The Significance of a Dog's Tail: Comments on the Xu Xiyou ji

Abstract

The Xu Xiyou ji (Sequel to the Westward Journey) is one of four traditional Chinese vernacular novels associated with the legendary journey to India by Xuanzang and his disciples in the seventh century. It is a work that was little known in China or elsewhere until its publication in two modern typeset editions in 1986. As its title indicates, this is a sequel (xu) to the Xiyou ji (Record of the Westward Journey), although there is some question about which version of the parent novel served as its progenitor. It is a work in 100 chapters, which tells of the return journey of Xuanzang and his disciples from the Western Paradise back to China. Although the Xu Xiyou ji is highly imitative of its parent novel, close examination of its text shows that the author was significantly original and creative, even within the narrow constraints of the sequel format. This is the only work in the Westward Journey tradition to satirize Sun Wukong, better known to English readers as Monkey. Monkey is ridiculed for his failure to follow the basics of what the author perceives as correct Buddhist doctrine. The work promotes a kind of radical passivism unique in the Chinese tradition. Coupled with this is an emphasis on forgiveness, an emphasis rarely seen in a literary tradition dominated by ideas of reciprocity.