Journey to the West,commonly known to the western readers as Monkey,is a supernatural novel about a world of of fantastic invention,in which gods and demons loom large and vie for supremacy.The novel began with a series of oral and written versions,and eventually attained its most definitive version written by Wu Ch'eng-en (1500?-1582),a scholar-official in the Yantze region,and published in 1592.
The story of Journey to the West is divided into three parts:(1) an early history of the Monkey spirit; (2) pseudo-historical account of Tripitaka's family and life before his trip to to fetch the sutras in the Western Heaven; (3)the main story,consisting of 81 dangers and calamities encountered by Tripitaka and his three animal spirit disciples - Monkey,Pigsy,and Sandy (a fish spirit).
