The monk Tangseng has harsh words for his eldest disciple, the monkey king Sun Wukong. His pride hurt, Sun Wukong complains to the Bodhisattva Guanyin and asks to be released from his service to the monk. She refuses his request. This leads to a case of mistaken identity and an earthshaking battle that begins in the sky over the monkey’s home on Flower Fruit Mountain, moves through the palaces of heaven and the depths of the underworld, and ends in front of the Buddha himself.

This is the 19th book in the best-selling Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on the events in Chapters 56 through 58 of the epic 16th century novel of the same name by Wu Chen’en. That novel was inspired by an actual journey by the Buddhist monk Tangseng, who traveled from Chang’an westward to India in 629 A.D. and returned seventeen years later with priceless knowledge and spiritual texts. Over the course of the book Tangseng and his companions face the 81 tribulations that Tangseng had to endure to attain Buddhahood.

The first 19 books in the Journey to the West series have used a total of about 1800 different Chinese words, but only 749 are used in this book. All new words are defined on the page where they are first used. The book uses Simplified Chinese characters and includes pinyin, an English translation, and a full glossary. A free audiobook is available on YouTube’s Imagin8 Press channel and on www.imagin8press.com.