Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is a film rich in detail and exquisite in allegory. On the surface, it tells the story of a "professional demon hunter" subduing monsters. In truth, it tells the story of an "unordained disciple of the Mahayana Buddhist path" conquering inner demons and attaining enlightenment. These two layers are woven together throughout the film through ingenious design.
First, the matter of "ordination." Watching the film, it is hard not to notice Chen Xuanzang's abundantly luxuriant hair. In reality, the historical Xuanzang became a monk at a very young age and had no hair. This design choice cannot be taken lightly. To alert the audience, a line of dialogue near the opening has Xuanzang describe himself as "an unordained disciple of the Mahayana Buddhist path." Why emphasize "unordained"? It underscores that Xuanzang, at this point, bears an abundance of worldly afflictions (hair symbolizes afflictions). As the corresponding echo, at the film's end, Sun Wukong violently rips out all of Xuanzang's hair. Removing all hair is "ordination," and the film uses ordination to symbolize "enlightenment." At the same moment Xuanzang's hair is torn away, the object of his desire — Miss Duan (who also symbolizes desire) — disintegrates into nothingness. After this, Xuanzang is enveloped in golden light, invincible. The allegory and symbolism in this sequence is extraordinarily subtle and rich: 1. The pain of having all one's hair ripped out symbolizes the pain of severing the seven emotions and six desires. 2. Miss Duan's disintegration symbolizes the realization of emptiness. 3. Sun Wukong symbolizes beginningless ignorance and delusion.
Why does Sun Wukong symbolize "ignorance"? The film offers a clue: Sun Wukong deceives Xuanzang by saying he "hasn't seen the moon in five hundred years." To not see the moon is darkness — ignorance — which is delusion. In fact, additional clues reinforce that Sun Wukong represents ignorance, and this clue is the lotus flower. Why does a lotus grow at the mouth of the cave where Sun Wukong is imprisoned? In Buddhism, the lotus symbolizes enlightenment, and enlightenment grows from ignorance, just as the pure lotus grows from the mud. This symbolism operates on two levels: 1. Regarding the seal: we all know that in the original Journey to the West, what seals Sun Wukong is a spell; in Conquering the Demons, there is also a spell. But why does the film have Sun Wukong say, "The true seal is the lotus"? Because the true seal is enlightenment, and enlightenment can subdue ignorance.
- Because the lotus grows atop the cave, and the enlightenment the lotus symbolizes grows atop the mud-like mire of ignorance and affliction. What lies inside the cave is ignorance — hence Sun Wukong's statement, "I haven't seen the moon in five hundred years."
So the entire Conquering the Demons tells the story of Xuanzang's journey from unordained to ordained, from unenlightened to enlightened. The concrete manifestation of this process is "conquering demons," and the demons conquered are each person's greed, anger, and ignorance.
The fish demon that Sha Wujing transforms into symbolizes "anger." This symbolism is constructed through textual parallels within the film. Let us begin with a seeming flaw: after subduing the fish demon, Xuanzang returns to his master, buries his head, and weeps: "It was I who killed them." Why "I killed them"? The killer was clearly the fish demon — Xuanzang simply lacked the power. Saying "I killed them" can only be understood on the level of allegory — the story's true meaning is I killed them, my anger killed them. "I lacked the power" — on the surface, it means lacking the power to subdue the fish demon; in truth, it means lacking the power to subdue his own anger. This is why the master keeps saying "just a tiny bit short." Strange, isn't it? Subduing demons is a matter of force, of spiritual power — is that really a matter of "just a tiny bit"? The "tiny bit" does not refer to the surface story but to what the story allegorizes — just that tiny bit short of conquering the inner demon.
Looking back at the sequence where Xuanzang confronts the fish demon, we find numerous parallels between Xuanzang and the demon: 1. The fish demon is "very kind-hearted." Xuanzang is also very kind-hearted. 2. The fish demon saved a child. Xuanzang also saved a child. 3. The fish demon was mistaken for a kidnapper and beaten to death. Xuanzang was mistaken for the monster's accomplice (also a kidnapper) and strung up to be burned alive (though this failed). 4. The fish demon devoured Changsheng's entire family, and the one who accused Xuanzang — "Have you ever had a husband die on you?" — was Changsheng's mother (reflecting the Buddhist concept of karmic retribution).
