Journey to the West (novel)
fictional journey · 639 AD–653 AD
This is fiction, not history. Journey to the West is a 16th-century Chinese novel, attributed to Wu Cheng'en, that retells Xuanzang's real pilgrimage as a fantasy: the monk Tang Sanzang travels west to fetch scriptures from the Buddha, protected by the Monkey King Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing through eighty-one ordeals. Almost every kingdom and demon on the way is invented, and the novel gives no geography between its few real places, so only those are mapped and the line between them is a straight guess. The dates are the novel's own. It sets the departure in the 13th year of the Zhenguan era (639) and the return fourteen years later, in a 27th year of an era that in reality ended after 23. For the historical journey, see Xuanzang's pilgrimage.
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Recorded boundaries
| Period | Control | Confidence | Evidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 639 AD–652 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Set out from Chang'an. In the novel, Emperor Taizong sends Tang Sanzang west to fetch the Mahayana scriptures. |
| 653 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Vulture Peak → Chang'an. The novel's Spirit Mountain, where the Buddha gives them the scriptures. It is usually identified with Vulture Peak near Rajgir, where the Buddha is said to have preached. In the novel they are carried home through the air in eight days, then return to the west and become Buddhas. |
Each row is a snapshot the source recorded, not a continuous history. The period between two observations is an inference this atlas shows rather than hides.
Sources
- Attributed to Wu Cheng'en; translated by Anthony C. Yu, The Journey to the West (revised edition), (2012)