This is post is part of the series of posts written on the lessons from Journey to the West (1996 TVB version).
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Early Relationship between Wukong and Piggie (Zhu Bajie).
Initially, there was no mutual respect. Wukong constantly bullied Piggie because Piggie was his junior, fat, lazy and always fall for beautiful women. His pig ears would flap the moment he saw a beauty in sight. Wukong at even pretended to be the heavenly maiden to have Piggie express his love (as Piggie still misses the maiden very much)….and then had a good laugh at him. Piggie was very angry- he felt he was once a high ranking heavenly officer and did not deserve to be treated like this.
Even their teacher also had to always step in to clear the conflict and despite repeated advise and reasoning, both of them were still stubborn. They stop fighting but WuKong would play pranks on Piggie very soon again.
Actually Wukong had probably meant to teach Piggie a lesson- to show Piggie that he was still vulnerable to the opposite sex and now that his had chosen this life, he should not allow himself to weaken or tempted.
The cracks already exists- and so it makes it so easy for evil spirits to come in and break them apart.
Lessons
There are lessons that can be learned from Journey to the West. Here, we would see that when the foundation is not strong, there is no enough mutual respect and understanding, a third party can come in to wreck havoc and break any relationship apart.
Such breakers exist everywhere- they enter into a company, a home, organization and starting would remain low profile- quietly they surveyed who is the boss most trusted aide, and what are the weakness of the place. They would slowly move in, patiently and with calculated precision- to break down and cause havoc. This person can poke fire and cause friendships to break or people get managed out.
Their ultimate motive? Nobody knows.
One thing’s for sure: deep down they are very unhappy inside. Perhaps they want to do that to gain love- but if a person constantly breaks people apart, she would also find that whatever her heart had always wanted most would always be beyond her reach. She could be doing it to get more power, respect and acceptance, but again,
But the instigator would not be able to do much unless there are already underlying issues- and persons involved already bear some grudges, jealousy or ill will.
I have stayed outside and witnessed first hand how friendships and relationships can be sabotaged by wreckers. Sometimes, the damage is permanent, sometimes, it can be repaired.
But one thing’s for sure, if we practice open communication, be considerate and trust one another, it’s hard for anyone to break us apart. Because if we able to vulnerable and communicate our deepest feelings and hurt to one another, other people would not be able to poke fire easily. Because there’s already established trust and we would tell our feelings out- which could instead easily expose the culprit and instigator.
Next, we will see how exactly the Skeleton Spirit was able to cause schism which ultimately led Tang Shazang chasing away WuKong.
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