The Last Trial

<p><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The monk Tangseng and his three disciples are nearing the end of their epic journey. They approach Thunderclap Monastery in India the home of Tathagata Buddha. But Tangseng's ordeals are not over yet. First the travelers are mistaken for murderers and thieves and must talk their way out of jail with some help from Sun Wukong's body-changing magic. When they finally arrive at the home of the Buddha Tangseng asks for the holy scriptures which he plans to bring back to China. But it turns out that he has only endured eighty trials one fewer than the 81 that are required of him. And bringing back the Buddhist scriptures turns out to be much more difficult than the pilgrims expected.</em></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This is the 31st and final book in the best-selling </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Journey to the West </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>series of stories for students learning to read Simplified 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 (today's Xi'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 the four travelers face the 81 trials that Tangseng had to endure to attain Buddhahood.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The entire </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Journey to the West</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> story has been told using a total of about 2000 different Chinese words but only 1112 are used in this book. We introduce 25 new words for the first time and each one is defined on the page where it is first used. The book includes pinyin an English translation and a full glossary. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A free audiobook is available at www.imagin8press.com and on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel.</span></p>