The Magic Ginseng Tree

Tangseng and his disciples have been traveling for two or three years. They arrive at a secluded mountain monastery which turns out to be the home of a powerful master named Zhenyuan and an ancient and magical ginseng tree. As usual, the travelers' search for a nice hot meal and a place to sleep quickly turns into a disaster. Although Zhenyuan has gone away for a few days, he has left his two youngest disciples in charge. They welcome the travelers, but soon there are misunderstandings, arguments, battles in the sky, and before long the travelers are facing a powerful and extremely angry adversary, as well as mysterious magic fruits and a large frying pan full of hot oil.

This is the 10th 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, 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 glossary. A free audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel and also on www.imagin8press.com.