"The Dark Biography of Journey to the West: The Chess Game of the Gods" is a wonderful book. It is not a simple retelling of the Journey to the West story, but instead takes on the first-person perspectives of 16 key figures including Sun Wukong, Tang Monk, Bone Lady, Tathagata and even the Jade Emperor, revealing their true thoughts, secret calculations and involuntary actions in the drama of the Three Realms. This book deeply explores the darkness of human nature under the aura of gods and Buddhas, as well as the chilling truth of "thick black learning" and "human feelings" behind "perfect merit and virtue". The volumes of self-narration constitute a magnificent and shocking ukiyo-epi of power and human nature in the three realms.
