Xuan Zhang\'s Mission to the West with Monkey King

Contents: Preface. 1. The mysterious birth of sun Wukong. 2. Monkey King returns to the mountain of flowers and fruit. 3. Jade emperor invites monkey king to heaven. 4. The great sage equaling heaven--a new title. 5. Monkey steals peaches and the pills of refined Elixir. 6. The great sage monkey is subdued by the little sage. 7. Imprisonment under the five elements mountain. 8. Search for the person to fetch the scriptures. 9. The monk of the river current. 10. Tang emperor Taizong goes to hell. 11. Taizong returns from the underworld with prolonged life. 12. The Bodhisattva Guanyin appears to the reincarnated golden cicada. 13. Sanzang is saved by the planet Venus. 14. Sun Wukong is released from under the double boundary mountain. 15. The dragon-horse joins Sanzang in the eagle's sorrow Gorge. 16. Monster of black wind mountain steals Sanzang's cassock. 17. Monkey fights monster of black Wind mountain. 18. The great sage removes a monster from Gao village. 19. Monkey wins over pig in the cloud pathway cave. 20. Sanzang meets trouble on the yellow wind ridge.... Monkey was conceived inside a huge stone egg. He found a teacher who taught the Monkey King the 72 transformations with which he could change his shape and size at will. Monkey acquired the powers of cloud traveling, on a special somersault cloud using which he could travel on earth and Heaven with incredible speed. The teacher gave him the name sun Wukong, which meant monkey who is aware of his emptiness. Sun Wukong became arrogant and defied Heaven and Hell. The Jade Emperor appealed to the Buddha who kept sun Wukong imprisoned under the Five Elements Mountain and sun Wukong remained there for five hundred years. Five hundred years thereafter, baby Xuan Zhang was born in captivity, and his mother put him in a boat and let it float down the river. The baby was rescued by the Chief Priest of a Buddhist Monastery down the river. The baby was rescued by the Chief Priest of a Buddhist Monastery down the river. Xuan Zhang acquired mastery in Buddhist scriptures. King Taizong had to spend a brief time in Hell where he witnessed the suffering of the souls who were wrongfully sent to Hell. Taizong decided to perform a Great Mass to free all those souls upon his return to earth. He recruited Xuan Zhang to perform the Great Mass. Bodhisattva Guanyin told Emperor Taizong to commission somebody to fetch the true scriptures from the West, i.e. from India. Emperor Taizong recruited Master Xuan Zhang to the task. Xuan Zhang was accompanied by Sun Wukong, the pig of Zhu Bajie, and the demon of the Flowing Sands River, Sha Wujing, on this spic journey. They encounter countless demons and spirits who impeded their mission. Finally they accomplished their mission. Finally they accomplished their mission and returned safely to China with the scriptures. The story has many similarities with Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. This inspired the author to rewrite the story pointing out the similarities with Indian epics. The original story is in Chinese and the English translation by Arthur Waley has been taken as the main reference for this narration although other references mentioned in the reference section have been of great help.