Journey to the West: The Four Pilgrims

Meet the voices

• Narrator · 旁白 — An old storyteller who tells how one monk and a monkey became a team of four on the road to the West.
• Sun Wukong · 孙悟空 — The Monkey King, freed after five hundred years under a mountain: brave, boastful, quick-tempered and fiercely loyal to his new master.
• Tang Seng · 唐僧 — A gentle young monk walking all the way to the West for the scriptures: kind to everyone, easily frightened, and quick to cry.
• Zhu Bajie · 猪八戒 — Once a marshal of heaven, now a pig-faced monk: lazy, greedy, always hungry, and always teasing the monkey.
• Sha Wujing · 沙悟净 — A heavenly general sent down to the Flowing Sand River for one broken cup: quiet, steady and loyal.
• Guanyin · 观音菩萨 — The kind Bodhisattva of mercy, who has quietly arranged every step of the monk's journey.
• the Buddha · 如来佛祖 — The Buddha of the Western Heaven, who sends Guanyin east to find a pilgrim for his scriptures.
• Muzha · 木叉 — Guanyin's young disciple, who travels east with her to find the pilgrim.
• Little White Dragon · 小白龙 — The son of the Dragon King of the Western Sea, hiding in a mountain stream to make up for a big mistake.
• the Tang Emperor · 唐王 — The emperor of the Great Tang, who asks his monks who will go west for the scriptures.
• Wenjiao · 温娇 — Tang Seng's mother, who once had to send her baby son away down a river to save his life.
• Taibai Jinxing · 太白金星 — A kindly old star god who turns up just when a traveler needs help.
• Liu Boqin · 刘伯钦 — A bold mountain hunter near the Tang border, who fears no tiger.
• Dragon King of the Eastern Sea · 东海龙王 — The old ruler of the Eastern Sea, who knows Wukong well and offers him tea and good advice.
• the Old Abbot · 金池长老 — The 270-year-old abbot of the Guanyin Temple, who loves fine things more than a monk should.
• the Black Bear Demon · 黑熊精 — The demon king of Black Wind Mountain, a big black bear and a friend of the old abbot.
• Old Gao · 高太公 — A worried old farmer whose son-in-law works like ten men, eats like twenty, and has the face of a pig.
• the Yellow Wind King · 黄风大王 — The demon king of Yellow Wind Ridge, who has a terrible magic wind.
• Lingji Bodhisattva · 灵吉菩萨 — A bodhisattva who keeps a treasure the Buddha gave him.

25 chapters in 5 parts

Part 1: The Pilgrim 取经人

Part 2: Master and Disciple 师父和徒弟

Part 3: The Stolen Cassock 袈裟不见了

Part 4: Zhu Bajie 猪八戒

Part 5: The Four Pilgrims 师徒四人

Key words in Journey to the West: The Four Pilgrims

• 师父 shī fu: master
• 徒弟 tú dì: disciple
• 宝贝 bǎo bèi: treasure
• 马 mǎ: horse
• 帽子 mào zi: hat
• 耳朵 ěr duo: ear
• 变成 biàn chéng: to turn into
• 保护 bǎo hù: to protect
• 念 niàn: to recite
• 沉 chén: to sink

Behind the story

This book retells chapters 8 to 22 of Journey to the West (西游记), the 16th-century novel usually credited to Wu Cheng'en (吴承恩), over 25 chapters. It picks up where The Monkey King ends: Guanyin travels east to find a pilgrim for the Buddha's scriptures, a young monk sets out from Chang'an, and one by one the famous team comes together on the road west. Chinese readers call them 师徒四人, “the master and his three disciples.”

Tang Seng (唐僧) is based on a real monk, Xuanzang (玄奘), who left the Tang capital in the 7th century and spent many years traveling to India and back to bring home Buddhist scriptures. The novel turned his journey into a fantasy, and his three disciples are now as familiar as family in China: clever, hot-tempered Wukong; lazy, greedy, lovable Bajie; and steady, quiet Sha Wujing.

Did you know?

• Tang Seng's childhood, the baby his mother sends down the river, is not a chapter of its own in the oldest surviving edition of the novel (1592), which tells it in a poem. Editions from the 1660s on print it as a full chapter, and this book keeps it.
• The name 八戒 means “eight precepts,” eight rules to keep. In the novel, Tang Seng chooses it because the pig has given up eight kinds of food since meeting Guanyin: five strong-smelling plants such as garlic and onions, and three kinds of meat.
• The spell Guanyin teaches Tang Seng is the 紧箍咒, the “Tightening Spell.” People still use the word for anything that keeps someone in check, like a strict rule or a boss's warning.