In the early Tang dynasty a Chinese monk, Xuan Zang, travelled from 629-645 on a pilgrimage to India in order to bring home the original scriptures of the sacred Buddhist canon for translation into Chinese. The expedition was extraordinarily difficult in those times, and upon his return Xuan Zang was given much attention by the Chinese emperor who bestoved on him the honorary name San Zang or Three Treasuries of the Buddhist canon, usually rendered in its Indian form: Tripitaka. The journey gave rise to a flora of folk tales, drama as well as the fantasy novel Journey to the West Xiyou ji by Wu Cheng’en (1506-1582). Master Tripitaka is in folklore and fiction joined on his mission by three disciples, two of them of superhuman character - half man, half animal - the Monkey King or Sun Wukong, and Pigsy or Zhu Bajie. The third, Friar Sand or Sha Heshang, is a somewhat shady figure.
The extract was told 1996 by Dai Buzhang (1925-), son and disciple of Dai Shanzhang (1880-1938), founder of the Dai School of Journey to the West. Dai Buzhang also studied with his uncle Dai Bingzhang (1899-1972). Dai Buzhang’s performance was video-recorded by Svend Nielsen, Copenhagen. The photos are by the late Jette Ross, initiator of this website. Here you will find a short glimpse of the performance in sound, picture and text. For the complete performance in text—English and Chinese—as well as longer extracts on VCD, see Chinese Storytellers.