The Center Cannot Hold: Ambiguous Narrative Voices in Wuís The Journey to the West and Conradís Heart of Darkness

Abstract

American readers of literature are in general more familiar with Joseph Conrad and his modernist novel Heart of Darkness than with Chinese author Wu Cheng-en (1500-1582) and his classical novel The Journey to West. Readers' uneven acquaintance with two authors makes it necessary to begin this essay with a short account of background of Wu's novel and with a brief plot summary. Published in 1592, The Journey to West is one of four monumental novels of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), other three being The Romance of Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, and The Golden Lotus. For over three hundred years, author of The Journey to West was thought to be a Taoist patriarch who lived during Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), until Chinese scholar Hu Shih confirmed Wu Cheng-en's authorship in 1923 (Yeh 17). Loosely based on true story of Hsuan-tsang (596-664), a Chinese Buddhist monk who took seventeen years to travel to India and fetch Buddhist scriptures for his people, The Journey to West depicts fictional monk Tripitaka's journey to India to obtain Mahayana scriptures for Tang Emperor. (1) In Sanskrit, name Tripitaka, consisting of tri, which means three, and pitaka, which means basket, alludes to The Three Baskets, title of most basic and possibly earliest body of sacred [Buddhist] writings (Nigosian 142), made up of three collections or principles: theVinayana, Sutta, and Abhidhamma. The Buddhism represented in novel is largely Mahayana Buddhism, which teaches crossing over to other shore of salvation (Plaks 279). (2) The journey begins with Tripitaka and his first disciple Monkey, who, taking shape of a monkey but bearing many humanlike and Godlike attributes, serves as Tripitaka's protector. As journey progresses, more characters are converted and join it, and pilgrims encounter all kinds of monsters, .ends, demons, and perils. Assisted by Monkey and various deities, however, notably Bodhisattva Kuan Yin, pilgrims heroically overcome obstacles, reach their destination, and fulfill their holy mission. At first glance, Heart of Darkness (1902) and The Journey to West seem to have little in common. The former narrates an early twentieth-century English sailor's adventures in Africa on Congo River; latter delineates a seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk's pilgrimage to India. One has been assimilated into canon of modern narrative; other belongs to subgenre of so-called Chinese literati novel. One involves a sailor-hero who serves great cause of British Empire; other portrays a monk-hero acting as messenger for an emperor of Tang dynasty (618-907). Yet a close examination of both novels suggests that despite their apparent disparity, they share a remarkable textual affinity. Both authors employ narrative strategies to diffuse narrative centers (usually constituted by coherent and sometimes monolithic themes) and appeal to narrative voices that create ambiguous epistemological, religious, and ideological points of view. In Heart of Darkness, narrative ambiguity is deployed chiefly by Conrad's play with textual symbol of darkness, which is simultaneously aligned with conflicting epistemological and moral points of view; that is, darkness simultaneously evokes moral decadence of imperialism and inhuman abjection of primitive Africa. In The Journey to West, narrative ambiguity is enacted by Wu's play with intricate, multilayered narrative episodes that simultaneously affirm and undercut multiple themes: Buddhist quest, romantic heroism, and indigenous Taoism and Confucianism. For this reason, Anthony Yu is right to caution that the work [the novel] itself makes constant demand of its readers to heed many levels of nonliteral meaning structured therein (Religion and Literature 133).While narrative ambiguity in Heart of Darkness remains unresolved in end, with such famously ambiguous words as the horror, horror (68) and with such ambiguous references to Africa as the uttermost ends of earth . …