The Jade Emperor sent heavenly soldiers to capture the Monkey King, and the Monkey King defeated the giant spirit god and Nezha in a row. The Jade Emperor asked the Tathagata to put the Monkey King at the foot of Wuxing Mountain.
The Tathagata sent Guanyin Bodhisattva to the East to find a Buddhist scripture, and came to the West to learn from it and persuade all beings. Guanyin gave Sanzang the title, traveled west to Tang Sanzang, and saved the Monkey King in Wuxing Mountain.
The Monkey King was taken to the west to observe the world, and they went west to collect Fu Bailong in Yingchoujian, and Bailong became the mount of Tang Priest. In Gaolaozhuang, Pig Bajie was arrested, became the second disciple of Tang Priest, Sha Wujing was arrested in Liushahe, and Friar Sand became the third disciple of Tang Priest. The four of them waded through mountains and rivers to learn the scriptures, and finally got the true scriptures after eighty-one difficulties.
The Journey to the West is the first romantic novel with chapters and sections in ancient China. There are hundreds of The Journey to the West published in Ming Dynasty, and there is no author's signature. Wu et al., a scholar in Qing Dynasty, first proposed that The Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng'en in Ming Dynasty. This novel is based on the historical event of "Tang priest learning from the scriptures" and deeply depicts the social reality at that time through the author's artistic processing.
Since its publication, The Journey to the West has been widely circulated among the people, and various versions have emerged one after another. There are six editions in Ming Dynasty, seven editions and manuscripts in Qing Dynasty, and thirteen lost editions have been recorded in ancient books.