50 Fun Facts About Journey to the West

Journey to the West is a fictionalised account of a pilgrimage by which real Chinese monk?

He spent 19 years travelling to India and back in the 7th century, collecting Buddhist scriptures.

The pilgrims in the novel travel to India to fetch what?

They finally receive them from the living Buddha on Vulture Peak after a journey said to take fourteen years.

The novel is traditionally attributed to which Ming dynasty writer?

Modern scholars doubt the attribution, since much of the material came from centuries of folk tales.

Sun Wukong is born from what?

The rock on Flower Fruit Mountain was formed by the coupling of Heaven and Earth.

How many transformations does Sun Wukong master?

He can turn into anything animate or inanimate; his somersault cloud covers 108,000 li in a bound.

What title does Sun Wukong give himself when he raises a flag in rebellion against the Jade Emperor?

The Jade Emperor had first fobbed him off with the lowly post of Keeper of Horses.

What lowly job does the Jade Emperor first give Sun Wukong in Heaven?

When he realises it is the lowest post in Heaven, he storms back to his mountain in a rage.

For how long is Sun Wukong imprisoned under Five Elements Mountain after the Buddha defeats him?

He lost a bet that he could somersault out of the Buddha's palm.

Sun Wukong's staff, the Ruyi Jingu Bang, can be shrunk to the size of a needle and stored where?

It was originally a pillar holding up the undersea palace of the Dragon King of the East Sea, and weighs 17,550 pounds.

How does Tang Sanzang keep Sun Wukong under control?

The disciples call the Ring Tightening Mantra the 'Headache Sutra'; only Guanyin's band can restrain him.

Sun Wukong gains a steel-hard body and fiery golden eyes after being tempered in whose Eight-Trigram Furnace?

He had already eaten Laozi's pills of immortality along with the peaches and heavenly wine.

Zhu Bajie, better known in English as Pigsy, was banished from Heaven for harassing which celestial figure?

He was supposed to be reborn human but a mix-up on the Reincarnation Wheel put him in a sow's womb.

Before his fall, Zhu Bajie held which celestial command?

He commanded 100,000 naval soldiers of the Milky Way before drinking too much at a celebration.

What is Zhu Bajie's weapon?

He is a reliable fighter when he can be dragged away from food and women.

Sha Wujing, the river ogre known as Sandy, was banished from Heaven for what offence?

As the Curtain Lifting General he dropped the Queen Mother of the West's goblet; he wears a necklace of skulls.

The fourth disciple, the horse Tang Sanzang rides, is the son of which figure?

He was sentenced to death for burning his father's great pearl and saved by Guanyin to serve as Sanzang's mount.

Why do so many demons want to eat Tang Sanzang?

Some she-demons instead want to marry him to steal his yang energy.

How many tribulations must Tang Sanzang endure before attaining Buddhahood?

Near the end the Buddha orders one final disaster because the monk is one short.

Which bodhisattva, known in China as Guanyin, is sent by the Buddha to find a pilgrim and recruit the disciples?

Guanyin also places the golden band on Sun Wukong's head and teaches Sanzang the mantra.

Tang Sanzang's past life was as a disciple of the Buddha with what name?

The novel treats the monk as an allegory of the human heart, and Wukong of the mind.

At the end of the novel Zhu Bajie, held back by his greed, receives what heavenly post?

He gets to eat the excess offerings at altars; Wukong and Sanzang become Buddhas and Sandy an arhat.

What title is Sun Wukong granted on completing the journey?

It caps a career that began with the monkeys of Water Curtain Cave crowning him Handsome Monkey King.

The earliest surviving edition of the novel was published in 1592 in which city?

Two earlier editions from between 1522 and 1566 are lost, and the story appears in the 1408 Yongle Encyclopedia.

How many chapters does the standard version of Journey to the West have?

Chapters 1–7 tell Wukong's origin, 8–12 introduce the monk, 13–99 the journey and chapter 100 the return.

The real monk behind the novel left China in 629 in defiance of a travel ban by which emperor?

The same emperor welcomed him home in 646 and funded the Big Wild Goose Pagoda to house his scriptures.

The historical monk studied at which ancient Indian university during his 13 years in the country?

His own account of the trip, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, provided the novel's outline.

Arthur Waley's famous 1942 abridged English translation of the novel was published under what title?

