The Five Treasures

This book is part of 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. The novel is loosely based on an actual journey by the Buddhist monk Tangseng (formerly called Xuanzang and Sanzang), who traveled from the Chinese city of Chang'an westward to India in 629 A.D. and returned 17 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.

In this, the 12th book in our Journey to the West series, our band of travelers arrives at Level Top Mountain and encounters their most powerful adversaries yet: Great King Golden Horn and his younger brother Great King Silver Horn. These two monsters, assisted by their elderly mother and hundreds of well-armed demons, attempt to capture and liquefy Sun Wukong, and eat the Tang monk and his other disciples.  Led by Sun Wukong, the travelers desperately battle their foes through a combination of trickery, deception and magic, and barely survive the encounter.

The story is written, as much as possible, using the 1200 word vocabulary of HSK4. It is presented in Simplified Chinese characters and pinyin, and includes an English version and complete glossary.  A free audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel, and on our website, www.imagin8press.com.