Hsi Yu Chi, is a romantic (not romantic as in love, but romantic as in free of complications) book, it's funny, philsophical and entertaining. So what's this new craze you won't be able to live without? Well to start with, it's not new at all...it's only a bit younger than the works of Shakespear. Basically, Hsi Yu Chi is a collection of episodes about a pilgrim and his supernatural disciples, the focus being on the Monkey Spirit Sun Wukung. The episodes typically involve demons, magic and characters from the Taoist and Buddhist Pantheons. Well, never has a full site in english been devoted to this book before, so here comes this one.
Sometime ago, in about 600 AD, A Chinese Priest Named Hsuan Tsang made a journey from his hometown Chang'an to what is now known as India. The purpose of his journey was to collect Buhddist Scriptures and bring them back to China so that the people could learn about religion.
On his return to Chang'an, Hsuan Tsang became a favourite of the Emperor and was given the honorific name 'Tripitaka'. After that, Tripitaka became the most reknowned religous figure in Asia. Countless stories and legends about Tripitaka's journey were told. Soon, the stories became unbelievable. Stories were being told about how Tripitaka encountered demons, monsters and fiends.
Then, somwhere along the line, after years of storytelling, someone somehow introduced a monkey into the story. This was a monkey who escorted the Priest to India. The idea of the monkey became popular and soon, all stories about Tripitaka included the monkey disciple. Gradually, the monkey became more and more popular until he eventually took over the story as the main character.
Though there were already plenty of accounts of Tripitaka's journey already, it became really popular when someone (possibly Wu Cheng'en but we're not sure) wrote a complete account of the entire journey. It was named Hsi Yu Chi (The Journey To The West) and along with Tripitaka and the Monkey, there was also Chu Pa Chieh (a pig spirit) and Sha Monk (a water demon). In the Hsi Yu Chi, the Monkey was given the name Sun Wukung. The pilgrimage took nearly twenty years, there were demons and monsters at every corner.
Today, the Hsi Yu Chi is still one the best loved pieces of literature in China. Everyone in China knows it and probably people in Japan, Korea and Vietnam know it quite well as well.
(c)Copyright 1997 Thomas Kent & Thomas Nguyen.