The Country of Women

The four travelers run into difficulties and temptations in a nation of women and girls. First, the monk Tangseng and his disciple Zhu become pregnant after drinking from the Mother and Child River. Later, the nation's queen meets Tangseng and pressures him to marry her. He barely escapes that fate, only to be kidnapped by a powerful female demon who takes him to her cave and tries to seduce him. The travelers must use all their tricks and strength to escape.

This is the 18th book in the best-selling The Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on 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 Tangseng and his companions face the 81 tribulations that Tangseng had to endure to attain Buddhahood.

The story is written using the 1200 word vocabulary of HSK4 plus several hundred words introduced in previous books in the series. It is presented in Simplified Chinese characters and pinyin, and includes an English version and glossary. A free audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel and also on www.imagin8press.com.