The Journey West

The emperor wishes this monk can travel west and bring holy Mahayana Buddhist scriptures back to China. After being inspired by a vision from the Bodhisattva Guanyin, the monk accepts the mission and sets off on the sacred quest. But Tang Monk is ill-equipped for such perilous travel on his own.

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Weak and timid, he is no match for the evil creatures seeking to kill and eat him his flesh, after all, is said to impart immortality. And so the goddess Guanyin arranges for an eclectic group to become his disciples and protect him: All had been banished to the human world for sins in the heavens. Out of mercy, Guanyin gives them one more chance to return to their celestial home: They can convert to Buddhism and protect the monk Tang on his pilgrimage. And indeed, on the journey they encounter one trial after another—a total of 81, to be precise.

Through force or deception, a motley of demons and evil spirits come after the monk.

Some try to tempt the band with wealth or beauty. Yet, in the end, the pious pilgrims triumph, they return to China with sacred scriptures, and return to their rightful places in the heavens.

Journey to the West is known for its colorful characters, especially the Monkey King and Pigsy. The Monkey King was born out of a rock, and learned supernormal powers from a Taoist master. Another demon hunter, Duan, captures and turns the demon into a puppet. Sanzang tells to Duan that his master taught him a more humane approach and to use nursery rhymes to coax goodness out of demons, a tactic Duan scoffs at.

Disillusioned, Sanzang meets his master and bemoans his lack of capabilities compared to more aggressive demon-hunters. His master reaffirms his humanist philosophy and sends Sanzang off again to find "enlightenment. A couple enters an empty restaurant but the chef reveals himself to be a pig demon and kills them. Sanzang comes to the same restaurant, this time apparently filled with people.

Sanzang sees through the illusion and recognizes them as reanimated corpses of the victims, as well as the demon's nine-toothed rake. Duan bursts into the restaurant and destroys all the corpses, and attacks the pig demon. She captures the demon in her magic bag to turn it into a puppet, but it bursts out of the bag and transforms into a huge boar, collapsing the building.

Sanzang and Duan retreat. Duan then develops a strong limerence towards Sanzang after being impressed by his selfless ideals.

She expresses her feelings, but Sanzang flees, not wishing to deal with romantic love in his quest for nirvana. Sanzang's master advises him to tame the Monkey King demon Sun Wukong trapped by Buddha to subdue the pig demon. That night, he is captured by a gang that had also subdued Duan. It is later revealed to be a ploy orchestrated by Duan to trick Sanzang into having sex with her.

After Sanzang rejects her again, she has him imprisoned.

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The pig demon reappears and injures Duan but is chased off by a trio of rivaling demon-hunters. Duan views Sanzang's concern for her injuries as a romantic attraction.

After Sanzang refuses her advances again, she destroys his book of nursery rhymes and he leaves. After days of traveling, Sanzang finally discovers a cave under a lotus garden, where Monkey King was trapped in for years. Monkey King tells Sanzang to use a dancer to bait the demon.

Duan appears and volunteers to dance. When the pig demon appears Monkey King easily subdues it, allowing Duan to turn it into a puppet. Duan then gives both the fish and pig puppets to Sanzang and offers her golden ringed weapon as an engagement band, but he rejects her again. She leaves after returning his nursery rhyme book, which she had pieced back together, although at random as she is illiterate.

Monkey King tricks Sanzang into removing the seal on his prison and bursts out of the cave. There's also Yulong, a dragon who eats Xuanzang's horse and in restitution is required to transform into horse shape and carry Xuanzang the rest of the way. But even the author seems to forget most of the time that he's not just a horse. After many adventures, in which Sun Wukong and his allies defend Xuanzang from thieves, robbers, cannibals, vamps, false priests and monsters of all varieties not to mention the horrifying affair of the escaped goldfish , they reach India and everybody lives happily ever after.

Journey to the West has been adapted to television many times - especially in Japan, where the story is called Saiyuki and the characters are Genjo Sanzo, Cho Hakkai, Sha Gojo, and Son Goku All just the on'yomi Japanese reading of the Chinese character names. Many anime series have at least one Shout-Out , and some go for outright plunder from Gensomaden Saiyuki to, of all things, Dragon Ball - yes, that Son Goku was inspired directly by and named after this Son Goku.

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The most recent TV adaptation as of this writing is 's Journey to the West. While it is popular in Japan, it's omnipresent in its native China. For example, there was a s Journey to the West TV series in China that was so popular, it's said that to this day there's always at least one television station rerunning it anywhere in the nation and also in Vietnam, where it's just as famous and widely loved.