# Monkey

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/wu-czeng-en/monkey/9780140441116

![Monkey](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/wu-cheng-en/monkey_978-01-4044-111-6.jpg?v=2026-04-23%2004%3A28%3A19)

- Book: [Monkey](https://www.bookquiver.com/wu-czeng-en/monkey) ([Monkey.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/wu-czeng-en/monkey.md))
- Authors: [Wu Čcheng-en](https://www.bookquiver.com/wu-czeng-en)
- Publisher: penguin_classics
- ISBN: 978-01-4044-111-6
- Pages: 352
- Published: 2005-01-27
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

Monkey depicts the adventures of Prince Tripitaka, a young Buddhist priest on a dangerous pilgrimage to India to retrieve sacred scriptures accompanied by his three unruly disciples: the greedy pig creature Pipsy, the river monster Sandy – and Monkey. Hatched from a stone egg and given the secrets of heaven and earth, the irrepressible trickster Monkey can ride on the clouds, become invisible and transform into other shapes – skills that prove very useful when the four travellers come up against the dragons, bandits, demons and evil wizards that threaten to prevent them in their quest. Wu Ch’êng-ên wrote Monkey in the mid-sixteenth century, adding his own distinctive style to an ancient Chinese legend, and in so doing created a dazzling combination of nonsense with profundity, slapstick comedy with spiritual wisdom.