Abstract: Debates on the theme of the Journey to the West have experienced several changes in a century. In the 30 years after the explanations of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were denied, LU Xun and HU Shi's idea that the theme of the novel is games predominated. In the following 30 years, the doctrine that the theme is class struggle became an authoritative explanation. In the recent four decades, dozens of new ideas have appeared one after another, along with the concepts such as the core themes, sub-themes and multi-themes. There have also been lots of debates on the themes of other classics and even modern short novels. Cihai, a comprehensive dictionary of China, modifies the definition of “theme” to adapt to the status quo and textbooks of literary theories eliminate related accounts. If dating back to the origin of the concept “theme” and analyzing its meaning, we may find out the debates have gone beyond the denotation of the concept. A careful examination of the starting point and key concepts can help to avoid unnecessary disputes.

Key words: Journey to the West, debates on the theme, changes in a century