishment of death on others and does not want to have authority over others.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
In The Journey to the West, Sun Wukong matures from an immature monkey into an enlightened man. Using the five stages of psychosexual development created by Freud, Sun Wukong’s action and behavior are revealed by looking at his environment and his relations to other characters throughout the story. In the oral stage, Sun Wukong is mysteriously born with superpowers and does not have a mother or father figure. Because nobody is strong enough to challenge or impose authority on Sun Wukong, he therefore starts developing an oral fixation in the earlier stages of his life. This fixation is that he always tries to satisfy himself through oral pleasure such as eating. Sun Wukong’s aim for constant oral self- pleasure becomes dormant, when Sun Wukong realizes that he will die from old age. This forces Sun Wukong to move onto the latency period, where Sun Wukong educates himself and learns to imitate like a human to find more information about how to become an
immortal. During this journey Sun Wukong finds a Taoist patriarch named Subodhi, that has knowledge about immortality. Sun Wukong starts to act like a student to be admitted by Subodhi. The teachings from being a Taoist student, teach Sun Wukong not to develop an anal fixation during the anal stage. After Subodhi has taught Sun Wukong how to become an immortal, Subodhi believes that his job as a teacher is done and therefore sends him back to the Flower-Fruit Mountain. The Sun Wukong that comes back to the Flower-Fruit Mountain is much more intelligent, but still a misbehaving monkey. Sun Wukong now believes that he is missing a weapon, to turn him into a man. In the phallic stage, Sun Wukong finds his phallus, the Golden Rod. During this stage Sun Wukong rebels against the Jade Emperor by using his phallus. Because the Jade Emperor tries to put authority over Sun Wukong and punishes Sun Wukong, therefore the Jade Emperor represents Sun Wukong’s first father figure. When the Jade Emperor fails to put authority over Sun Wukong, Sun Wukong learns that if you have strength you can be above the law. Therefore, Sun Wukong misbehaves and
eats whatever he wants and tries to take over the Jade Emperor’s position. The Jade Emperor as a father figure failed to turn Sun Wukong into a better man. Buddha finds out what has happened in Heaven and puts Sun Wukong under the Five-Phases Mountain as a punishment.
After five hundred years, Guanyin appoints Sun Wukong to accompany Tripitaka on the pilgrimage to acquire Buddhist scriptures. This assignment forces Sun Wukong to move onto the genital stage. In the genital stage, Sun Wukong finds his first mother figure in Guanyin that always helps him during difficult trials and also listens to Sun Wukong when he complains. Tripitaka as a father figure teaches Sun Wukong not to hurt humans, also when Tripitaka punishes Sun Wukong Tripitaka’s goal is for Sun Wukong to become a better man not to kill him. Sun Wukong imitates Tripitaka’s behavior in that he does not care for power, instead he tries to do good merits and aim his Golden Rod only at other spirits and not humans. Applying the theories of psychosexual development to Sun Wukong revealed that Sun Wukong’s fixations in early life was a result of no mother figure and a bad father figure, the Jade Emperor. Moreover, with a good father figure like Tripitaka and a good mother figure like Guanyin, even a misbehaving monkey like Sun Wukong can turn into an enlightened man.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Translated by A. A. Brill. Mineola, NY, Dover Publications, Inc., 2015.
---. Three contributions to the theory of sex. Translated by A. A. Brill, Literary Licensing, 2014.
Griffith, Kelley. Writing essays about literature: a guide and style sheet. Cengage Learning, 2014.
Hu, Shih. Introduction. Monkey, by Wu Cheng-En, Translated by Arthur Waley, New York:
Grove Press, 1994, pp. 1-5.
Lou, Huanliang. A Comparative Study of the Chinese Trickster Hero Sun Wukong. Duke University, May 2016.
Waley, Arthur. Preface. Monkey, by Wu Cheng-En, Translated by Arthur Waley, New York:
Grove Press, 1994, pp. 7-8.
Wu, Cheng-En. Monkey. Translated by Arthur Waley. New York: Grove Press, 1994.
---. The Journey to the West. Translated by Anthony C. Yu. Chicago, The Univ. of Chicago Press, 2012. 4 vols.
Zhang, Kai. Archetype and Allegory in Journey to the West. University of Victoria, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, 2008.
Zhang, Yaolin. On the Spirit of Game in Fairytale Narration: A Comparative Study of Peter Pan and Monkey King As Naughty Boys. Tianjin University of Technology, Dec 2011.
