我的西游记 Die Reise in den Westen (cn | en)

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作者：小羊冰冰

『每个人都要拥有自己的西游记， 哪怕他没有看过西游记，他也要向着心中的理想之城，迈出步伐，勇敢前行。』

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(一)

小学四年的时候，爸爸从兰州带来了三本厚厚的《西游记》小说，平装的，我一下子就爱不释手，痴迷进去了。虽然会碰到许多生僻字，不完全理解原意，但是书中的情节让我沉浸其中，欲罢不能。很快三本书就摸了一遍，于是又开始读第二遍。也许这正好养成了我快速阅读的习惯。初中的时候，挤在同学旁边看小说，我都读三遍了，他还是不翻书，真是急死人了。

中央电视台开始播放86版《西游记》，又给我一个全新的视角来欣赏这本文学巨著，虽然对书中的情节了如指掌， 仍旧津津有味地观看了全部的25集。后来电视台重播时，又一集不拉地看了一遍。那时的我，似乎已经和唐僧师徒并肩而行，在那条漫长的取经路上，与他们一起历经九九八十一难。

（二）

然而，我的人生真正的“西游记”，却在多年以后悄然开启。那年的年初，我只身来到西方国家求学。没有唐僧的袈裟和禅杖，我背负的只是简单的行囊，不足500的美金和对未来的美好憧憬。艰难的行程，冰冷的冬天、孤单的夜晚、工作的压力、异国的文化、陌生的语言、未知的前途，这一切都像一关关的妖魔鬼怪，逼我使出浑身解数与之搏斗，也不得不正视自己内心深处的软弱与恐惧。

就在这样的时刻，我第一次接触到基督信仰。慢慢地，我仿佛从虚无缥缈的《西游记》神话世界，跨进了另一个似乎可以触手可及的真实国度，开启了一段新的不靠筋斗云和金箍棒，不求观音的杨柳枝与净瓶水，而是完全靠信心与恩典支撑的天国旅程。

（三）

《西游记》里的取经之路，靠的是师徒四人降魔服怪的过人本领：唐僧的执念，悟空的武功，八戒的贪憨，沙僧的沉稳。他们一次次跌倒，又一次次爬起，凭着自己的智慧和意志，终究修成正果。

而基督信仰却截然不同。它不是靠人咬牙苦修、积累功德，而是单单依靠那位创造天地的真神。佛教说，人若修得圆满，便可证得菩提；基督信仰却宣告：人凭己力永远到不了彼岸，唯有耶稣基督的救恩，才能把我们从有限带进永恒。若说佛教是“靠自己苦修，终成正果”，那么基督信仰便是“靠圣灵引领，得蒙新生”。前者是人竭力向上攀登，后者是上帝伸下的手，把人从泥沼中提起。

（四）

我在西方信主、受洗、加入基督教会，生命由此翻开了全新的篇章。多年来，我在服侍中学习，在软弱里被扶持，在疑惑中寻见答案。蓦然回首，我才真正明白：原来“西游记”并不仅是一段文学的幻想，而是一面映照人生的镜子。每个人都在路上，每个人都在寻觅生命的意义与归宿。

只是，这趟旅程的终点，并不是西天，而是天国。

（五）

《西游记》留给我们的是瑰丽的神话，而基督信仰带给我们的是永恒的生命。神话再美，终究是人心中的理想与憧憬；信仰却让人亲历那看不见却真实可靠的恩典。

我的西游记，不再是唐僧西天取经的荒诞故事，而是一个人真实的心路历程：从民间神话走向基督信仰，从魔幻西天走向圣洁天国。

愿每一个人都能写下属于自己的西游记，不再被虚幻的偶像、民间的传说捆绑，而是勇敢转身，走向真神，为心灵找到真正的家园。

(2025年9月13日 德国柏林)

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英文翻译版：

My Journey to the West

by Bing Bing Weidemann

“Everyone must live out their own Journey to the West.
Even if one has never read the tale,
he must still take steps toward the city of his dreams,
and walk forward with courage.”

