Buddhism in the Classic Chinese Novel Journey to the West: Teaching Two Episodes
Roberta E. Adams

Notes on Buddhist Elements
The Wordless Scriptures

When the group arrives at Vulture Peak and presents their passports to Buddha, he directs them to select scriptures from his Three Stores to propagate in the East. But because they have no presents for the Arhat, he gives them wordless scriptures; the Ancient Buddha Dipmakara sends someone after them so they can trade them for actual texts. The pilgrims are upset by this episode, but the Buddha reminds them that “the scriptures cannot be casually passed on. Nor can they be taken away for nothing. . . . You were given blank texts because you came here to fetch them empty-handed. The blank texts are true, wordless scriptures, and they really are good. But as you living beings in the east are so deluded and have not achieved enlightenment we’ll have to give you these ones instead” (Jenner, 2267). Tripitaka gives them his purple gold begging bowl and promises to have the Tang emperor send them rewards.

Andrew Plaks sees “the final irony of the ‘wordless scriptures’ . . . [as] a rather transparent joke” about emptiness (243.) In one episode in Journey to the West, after Tripitaka and Monkey discuss the Heart Sutra, Tripitaka tells the disciples, “Wukong [Monkey] understands the wordless language. That is true explanation” (Jenner, 2133). The wordless scriptures are connected both to the Heart Sutra, with its emphasis on emptiness, and to Wu Sukong, Monkey Awakened to Emptiness, who understands the wordless language. But for Tripitaka to fulfill his mission, he must bring written scriptures back to the people of China. Only after the scriptures are internalized and understood are they wordless. As the monk said, “the thousands of scriptures all come down to cultivating the heart” (Jenner, 1953).

Works Cited:

Jenner, W. J. F., trans. Journey to the West. Wu Cheng’en. Intro. Shi Changyu. 4 vols. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2001 (1997-1986).

Plaks, Andrew. The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.