Journey to the West. Illustrated Collector's Edition

Author: Wu Cheng'en (Ming Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The Journey to the West is an outstanding mythological novel from ancient China. It stands tall among the peaks of artistic mountains and is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of the Ming Dynasty. It was praised by Lu Xun as a "masterpiece" and a "great work." The creation of The Journey to the West took several centuries to brew. Countless anonymous artists and writers contributed their hard labor, and ultimately, it was compiled into the long mythological novel we see today by Wu Cheng'en, a literary writer of the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. The Journey to the West is based on the historical fact of Tang Xuanzang's journey to India during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty to retrieve Buddhist scriptures. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, the monk Tang Xuanzang defied the prohibition and secretly crossed borders, traveling alone from Chang'an to India to retrieve Buddhist scriptures. It took him seventeen years, during which he visited over a hundred countries and overcame countless hardships, finally returning with over 650 volumes of Buddhist scriptures. This heroic feat itself carried a strong legendary aura, and thus, it quickly spread among the people.