JTTW Chapter 100 Final Thoughts
Chapter 100 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group! Plus my final thoughts on the book and reading group project at the end.
You are telling me someone from ancient China wrote this novel? It shows especially with the line “Western barbarians with great China can never compare!” Personally I would change the end of this food-related poem nowadays to something along the lines for these dishes being familiar, maybe something like ‘regardless of how noble and exotic was the travel’s fare, with tastes of home they can never compare’.
Lovely to see it acknowledged that people are largely a product of their environment! Towards the end it is once again displayed how advanced people already were in certain aspects during the time.
Being appointed janitor does not sound like much of a reward. It is honest work and gives Zhu Bajie a purpose, but I do not see him being all that happy with it. Maybe he can work towards a promotion if he puts in the effort.
The horse kowtowing, this image is very funny. Though he transformed back into a dragon once before, why does he need to dive into a special pool this time? It can still make sense if it is supposed to turn him into the special dragon variant he was appointed as, but that could have been made a little clearer.
Awww, they are all part of The List now! Also Bodhisattva Guanshiyin at the top of the listing of Boddhisattvas as she should be.
“Here ends The Journey to the West.” indeed. What an interesting read it has been with some of the chapters having been more enjoyable for me than others as can be seen with some of my criticisms. Nevertheless on the whole this story works very well to, what I do believe was part of the intention of the author, educate.
Even aside the glimpses of how Buddhism, and also Daoism for that matter, works, sentiments that were prevalent in society back then can also be gleamed from it. And of course the little recognizable aspects that were shown which help with understanding that some things were largely the same across the world in a manner that teaches how similar people indeed are even if they live on opposite sides of the globe.
In the end this is a very valuable read for all these reasons how mythology, religion, culture and even a little bit of history are wrapped in the appearance of a comedic adventure story which makes it much easier to get into than a plain textbook.
This little book club project really helped me stay consistent with reading, something I otherwise struggle with quite a bit especially regarding longer stories and even more so if they can be a bit difficult to read. Granted with time I got used to the way Journey to the West is written and it became easier to read as it went one. Perhaps precisely because of that or perhaps because it did so objectively, I cannot quite tell.
It took about two years for me personally to get through, at some point by making it a habit to read one chapter after taking a shower as I have mentioned before. So now I will have to find another book to read that way, probably another Chinese classic, and try to stick to that habit.
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