Anthony C. Yu later produced the first complete English translation, abridged in 2006 as The Monkey and the Monk.

Journey to the West is counted among the Four Great Classical Novels of China alongside Water Margin, Dream of the Red Chamber and which other?

The Plum in the Golden Vase is sometimes included in a wider 'six classics'.

Scholar Hu Shih suggested Sun Wukong may have been influenced by which Hindu deity?

The monkey god of the Ramayana shares his shape-shifting, leaping and devotion to a holy master.

Son Goku, hero of Dragon Ball, is based on Sun Wukong. What is 'Son Goku' in relation to the Chinese name?

Goku's tail, staff and flying cloud all come straight from the novel.

The cult 1978–80 TV series based on the novel, famous in Britain for its over-the-top English dub, was produced in which country?

Nippon Television shot it in north-west China and Inner Mongolia; the BBC's dub began in 1979.

What casting quirk of that dubbed 1970s TV series became part of its cult appeal?

Masako Natsume played the young monk; the over-the-top dubbed accents were another draw.

The 1961 animated classic Havoc in Heaven, retelling Wukong's rebellion, was made by which family of Chinese animation pioneers?

Wan Laiming directed and all four brothers produced it at the Shanghai studio.

The 1986 Chinese TV series of Journey to the West, still endlessly rerun, starred which actor as Sun Wukong?

Yang Jie directed; eleven episodes aired in 1986 and all 25 were broadcast on CCTV in 1988.

Black Myth: Wukong, the 2024 hit based on the novel, was developed by which Chinese studio?

It sold more than 10 million copies across all platforms within four days of launch.

How many copies did Black Myth: Wukong sell within four days of its launch?

Its hero, the Destined One, seeks six relics corresponding to Sun Wukong's six senses.

Who co-wrote and produced the 2013 film Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons?

He had earlier starred as the Monkey King in the 1995 two-parter A Chinese Odyssey.

The Bull Demon King, one of the pilgrims' great foes, is the estranged husband of Princess Iron Fan and father of whom?

Red Boy's Samadhi Fire nearly kills Wukong before Guanyin subdues him and makes him her disciple.

Princess Iron Fan's magical fan, needed to quench the Flaming Mountains, is made from what?

The novel calls it a treasure begotten of Heaven and Earth at the back of Mount Kunlun.

In the early chapters the Bull Demon King becomes Sun Wukong's what?

Seven demon kings, including the Roc and the Macaque Spirit King, swear brotherhood together.

The shapeshifting demoness Baigujing, whose true form is a skeleton, is known in English as what?

Her repeated disguises trick Sanzang into banishing Wukong for killing what look like innocent villagers.

Sun Wukong's name, given by his teacher Subhuti, means what?

Waley rendered it 'Aware-of-Vacuity'; his disciples' names Wuneng and Wujing follow the same pattern.

The novel is considered the progenitor of which Chinese literary genre mixing martial arts with high fantasy?

It is at once a comic adventure, a satire of bureaucracy and a religious allegory.

Sun Wukong's one notable weakness is fighting where, forcing the pilgrims to rely on Pigsy and Sandy?

Sandy was a river ogre and Pigsy once commanded Heaven's navy.

How much does Sun Wukong's staff, once a pillar of the Dragon King's undersea palace, weigh?

He pulled it from the East Sea palace it supported; it can shrink to needle size or grow to gigantic proportions.

Who wrote Xiyoubu (c. 1640), the satirical sequel that traps Sun Wukong in a dream world?

The dream is created by the Qing Fish Demon, the embodiment of desire, and Sun travels back and forth through time.

Whose four-volume translation (1977-83) was the first to render the novel's poems and songs?

Yu argued the verse was essential to the author's meaning; the University of Chicago Press issued a revised edition in 2012.

The 2018 series The New Legends of Monkey, made for Australia's ABC, TVNZ and Netflix, was shot where?

It ran ten half-hour episodes and drew criticism as well as enthusiasm ahead of its global premiere.

How many transformations can Zhu Bajie perform, compared with Sun Wukong's 72?

He can also ride clouds, though more slowly than Wukong, and is the party's best fighter in water.

Which 1408 compendium contains excerpts of an early colloquial version of the Xuanzang story?

Book versions circulated as early as the Southern Song, long before the 100-chapter novel of the 16th century.