The Young Monk: A Story in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin, 600 Word Vocabulary

In this book we tell the story of the monk Xuanzang's birth and early years. Our story begins with the Buddha's decision to bring his wisdom to China. Then we meet Xuanzang's father and mother and learn about their terrible ordeals around the time of his birth. Finally we jump ahead to when Xuanzang turns eighteen, learns of his true parentage, and avenges his parents.

This is the 4th book in the best-selling Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on  chapters 8 and 8 in 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 (formerly called Xuanzang), 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 first 4 books in the Journey to the West series have used a total of about 600 different Chinese words, but only 530 are used in this book. All new words are defined on the page where they are first used. The book uses Simplified Chinese characters and includes pinyin, an English translation, and a full glossary.

An audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel.