Note: An AI translation of this novel is now available. Click the linked Chinese characters below that read “後西遊記.”

Last updated: 03-15-2026

The great Chinese classic Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記; “JTTW” hereafter) spawned numerous unofficial sequels years after its publishing in 1592. One such sequel, Later Journey to the West (Hou Xiyouji, 後西遊記) by an anonymous author of the 17th-century, is set two hundred years after the original and follows the adventures of Sun Wukong’s spiritual descendant Sun Luzhen (孫履真). He too learns the secrets of immortality and causes havoc in heaven, before being tasked to protect the historical monk Dadian (大顛, 732-824) on a similar journey to India. The two are accompanied by the son of Zhu Bajie, Zhu Yijie (豬一戒), and the disciple of Sha Wujing, Sha Zhihe (沙致和). This may at first seem like a cookie cutter retelling of the story, but it is so much more. Unlike the original, which only used allegorical terms for given characters, Later Journey to the West is comprised of extremely dense layers of allegorical meaning, from the names of characters and the words they speak to the places they visit and the villains they face.

Below, I present the first of a three-part overview (part 2 and part 3), which covers Sun Luzhen’s early adventures. I rely very heavily on the engaging work of Xiaolian Liu (1994) as the novel has yet to be published in English.

Notes have been added to the sections below to explain the allegorical meaning of various story elements.

I. The Riddle

The novel begins with the following riddle:

I have a statue of Buddha, which nobody knows;
He needs no molding or carving;
Nor does he have any clay or color;
No human can draw him; no thief can steal him;
His appearance is originally natural,
And his clarity and purity are not the result of cleaning;
Though only one body,
He is capable of transforming himself into myriad forms (Liu, 1994, p. 22)

我有一軀佛，世人皆不識，
不塑亦不裝，不雕亦不刻，
無一滴灰泥，無一點彩色，
人畫畫不成，賊偷偷不得。
體相本自然，清靜非拂拭，
雖然是一軀，分身千百億。(source)

Liu (1994) notes that the answer is: “The Mind is none other than the Buddha” (jixin jifo, 即心即佛), a common Chan (Zen) Buddhist saying referring to self-enlightenment (p. 22). He continues:

The author uses the verse to announce the theme of his book and to prepare the reader for the mental or spiritual journey he is going to undertake through the experience of reading it […] [T]he novelist wants to make sure that the readers is aware of the allegorical nature of his various episodes and is ready to apply the same technique he would employ in solving a riddle to the reading of the novel, i.e. to go beyond the literal level of the text in order to find the solution or to decipher the intended message (Liu, 1994, p. 24).

II. Sun Luzhen’s Early Adventures

The story opens on the Flower Fruit Mountain (fig. 1), home of the original Monkey King and the axis mundi, or center of the cosmos through which all creative energies flow freely between heaven and earth. Our hero Sun Luzhen is born from a stone and, upon hearing of the adventures of Sun Wukong, takes the title “Small Sage Equaling Heaven” (Qitian xiaosheng, 齊天小聖). [A][1] He follows in his ancestor’s footsteps by sailing to the Aparagodaniya continent in a quest for immortality. There, he finds an immortal’s temple but is barred from meeting the patriarch by a Daoist monk until he has completed a number of tasks, including purifying himself in the Hall of Calming the Mind and the Hall of Nourishing the Breath, [B] taming a dragon and a tiger, [C] and visiting several locations, such as the Cinnabar Field and the Divine Mansion. [D] Monkey completes the purification rituals, but soon leaves the temple when he discovers the immortal cavorting with an old woman and two young maidens. [E]

A) Just like Sun Wukong in JTTW, Sun Luzhen represents the “Monkey of the Mind” (xinyuan, 心猿), a Buddhist metaphor for the restlessness of the human mind/heart (the character of xin (心) can mean both) (Liu, 1994, pp. 27-28).

B) These represent the early stages of spiritual cultivation, namely meditation and the regulation of breathing. The latter involves absorption of yang energy during prescribed times of the day.

C) These animals represent yin and yang energy, respectively. So taming said animals refers to a mastery of said energies.

D) These represent spiritual centers of the body, namely a region just below the navel and the upper region of the head, respectively. See J below.

E) These people represent Daoist terms associated with sexual cultivation, a type of internal cultivation popular during the Han dynasty but fell out of favor by the Ming when the novel was written (Liu, 1994, pp. 35-37).

Monkey leaves the temple and continues his search the world over for a worthy master, finding only false immortals and hypocritical monks along the way. [F] He returns to Flower Fruit Mountain determined to bring about his own immortality, and there the small stone monkey finds the “No-Leak” Cave (wulou dong, 無漏洞) on the backside of the mountain, making it his hermitage. [G] He meditates for forty-nine days, before Sun Wukong appears in spirit, sharing with him magical formulas and eventually merging with him. This causes Monkey Jr. to realize: “The true master is after all in one’s own mind, but people don’t know where to look for him” (Liu, 1994, p. 38). [H]

F) These people represent the wrong path to enlightenment, including non-Chan Buddhist sects and even Daoism.

G) The name represents the Buddhist concept of Anasrava and the Daoist concept of Wulou (無漏)/Loujin (漏盡), or the cessation of emotional outpouring (or leaking) upon achieving enlightenment (Liu, 1994, p. 38).

H) This represents self-realization.

Having achieved immortality, Sun Luzhen discovers his ancestor’s “as-you-will” gold-banded cudgel in the cave and sets out to find additional ways of increasing his spiritual attainment. [2] First, he forces the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea and the Old Tiger King of the Western Mountains to respectively submit to his power. [I] Next, Monkey travels to the underworld below and uses his wits to prove the other worldly judgements of the ten magistrates of hell are unjust, making their rulings listed in the ledgers of life and death null and void. [J][3] Finally, the small stone monkey travels to the celestial realm above to visit the Jasper Pool, the abode of the Queen Mother of the West (fig. 2). [K] He gets drunk on immortal wine and soon creates such a disturbance that the August Jade Emperor, the ruler of heaven, calls up the celestial army to deal with the menace. The Small Sage is too powerful, and so the emperor enlists the help of the Great Sage, now an enlightened Buddha (fig. 3), [4] to halt his descendant’s onslaught. [L][5]

I) This follows the Daoist monk’s instructions to tame a dragon and a tiger. This again represents his mastery of yin and yang energies.

J) This represents Monkey’s status as an immortal who is beyond the reach of death. I believe the downward journey symbolically follows the Daoist monk’s instructions to visit the Cinnabar Field, an area of the body below the navel normally associated with the storage of spiritual and sexual energy. Although Liu (1994) does not say this explicitly, he does comment: “According to the Taoist microcosmic view, the human body [has] features corresponding to the cosmic universe […] For example, the Celestial Palace … and the Jasper Pool are not only the heavenly residence of the Jade Emperor and the Mother Queen [of the west], but also terms referring to the upper regions of the head” (p. 45). See K below.

K) Going to heaven represents the upward propulsion of energy to the head, the last step in achieving immortality.

L) As the ruler of heaven, the August Jade Emperor represents the Primary Spirit (yuanshen, 元神), or the original pure spirit that everyone is born with. This is also known as the “Heavenly Mind/Heart” (tianxin, 天心). Therefore, Monkey’s rebellion represents the attempt of the “Conscious Spirit or the Heart of Blood and Flesh” at usurping the spiritual mind before all attachments are extinguished upon enlightenment (Liu, 1994, pp. 47-48).

Fig. 1 – A depiction of Flower Fruit Mountain from a modern video game (larger version). Fig. 2 – A Ming Dynasty painting of the Queen Mother of the West riding a stone lion (larger version). Fig. 3 – A live action depiction of Sun Wukong after attaining Buddhahood (larger version).

III. Sun Luzhen’s enlightenment

Sun Wukong arrives and soon deprives the small stone monkey of the magic iron staff, and when the latter complains that he won’t be able to defend himself, Monkey Sr. tells him: “It is already in your ear [where he used to hide the magically reduced weapon]. How can I give it back to you?” (Liu, 1994, p. 50). [M] This Chan gong’an (Zen koan) instantly brings about Sun Luzhen’s enlightenment.

M) This represents one’s own internal or spiritual strength.

Before returning to the Western Paradise, the Great Sage places the golden fillet on his head and instructs him:

There is a limit to brute force,
But Wisdom and courage are boundless;
If you fail to achieve the right fruition,
You will forever be a wild immortal. (Liu, 1994, p. 49)

頑力有阻，慧勇無邊；
不成正果，終屬野仙。(source)

Liu (1994) explains the significance of the verse:

In the poem Sun Wukong tells his descendant to resort to wisdom and courage, rather than brute force, to achieve this goal. This teaching is borne out by the fact that it is not the celestial army but Sun Wukong who subdues Monkey with his enlightening words. But more important is the message conveyed in the last two lines. Though Monkey has obtained physical immortality, he is still a yexian 野仙 (wild immortal), because he is unable to quench his desires and emotions […] According to Chan Buddhist doctrine of wunian 無念 (no-thought), man’s original nature is pure and free from all thoughts and passions. In the first section of the novel, Monkey tries a Taoist approach in his effort to seek immortality. Though he succeeds through Taoist meditation in calming his mind and in realizing his self-nature, his desire for immortality and his practice of internal alchemy, symbolized by his celestial adventures, violate the Chan Buddhist principle of non-attachment, and are therefore considered “wild” and “unorthodox” by Buddhist ontological non-dualism. The completion of the Taoist physiological alchemy is only the beginning of a self-cultivation process for the hero whose ultimate goal … is to accomplish zhenguo 正果 (right or orthodox fruition), i.e. to achieve the Buddhahood inherent in one’s own nature, through the journey proper to the Holy Mountain in the Western Paradise. (p. 49)

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Update: 10-25-21

I have listed Sun Luzhen as an “honorable mention” among the Monkey King’s literary children. See section 3 here:

The Monkey King’s Children

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Update: 03-15-26

I have drastically updated the formatting of this article, including adding more of the original Chinese characters/quotations, increasing the number of tags, linking to more wiki articles, and placing the (previously separate) explanatory notes within each section. Needless to say, this post now differs from parts two and three. I will get around to updating those in the future.

Notes:

1) This mirrors the title “Great Sage Equaling Heaven” (Qitian Dasheng, 齊天大聖) taken by Sun Wukong in JTTW chapter 4.

2) Daoism recognizes up to five categories of immortality, each increasing in spiritual attainment from the last: 1. Ghost; 2. Human; 3. Earthly; 4. Divine; and 5. Heavenly (Liu, 1994, p. 55, n. 36).

3) This contrasts with Sun Wukong who used force to erase his name (and those of all other monkeys living at that time) from the ledgers of life and death (see JTTW chapter 3).

4) Monkey Sr. is granted Buddhahood, along with the title “Buddha Victorious in Strife” in JTTW chapter 100.

5) Sun Luzhen’s drunken episode, havoc in heaven, and subjugation by a Buddha recalls the adventures of his ancestor from JTTW chapters 4 to 7.

Source:

Liu, X. (1994). The Odyssey of the Buddhist Mind: The Allegory of the Later Journey to the West. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.