"Journey to the West" is very familiar to everyone, especially the 86 version, which can be said to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The Monkey King played by Teacher Liu Xiaoling Tong is deeply rooted, making people think that Monkey King is just like that. It took eight years for this TV series to be filmed. This kind of effort has created a classic and made the 86th version of "Journey to the West" one of the TV series in the winter and summer vacation.
Journey to the West describes the story of the five masters and apprentices united to overcome the ninety-nine and eighty-one difficulties and find ways to reach the western sky. When Tang Seng, the leader of the sutra-learning team, arrived at Lingshan to receive the award, the Buddha said to him: "You were my second disciple in your previous life, and the name is Jin Chanzi. Because you don’t hear the Fa and despise my great teaching. Therefore, the true spirit of you is degraded and reincarnated in Dongtu.”
In short, Tang Seng’s previous life was the second disciple Jin Chanzi under the seat of Tathagata, only because the Buddha said The Dharma was negligent and was demoted to the world. Having said that, if you just neglect a class, you will be demoted. Such punishment is too severe. So is the reason for Tang Seng being demoted really because of neglecting the Dharma? In fact, this is not the case. Neglecting the Dharma is just a reason for the Tathagata to find randomly. The real purpose is to make the Jin Chanzi smooth!
Regarding the golden cicada, there is a saying that he is a golden cicada on the bodhi tree when the Taobao Taoist enlightened under the bodhi tree. Because drinking the nectar from the Bodhi tree every day, listening to the preaching of the Taobao Taoist, I gradually understood the Dharma. As you can see, Jin Chan's understanding is quite high, so he accepted as his second disciple. Before that, Taobao Taoist had accepted an apprentice, Ananda. So Jin Chanzi is the second disciple.
Later, after Daobao Taoist became a Buddha, Jin Chanzi followed the Buddha to the West Tianling Mountain. But because the Buddha dozed off when he talked about the Buddha, the cicadas screamed and deafened, disturbing the purity of Buddhism. Upon hearing this, the Buddha understood that although Jin Chan had cultivated into a human being, he had not yet cultivated into a human being. In other words, to become a Buddha you have to endure the baptism of hardship, which is the so-called learning from the West. It is said that there have been 9 reincarnations before this, but they all died on the way to learn the scriptures. In this life, the Buddha specially sent Avalokitesvara to arrange everything, and he waited for this second disciple to complete his merits and return to Lingshan to help him preach.
Because the golden cicada is a person transformed by the cicada, it implies that the golden cicada escapes its shell. In ancient times, people regarded this behavior of the cicada as "longevity". The monsters on the way to learn the scriptures all believed that eating a piece of Tang Seng meat would be a rumors of immortality.
But Jin Chanzi is only a character in Journey to the West. In orthodox Buddhism, there is no such character at all. This character is just a figure made up by Wu Chengen in the process of creating Journey to the West. .
In orthodox Buddhism, there are ten disciples under the seat of Buddha Shakyamuni, they are:
ascetic first----Maha Kaya
More Wen First-----Ananda
Wisdom First------Sariputra
解空第一--Subhuti
Speaking first --富楼那
Supernatural power first--Big Mu Qianlian
On the first of justice--Mahajiajanyan
天眼第一--Analaw
hold Ring number one--Youpoli
Secret line number one--Luo Zhaoluo
Therefore, there is no so-called golden cicada in Buddhism. The golden cicada only exists in Journey to the West, and it is also the cicada that has been following the Buddha to visit the Buddha. In the end, he was enlightened by the Buddha to learn from the scriptures. In fact, the novel Journey to the West is not only a novel propagating Buddhism, but also a novel that satirizes reality with the help of myths. All in all, this is a very philosophical novel, the readerWhat do you think?
