This is the third and final volume of the classic Chinese fantasy novel, Journey to the West. In it, the four pilgrims – the Tang Priest Sanzang and his three powerful disciples, Monkey, Pig, and Friar Sand – have to deal with many more monsters and misfortunes before they finally reach their goal: Thunder Monastery in the Western heaven where the Lord Buddha lives. Even here their troubles are not at an end. The scriptures they are given at first are all blank.
The story is told with the zest, imagination and humor that have made it one of China’s best-loved novels for four hundred years. It is not just a tale of the fantastic; it is also rich in insights into human nature and human society.
The illustrations are taken from a nineteenth-century Chinese edition of the book. A “Translator’s Afterword” discusses this great feast of the imagination and outlines how the cycle of legends grew over many hundred years.