The four protagonists, from left to right: Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang (on the White Dragon Horse), Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing.

Translations: ' Monkey' is an abridged English translation by Arthur Waley.

7 Notable English-language translations.

Enduringly popular, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, an epic odyssey, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment by the power and virtue of cooperation. Journey to the West has strong roots in Chinese folk religion, Chinese mythology, Daoist and Buddhist philosophy, and the pantheon of Daoist immortals and Buddhist bodhisattvas are still reflective of some Chinese religious attitudes today. These disciples are Sun Wukong, Zhu Wuneng and Sha Wujing, together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuanzang's steed, a white horse. It retains the broad outline of Xuanzang's own account, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, but the Ming dynasty novel adds elements from folk tales and the author's invention, for example, that Gautama Buddha gave this task to the monk and provided him with three protectors who agree to help him as an atonement for their sins. Xuanzang traveled to the ' Western Regions', that is, Central Asia and India, to obtain Buddhist sacred texts ( sūtras) and returned after many trials and much suffering. The novel is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang along the ancient Silk Road from China to India and back.

It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Journey to the West (西遊記) is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en.

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