Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s3.t7.25

v2.c10.s3.t7.25

China has a mythical story, *Journey to the West*, and the protagonist Sun Wukong is related to *Ramayana* in respect of the image and many details. Before *Journey to the West*, Chinese sutras already had other monkey stories, for example, Article 47 and 56 and the like of *Liu Du Ji Jing*. In the Song Dynasty, the personality, ability and actions of the monkey king in *Liu Du Ji Jing* were reproduced in a fiction titled “*Da Tang Sanzang Qujing Shihua*”. Chinese scholars generally are of the opinion that, this fiction is the origin of *Journey to the West*. And so, the image of Su Wukong was produced under the influence of Chinese sutras as well as Hanuman in *Ramayana*. Another possibility is, Wu Cheng’en, the author of *Journey to the West*, might have heard from someone a detailed account of *Ramayana*, otherwise it is impossible to explain why this book is identical with *Ramayana* in some important details. In a research on *Journey to the West*, Hu Shi suggested that Su Wukong, as the most vivid character, may be borrowed from India rather than homemade. He thought that Hanuman in *Ramayana* was the predecessor of the monkey king, since they two have almost the same power. For instance, Hamuman could fly in the air, move big mountains, turn bigger or smaller, enter into others’ stomach, and fear no fire, and Sun Wukong also have these powers. As a result, he inferred that Sun Wukong was produced under the influence of *Ramayana*. On the contrary, Lu Xun thought Su Wukong was a native product of China. For a long time, academic circles in China have been arguing and debating over this issue.