The villagers, repaying Xuanzang's kindness with cruelty, string him up to burn alive. At that moment, the fish demon comes leaping forth. The leaping fish demon is the anger rising within Xuanzang. A single thought of wrath, and a million gates of obstruction fly open — many villagers are killed, especially Changsheng and her mother, who wrongly blamed Xuanzang. This is why Xuanzang weeps: "It was I who killed them." When a single thought of anger arises, it kills — because the object of our anger has already been killed within our hearts. Xuanzang devoured the villagers in his heart, and from the perspective of spiritual practice and self-liberation, this is no lesser a sin than actually devouring them. Conversely, when a single thought of anger is extinguished, it saves — and Xuanzang saved one person.
The second demon Xuanzang subdues is Zhu Ganglie, who symbolizes "greed" (lust being the quintessence of greed). This demon is so powerful that Xuanzang cannot subdue it alone. So he goes to his master, who tells him to seek Sun Wukong at Five Finger Mountain, adding, "Even a blind man could see it." One might overlook the depth of this remark, dismissing it as ordinary hyperbole about the enormity of a Buddha statue. But a fine work like Conquering the Demons wastes no words and makes no arbitrary comparisons. Like "It was I who killed them," this is a deliberate flaw — these flaws are the clasps between the surface story and the deeper story. Undo them, and you can see the film's truth. What can a blind man see? What a blind man can see is not outside but inside — a blind man can see the heart, the self. What even a blind man can see, Xuanzang cannot — and this is our mortal delusion. We do not know our own hearts, and so what is immense and obvious remains invisible to us. Yet on another level, what Xuanzang sees is a self made of reflections in mirrors and moonlight on water (seen through reflected images — reflections squared), symbolizing the illusory nature of the self. These are two contradictory yet unified truths about the self, about the heart: it is obvious, immense, visible even to the blind; and it is illusory, unreal. The third truth: we mortals often cannot see it, cannot grasp it, cannot know it.
When Xuanzang finds the self sealed under the Buddha's power (Sun Wukong), the "tiny bit" he lacked is no longer lacking. He is no longer "thinking it in his heart while saying no with his mouth." He can finally face the self, face the self's desires. Watching Miss Duan dance in the moonlight, he is utterly bewitched. Lust (Zhu Ganglie) descends violently, only to become a docile little pig in the arms of the self (Sun Wukong). By analogy with the fish demon: 1. Zhu Ganglie loved to "watch his wife dance in the moonlight." Xuanzang, too, loved to watch Miss Duan dance in the moonlight — loved it to the point of losing his soul, loved it to the point of delusion (fantasizing about Miss Duan dancing in the moonlight). 2. When Zhu Ganglie comes charging in, it is the very moment Xuanzang gazes at Miss Duan in a trance, having even dropped his musical instrument.
Zhu Ganglie is Xuanzang's lust. What subdues Zhu Ganglie is Xuanzang's heart. When the heart perceives and confronts desire, desire is subdued.
The final demon Xuanzang conquers is Sun Wukong, who, as discussed, symbolizes ignorance and also the heart (as in the idiom "the monkey of the mind and the horse of the will"). In the cave, Xuanzang rejects Miss Duan. Upon leaving the cave, he releases Sun Wukong — he can no longer suppress his true heart. My heart has suppressed my desire (Zhu Ganglie), yet it has plunged into endless madness and anguish. On one hand, it destroys — ripping out hair, beating Miss Duan into nothingness. On the other hand, it questions. Sun Wukong asks: Where is your Buddha? What can your Buddha do for you? In truth, it is Xuanzang's own question: I suffer so greatly to extinguish desire — where is my Buddha? What can my Buddha do for me?
The film's conclusion is the conquering of demons. It is enlightenment. It is, amid suffering, remaining honest, remaining faithful, remaining with palms pressed together. And of course, still chanting sutras, still seeking scriptures, still practicing in the proper way — in the ceaseless flow of life, experiencing again and again, feeling again and again, again and again using all that is imperfect to realize the ultimate truth that life is, in the end, perfect: having known suffering, one understands the suffering of all beings; having clung, one can let go of clinging; having been bound by attachment, one is finally free of it.