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1-Page Summary of The Journey
Overall Summary
The Journey to the West is an epic novel that was written during the late Ming Dynasty. It’s loosely based on a famous pilgrimage of Xuanzang, who lived from approximately 596 to 664 and went on a journey for Buddhist scriptures. There are two main components in this book: one by Yang Zhihe and another by Zhu Dingchen.
The story takes place in the beginning of time. A monkey is born from an immortal stone and possesses traits of both Yin and Yang (the two opposing forces). He becomes a king among monkeys, trains in a Daoist discipline which gives him great powers, but then he angers his master and is cast out. The rest of the story follows his selfishness and greed as he develops an inferiority complex that leads to offending Heaven. To get him under control, Heaven’s ruler—the Jade Emperor—offends him with fake titles and gifts. When this doesn’t work, he sends an army after the monkey who flees to Earth.
Sun Wu Kong is a monkey who has been fighting for the gods and defeating demons. He’s so powerful that he even defeats the Jade Emperor, who then sentences him to death. Sun Wu Kong is captured by Buddha, imprisoned under five mountains, and can only redeem himself if he does something good in his life after being freed from prison. Guanyin (the goddess of mercy) promises three monsters opportunities to redeem themselves as well. One monster will have to serve Xuanzang (a monk).
Emperor Tang Taizong is supposed to save the Dragon King from execution after the Dragon King ruins a fortune teller. However, he fails because Wei, who was in charge of executing and judging the king, kills him while dreaming. This causes Emperor Tang Taizong to die of sadness. In the Underworld, he promises to send food and hold mass for all trapped souls so they can be reborn—he’s then sent back to life because there are still 20 years left in his lifespan. He makes good on his promise by doing just that: sending food and holding mass for all those trapped souls so they can be reborn.”
A mass is held by a Buddhist monk, Xuanzang. During the ceremony, Guanyin appears and announces that she’s going to go on a journey with him; he volunteers. He helps her out along the way, and in return for his help, she saves his father’s spirit from hell. The man who was helped then agrees to guide Xuanzang on his journey westward; they reach a mountain where Wukong cries out for Tripitaka. Tripitaka frees Wukong and gets into trouble with him when they are attacked by bandits who want their belongings. Pilgrim (Wukong) kills them all except one—the leader of the bandits—and chides Tripitaka because he didn’t have faith in Pilgrim’s abilities as a fighter against evil despite having been saved from execution before by Pilgrim himself earlier during their travels together through India and China. Later, Guanyin brings forth an enchanted horse made of white jade that can fly to take them across great distances quickly towards the west so that they can continue their quest to find sacred texts at Vulture Peak. As time goes on, it becomes apparent that both Pilgrim (Wukong) and Tripitaka make mistakes such as getting into arguments or being prideful at times but also learn valuable lessons about themselves over time; however, neither is perfect since both still struggle with vanity at times throughout this adventure story.
Pilgrim and Guanyin work together to defeat a bear monster and regain the heavenly cassock for Tripitaka. They remind Pilgrim that he should be good, but he continues to cause trouble in the rest of The Journey to the West.
