After finishing Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, I thought about what I should read next. I wondered: “Should I choose a simpler story, should I start reading a series, or should I continue on this trajectory and keep reading more complicated books?”
After a lot of wandering, I thought about how I was playing Black Myth Wukong, which was inspired by the 14th century Chinese mythological novel Journey to the West. I was interested in learning of the story of the game and the characters involved. Namely, I wanted to know what the story was behind Sun Wukong, the titular character. Knowing this, I finally decided to start reading Journey to the West. Only a few minutes later after making this decision did I start to feel some regret.
JTTW is a book that has 100 chapters and spans over 2000 pages. Not only that, but the unabridged, translated edition that I decided to read consisted of 4 volumes with extensive notes. The most important part of this is that it is extremely faithful to the Chinese version of the novel in meaning, which means it uses many scholarly words and references to Chinese culture that someone like me would have no clue about. However, despite all of these struggles, and me estimating that the book would take many months to read, I decided to go for it.
The reason for this? Philosophical study, of course. Not only would it be interesting to learn about Chinese mythology, but Journey to the West contains many references from Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Confucianism, while not being a religion, does denote a way of life. I don’t have any motivation to practice Daoism or Buddhism, but it is interesting to study these cultures in the same way it is interesting to learn about Greek Mythology. Moreover, Daoism and Buddhism are both prime examples of how philosophy and religion are alike.
Modern philosophy is not like older philosophy. As science has progressed, because we know so much more about the world, philosophy has evolved to be more technical. Things like formal epistemology, with set rules, the philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics in something like string theory. However, back then, while that still existed, to the average person philosophy was simply theorizing about the way the world worked. A lot of it had to do with morality. Concepts like dharma, an individual’s duties/meaning they are meant to fulfill. In a similar way, Daoism encourages harmony with the Dao, which is essentially the natural order of the universe.
Both of these religions talk about the idea of letting go of suffering and yielding to the natural change of the universe rather than defying it. Because of anicca, or the Buddhist concept of impermanence, clinging to temporary things will only lead to dukkha, or the concept of suffering. Daoism encourages the idea that the universe follows the ever-changing nature of Dao, and that by practicing Wu Wei (translating to “inaction), we can yield to the natural order of the Dao and adapt. Confucianism is a little bit different, with a strong focus on social hierarchy and familial relationships.
These all signify that within religion is philosophy. While with current philosophy, we may tend to ignore religion, it’s always important to understand that religion is the root of philosophy within humanity. Hopefully, by reading this book, I may understand more about chinese culture and in turn the philosophies that chinese people tend to focus on.