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Part I

When I was in the fourth grade, my father returned from Lanzhou with three thick paperback volumes of Journey to the West. From the moment I held them in my hands, I was enchanted. Though many archaic words baffled me, the stories carried me away so completely that I could not put the books down. I devoured all three volumes, then began again from the beginning. Perhaps it was then that I developed the habit of reading swiftly.

By middle school, when I leaned against a classmate to read a novel together, I had already finished the story three times while he still had not turned a page. His slowness nearly drove me to despair.

Later, when China Central Television broadcast the 1986 television adaptation of Journey to the West, the story unfolded to me in an entirely new way. Although I knew every twist of the plot, I watched all twenty-five episodes with unflagging delight, then watched them again when the series was replayed. By then, I felt I was no longer a mere reader or spectator. I was walking beside the monk Tang Sanzang and his disciples, trudging with them on that endless pilgrimage, enduring with them the eighty-one trials that lay between them and their goal.

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Part II

Yet my true Journey to the West began many years later, quietly and unexpectedly. At the start of a new year, I set out alone for a Western country to pursue my studies. I carried no monk’s robe or staff—only a small suitcase, less than five hundred dollars, and a fragile yet radiant vision of the future.

The road was hard. There were bitter winters, lonely nights, unfamiliar customs, a foreign tongue, and a future veiled in uncertainty. Each obstacle loomed like a demon blocking the way, forcing me to summon all my strength. At the same time, I could no longer escape the weakness and fear buried within my own heart.

It was in that season that I first encountered the Christian faith. Slowly, it felt as though I had stepped out of the misty realm of myth and into another country—one not imagined, but tangible, luminous, real. I began a new pilgrimage: not by riding on a somersault cloud or wielding a magic staff; not by relying on Guanyin’s willow branch or vase of holy water, but by walking, day by day, upheld only by faith and grace, on the journey toward the Kingdom of Heaven.

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Part III

In Journey to the West, the progress of the pilgrimage rests on the unique strengths of the four companions: Tang Sanzang’s unwavering will, Sun Wukong’s martial prowess, Zhu Bajie’s gluttonous yet endearing clumsiness, and Sha Wujing’s quiet resilience. They stumble again and again, yet always rise, pressing forward by sheer determination, cleverness, and will, until at last they attain their reward.

Christian faith, however, is utterly different. It does not depend on relentless striving or the accumulation of merit, but on the living God who created heaven and earth. Buddhism teaches that if one cultivates perfection, he may awaken to enlightenment. Christianity declares that by human effort alone no one can ever reach the far shore. Only the saving work of Jesus Christ can carry us from the finite into the eternal.

If Buddhism may be described as “striving upward by one’s own discipline to reach completion,” then Christian faith is “being led by the Spirit into new birth.” The one is the human hand reaching upward; the other is the hand of God reaching down, lifting us out of the mire.

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Part IV

It was in the West that I came to faith, was baptized, and joined the Christian church. From that moment, my life opened into a new chapter. Through years of service I have learned, in seasons of weakness I have been sustained, in times of doubt I have found answers.

Looking back, I finally understood: Journey to the West was never merely a tapestry of myth—it was also a mirror of life. For each of us is on a road, and each of us is seeking the meaning of existence and the true home of the soul.

Yet the destination of this journey is not the Western Heaven, but the Kingdom of God.

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Part V

Journey to the West leaves us with a dazzling legend. Christian faith offers something greater: eternal life. A myth, however splendid, remains the projection of human longing; faith, by contrast, invites us to experience grace—unseen, yet real and unshakable.

My Journey to the West is no longer the fable of a monk’s trek for scriptures, but a true pilgrimage of the heart: a passage from folk mythology to Christian faith, from the imagined Western Paradise to the holy Kingdom of Heaven.

May each person one day write his own Journey to the West—not bound by hollow idols or passing legends, but turning with courage to the living God, and finding at last the true homeland of the soul.

(Berlin, September 13, 2025)

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