25 November 2016
You probably have already seen three wise monkeys in miniature or in picture where one covers his ears, the other covers his mouth and the last one covers his eyes. But do you know what it means? In western countries, it’s our habit to see them as decorative objects without speaking of their true signification. Of course, they are far from only decorative objects. Origin of the 3 wise monkeys It’s hard to date the first appearance of the three wise monkeys. They have been brought into Buddhism by a monk in the 7th century. According to the legend, this monk, while he was travelling, was escorted by a monkey. His name was Xuanzang, one of the most important translators of Buddhist texts in China. He left China for India when he realized that it was time to seek more Buddhist texts to bring to China. Nevertheless, he’s not the one who invented the three wise monkeys, but the one who made them known. The first traces lead us to the «Analects of Confucius» (between the 4th and 11st century BC). Several legends assume that those three monkeys came from Japanese Koshin’s belief. They are based on the idea that, in every human being, there are three wicked worms, the Sanshi, which, every sixty days leave our body to report on our sins to a superior entity, Ten-Tei. Still, it’s tough to make the difference between legend and reality. Moreover, one of the oldest known representations of those three monkeys is on the front of the Tshogu temple in Nikko, Japan. Would they come from Japan then? It’s possible. The three mystical monkeys (as they are sometimes called) are named the sanzaru. Their names are Mizaru, Iwazaru and Kikazaru. In Japanese language, «san» means three and «saru» means monkey. Time passing, «saru» becomes «zaru» giving birth to sanzaru. Yet, «zaru» is also a negative form, that we could translate to «not to». So the common admitted meaning «not see, not hear and not speak» could come from a Japanese play on words. Besides, in Japanese culture, monkey is supposed to ward off evils. Meaning of these three wise monkeys Those three wise monkeys are supposed to represent a way not to feel evil. The common sense is : not to see anything, not to hear anything and not to say anything. But can it really be that simple? To me, such […]
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