Journey to the West

"Journey to the West" mainly describes the story of Sun Wukong protecting Monk Tang from going to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures and going through eighty-one hardships. Tang Monk's study of Buddhist scriptures is a real thing in history. About 1,300 years ago, in the first year of Zhenguan (627) of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzang, a 25-year-old young monk, left Chang'an, the capital, and went to Tianzhu (India) to study alone. After setting off from Chang'an, he passed through Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, going through many hardships and obstacles, and finally arrived in India. He studied there for more than two years and was a keynote speaker at a large-scale debate on Buddhist scriptures, where he received praise. In the 19th year of Zhenguan (645), Xuanzang returned to Chang'an and brought back 657 Buddhist scriptures. His journey to the West for Buddhist scriptures lasted for nineteen years and covered tens of thousands of miles. It was a legendary Long March that caused a sensation. Later, Xuanzang's oral account of his journey to the West was compiled into twelve volumes of "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" by his disciple Bianji. But this book mainly tells the history, geography and transportation of the countries seen on the road, without any stories. When his disciples Huili and Yan Cong wrote "The Biography of Master Tripitaka of Daci'en Temple in the Tang Dynasty", it added a lot of mythological color to Xuanzang's experience. From then on, the story of Tang Monk's Buddhist scriptures began to be widely circulated among the people. The Southern Song Dynasty has "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty Searching for Buddhist Scriptures", the Jin Dynasty version has "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty" and "The Peach Club", etc., And the Yuan dramas include Wu Changling's "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty Searching for Buddhist Scriptures from the West", and the Anonymous "Er Lang Shen Locks the Great Sage of Qi", etc. These all laid the foundation for the creation of "Popular Edition of Chinese Classical Literature: Journey to the West (Super Value Gold Edition)". Wu Cheng'en also completed this great literary masterpiece that the Chinese nation is proud of after painstaking recreation on the basis of folk legends, scripts, and operas.