Brief introduction of The Journey to the West

The Journey to the West is the first romantic novel with chapters and sections in ancient China. There are hundreds of The Journey to the West published in Ming Dynasty, and there is no author's signature. Wu et al., a scholar in Qing Dynasty, first proposed that The Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng'en in Ming Dynasty.

This novel is based on the historical event of "Tang priest learning from the scriptures" and deeply depicts the social reality at that time through the author's artistic processing. The book mainly describes the story of the Monkey King's encounter with Tang Priest, Pig Bajie, Friar Sand after his birth, and his disturbance to the Heaven Palace. He went west to learn from the scriptures, demonized all the way, and after eighty-one difficulties, he finally arrived in the Western Heaven to meet the Tathagata Buddha, and finally the Five Saints died.

Since its publication, The Journey to the West has been widely circulated among the people, and various versions have emerged one after another. There are six editions in Ming Dynasty, seven editions and manuscripts in Qing Dynasty, and thirteen lost editions have been recorded in ancient books. After the Opium War, a large number of China classical literary works were translated into western languages.

The Journey to the West was gradually introduced to Europe and America and translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, sign language, Esperanto (Esperanto), Sri Lankan (Swahili), Russia, Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Japan, North Korea and Vietnam. Chinese and foreign scholars have published many research papers and monographs, which have given high evaluation to this novel.

Extended data:

Creation background

In the first year of Zhenguan of Emperor Taizong (627), Xuanzang Tianzhu, a 25-year-old monk, went hiking in India. After starting from Chang 'an, he passed through Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally arrived in India. He studied there for more than two years and gave a speech at a large-scale debate on Buddhist classics, which was well received.

In the 19th year of Zhenguan (645), Xuanzang returned to Chang 'an and brought back 657 Buddhist scriptures, which was a sensation. Later, Xuanzang dictated his The Journey to the West, which was compiled by his disciples into a 12-volume Record of the Western Regions of Datang. But this book is mainly about the history, geography and transportation of countries seen on the road, and there is no story.

As for "Datang The biography of Master Sanzang" written by his disciples Huihe and Yan Cong, it adds a lot of myths to Xuanzang's experience. Since then, the story of Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures has been widely circulated among the people in China.

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