Journey to the West

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Journey to the West may be the single biggest and most well-known (at least, by non-locals) fantasy story from China and Japan. Originally from China, like a lot of other Chinese stuff it was borrowed wholeheartedly by their Japanese neighbors, largely by just taking the characters and giving them new names. Created during the era when Buddhism was on the rise in China and competing with Taoism to be the top religion, it is basically a propaganda piece about how Buddhist superiority... but it's such an awesome story that nobody really cares.

The basic premise is simple: Wanting to save as many Chinese souls from the wheel of karma as possible, Buddha charges a particularly devoted monk with making a pilgrimage from China all the way to India, where he is to retrieve some very sacred scrolls that hold the correct Buddhist teachings and lore needed to save the people, and then bring them back to China. To protect him from the many dangers of the journey, ranging from simple bandits and wild animals to evil Tao sorcerers and man-eating demons, Buddha appoints four penitent monsters to act as the monk's disciples and guardians along the way. These tend to be the characters most people like the story for, because the monk is... well, he's kind of boring, and usually not much more than an excuse for the disciples to bash some skulls or do interesting tricks.

The Pilgrims

Tang Sanzang (also known as Tripitaka) is the monk appointed by Buddha to retrieve the sacred scripture. Noted for being incredibly beautiful, so that every women and she-demon they meet falls in love with him, which is a huge pain for Tang because he's sworn to celibacy and has no interest in icky physical activity of that variety. Generally just serves as an obstacle for the pilgrims both directly (getting kidnapped) or indirectly (making their jobs harder with his piousness and naivety).

Yu Long (also simply called White Dragon Horse) is a penitent Oriental Dragon prince whose father would have executed him for destroying part of his hoard and rebelling against his rule, until Buddha decreed he could earn his freedom by aiding Tang Sanzang on his pilgrimage. Generally the least important character, because his primary role is... carrying the monk on his back. Y'see, when Tang finally showed up where Yu Long was waiting for him, the dragon was really hungry, so he ate Tang's horse. When told who Tang was, he realized he could make amends by assuming the form of a horse and carrying him on his back through the journey. That's basically all he does.

Sha Wujing was once a Heavenly Marshal, until he accidentally broke a precious crystal goblet belonging to the Queen Mother of the West. For this, he was thrown from Heaven and transformed into a monster, forced to hide in a raging river from enchanted swords that would chase him each day in hopes of stabbing him. Whilst modern interpretations like to turn him into a kappa, the older stories portray him more like an oni. Western fans sometimes nickname him "Sandy", after the legendarily campy 70s tv show "Monkey".

Zhu Bajie (also known as Zhu Wuneng) was once a Heavenly Marshal, like Sha Wujing, until he got drunk and made inappropriate advances towards either a serving nymph or possibly the Moon Goddess. For this, he was smote by the Jade Emperor and reincarnated as an humanoid pig. For this reason, the 70s TV show "Monkey" called him "Piggsy" in its English dub, which remains a popular nickname for him. Generally the second-most popular of the pilgrims, Piggsy is a lecherous, gluttonous buffoon who nonetheless is also the second strongest fighter in the team.

Sun Wukong is, hands down, the most popular and beloved character in the story, and the one everybody knows. Perhaps you've heard of his Japanese name...? Y'know, Son Goku? The first third of the story is basically just his backstory, and everybody agrees he's the protagonist. In a nutshell; Wukong hatched from a stone egg laid by a mountain that was impregnated by the cosmic forces of nature. He then studied Taoist sorcery and mastered flight, transformation, super strength and longevity. He became king of an empire of monkeys by killing a demon who lived in a mountain cave and taking it over. Then he decided he needed a better weapon, so he barged into the palace of one of the dragon kings, stole a sacred relic in the form of a size-changing iron pillar originally used to stir the milky way, then walked right out again. When death claimed him, he beat up the agents of the underworld, crossed his name out of the Book of the Dead, and fought his way back to the world of the living. When the gods of heaven tried to calm him down by offering him a job, he accepted, then threw a fit when he discovered they'd just made him a stableboy with a fancy title. When they calmed him down by offering him a job guarding the magical orchard that grew the peaches of immortality, he got drunk and ate all the peaches, then ate the immortality medicine brewed by the God of Alchemy. After the combined efforts of all of the heavenly armies subdued him, they tried to melt him down in said god's alchemical furnace, but it just made him even stronger, tougher and more immortal than before. So he beat up all the armies of Heaven again and began planning to conquer it for himself, which was when Buddha finally intervened. He showed Wukong that for all his power, he was still not stronger than Buddha, before burying him under a mountain and putting a binding sutra on it to keep him from breaking loose. Keep in mind, this is just his backstory. He hasn't even started the pilgrimage yet. Eventually, he became Tang Sanzang's first disciple, and off they went to India, with Monkey deus ex machina-ing them out of trouble all along the way.

/tg/ Relevance

If you want to do an Oriental Adventures setting that isn't just "Historical Fantasy: China and/or Japan Edition", reading the Journey to the West is a pretty damn good place to start.