Journey to the West is a mythological novel, telling the story of a Tang dynasty monk called Xuanzang (Mong Tang) who, under the order of the Tang emperor, went west on a pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures with his three disciples Sun Wukong the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie the Pigsy and Monk Sha. During the journey, they defeated demons and monsters and experienced all kinds of ordeals. There are six books in this series based on this novel, namely Havoc in Heaven, The Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures, Three Battles with the White Bone Demon, The Flaming Mountains, The Real and Fake Monkey King and The Leiyin Temple.

Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures tells the story of Monk Tang taking Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Monk Sha as his disciples and going on the journey to the west with them. Buddha in the west (India) has Buddhist scriptures which encourage people to do good deeds, so the Tang emperor sent Xuanzang to fetch the scriptures. On his journey, Xuanzang saved Sun Wukong from the Wuxing Mountain, who then became his disciple and agreed to escort him to fetch the scriptures. The Goddess of Mercy put a golden hoop on Sun Wukong’s head and taught Monk Tang an incantation of tightening the golden hoop. Whenever the incantation was recited, Sun Wukong felt a terrible headache, which forced him to be obedient. Later Monk Tang met his other disciples, the White Dragon Horse, Zhu Bajie and Monk Sha, one after another. Together they escorted Monk Tang to the west.