Monkey King - The Legend
Journey to the West (Xiyouji) was written by Wu Cheng'en (c.1500-82). The story is based on an actual journey, which Xuan Zang (602-664) had undertaken by order of the Tang's dynasty emperor, Tai Zong (627-649). He traveled from Chinese Central Asia to India, the home of Buddhism, to collect Buddhist texts for translation into Chinese. From Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), the capital of the Tang Dynasty, the monk journeyed west. It took him seventeen years, but he eventually fulfilled the mission and returned to Chang'an. From that time forward, Buddhism spread across China. As this legendary trip was told and retold by later generations, many embellishments were added along. Wu Cheng'en, using popular versions of the story along with his own fictional details, created the classical novel, Journey to the West , which is now famous throughout China.
The story, Journey to the West begins with the birth of Monkey King on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. Monkey King learns to live with the monkeys nearby and becomes their leader when he crossed the waterfall on the Flower Fruit Mountain. Being extremely smart and cunning, he learned the 72 transformations and immortality from a Taoist master. He also learned how to travel 108,000 li in a single somersault. The weapon that he uses is a golden iron rod that can expand or shrink at its owner's command. Having eaten the peaches of immortality specially grown for the banquet to be held by the Heavenly Queen Mother of the West, the Buddha traps him beneath the Mountain of the Five Elements. Five hundred years later, Wu Kong was released by the monk Xuan Zang on his quest to obtain the holy Buddhist scriptures from India. These two and three other pilgrims - Pigsy, Sha Monk and the dragon horse - have to overcome 81 calamities and confrontations in the form of supernatural phenomena and monsters before reaching their goal and returning to China with the texts, which they did and became Buddhas in the end.
The story, Journey to the West begins with the birth of Monkey King on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. Monkey King learns to live with the monkeys nearby and becomes their leader when he crossed the waterfall on the Flower Fruit Mountain. Being extremely smart and cunning, he learned the 72 transformations and immortality from a Taoist master. He also learned how to travel 108,000 li in a single somersault. The weapon that he uses is a golden iron rod that can expand or shrink at its owner's command. Having eaten the peaches of immortality specially grown for the banquet to be held by the Heavenly Queen Mother of the West, the Buddha traps him beneath the Mountain of the Five Elements. Five hundred years later, Wu Kong was released by the monk Xuan Zang on his quest to obtain the holy Buddhist scriptures from India. These two and three other pilgrims - Pigsy, Sha Monk and the dragon horse - have to overcome 81 calamities and confrontations in the form of supernatural phenomena and monsters before reaching their goal and returning to China with the texts, which they did and became Buddhas in the end.
Below are links to the Chinese novel Journey to the West translated in a couple of different languages. I don't know how close the translated version is to the original Chinese version, but it is fairly close so that people, who cannot read Chinese, can read and know about this famous Chinese classic. This is just some that I have found in the internet. I hope in the near future every one in this world will know about this great story.
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