This book is a retelling, in easy-to-read Chinese, of the legendary story of how a little stone monkey was born, became king of his troop of monkeys, left his home to pursue enlightenment, received the name Sun Wukong (literally, “ape seeking the void”) from his teacher, and returned home to defend his subjects from a ravenous monster.

Sun Wukong, the Handsome Monkey King, is one of the most famous characters in Chinese literature and culture.  His legendary bravery, his foolish mistakes, his sharp-tongued commentary and his yearning for immortality and spiritual knowledge have inspired hundreds of books, television shows, graphic novels, video games and films.

This is the first book in the best-selling The Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on the epic 16th century novel of the same name by Wu Chen’en.

This story is told using only 512 Chinese words, most of which are in the standard HSK3 vocabulary. All new words are defined on the page where they are first used. The book uses Traditional 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.

NOTE: This book is written in Traditional Chinese, the character set used primarily in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The book is also available in Simplified Chinese, the character set used in mainland China.