The Monkey Pilgrim

Before Journey to the West , there was this. Dating to the Song dynasty, The Tale in Verse of the Great Tang Tripitaka's Quest for Scriptures is the earliest surviving story of Xuanzang's mythic pilgrimage - the very first appearance of the figure who would become the Monkey King. Predating Wu Cheng'en's classic by some four centuries, this is where the legend begins. Now in English for the first time, this haunting…

The full evolution of one of the world’s great mythic narratives, from its earliest Song-dynasty origins through the canonical Ming epic to its Qing-dynasty aftermath.