As Tangseng and his three disciples continue on their westward journey, they meet the king of Scarlet Purple Kingdom. The king is gravely ill, sick with grief over the loss of one of his wives who was abducted by a nearby demon king. Sun Wukong pretends to be a doctor and attempts to cure the king with a treatment not found in any medical textbook. Then he goes to rescue the imprisoned queen, leading to an earth-shaking confrontation with the demon king.
This is the 23rd book in the best-selling Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on the events in Chapters 68 through 71 of the epic 16th century novel of the same name by Wu Chen'en. That novel was inspired by an actual journey by the Buddhist monk Tangseng, who traveled from Chang'an westward to India in 629 A.D. and returned seventeen years later with priceless knowledge and spiritual texts. Over the course of the book the four travelers face the 81 tribulations that Tangseng had to endure to attain Buddhahood.
The first 23 books in the Journey to the West series have used a total of about 2000 different Chinese words, but only 916 are used in this book. All new words are defined on the page where they are first used. The book uses Simplified Chinese characters and includes pinyin, an English translation, and a full glossary.
A free audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel and on the Imagin8 Press website.
