Search

This book contains the complete text, in Chinese, pinyin and English, of all 31 books in the best-selling Journey to the West series of graded readers by Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang. If printed in standard paperback format this book would run over 3,500 pages. It is written for people who are learning to read Simplified Chinese and want to enjoy a fascinating story while gaining a better understanding of Chinese history and culture. Journey to the West is probably the most famous and best-loved novel in China and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. Its place in Chinese literature is roughly comparable to Homer's epic poem The Odyssey in Western literature. Wikipedia sums up the book's role perfectly, saying,'Enduringly popular, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, a humorous satire of Chinese bureaucracy, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment by the power and virtue of cooperation.'This book is NOT a literal translation of the original novel, which was written in the 16th century and is difficult for modern readers. It is a graded reader, which means that it uses a restricted vocabulary of Chinese words and a simple sentence structure. It starts off relatively easy and gradually increases in complexity. For example the first story, Rise of the Monkey King, covers the events in the first two chapters of the novel and uses a vocabulary of just 507 words. The second story, Trouble in Heaven, covers the next two chapters and uses only 431 words. Each chapter adds, on the average, about 30 new words, and so by the time you finish the final story, called The Last Trial, you will have seen over two thousand different Chinese words. Each paragraph of Chinese is followed by the same paragraph written in pinyin, which is a phonetic method of writing Chinese. The pinyin lets you sound out the word if you don't recognize the characters. We recommend that when you read this on an e-reader, you scroll the text or cover the pinyin with a piece of paper, so that the pinyin is not visible on the screen. Try to read the Chinese characters, and only refer to the pinyin if you are completely stumped by some characters. If you still don't recognize the word, look it up in the glossary at the end of the book. Every time a Chinese word is used for the first time, it is highlighted and followed by a footnote link. Follow that link to see a definition of the new word. There are also footnote links without highlights, and you can read those to see useful and interesting bits of information about the story and the characters that you encounter. At the end of the book is a complete English translation of each chapter. This English translation does not necessarily match the Chinese word for word, but you can refer to it to get a general understanding of the meaning of a paragraph. Finally, there are audiobook versions of all 31 books available. You can use these to listen to a native Chinese speaker tell the story while you follow along with the text. The audiobooks are available on YouTube on the Imagin8 Press channel. You can also download them from the Imagin8 Press website. The 31 stories in this book are also available as standalone books, in paperback and ebook formats.

A wealthy girl runs away with her cousin, a poor stonecarver. A scholar finds true love inside a book. Two lovers defy death to be together. And a young man finds love with two ghosts. Believe it or not, it's possible for you to read and understand the four wonderful love stories in this book even if you start off not knowing a single word of Chinese! We won't lie to you and say it will be easy, but with time and patience you can certainly do it. Each page of Chinese faces a page of pinyin (phonetic spelling), so if you don't recognize a word, you can check the pinyin to see how it's pronounced. You can then look up the word's meaning in the glossary in the back of the book. A full English translation is also included. You can also listen to a complete audiobook of all the stories, available free on YouTube and downloadable from our website. These stories are written by the best-selling writing team of Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang, authors of the Journey to the West series of graded readers, translations of Chinese classics including the Dao De Jing, the Art of War, and the San Zi Jing, and lots of other great books. To learn more, visit www.imagin8press.com.

Sang is a young scholar living alone in a small village in 18th century China. One night a strange and beautiful woman arrives at his house, and he soon falls deeply in love with her. But later, a second even more beautiful woman arrives, and things become extremely complicated. This is a story about fox spirits and ghosts, love and lust, and the unpredictable nature of the human and the not-quite-human heart. This book is a retelling of a Chinese short story called “Lotus Fragrance,” from the book Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio written by Pu Songling and published in 1740. It's written using only 654 words, most of which are in the 1200-word HSK4 vocabulary. This makes it accessible to advanced beginner or intermediate students of Chinese. A glossary of all words is included, along with an English translation. A free audiobook is available on YouTube on the Imagin8 Press channel. The authors are the best-selling writing team of Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang, co-authors of the Journey to the West series of graded readers, and translations of Chinese classics including the Dao De Jing, the San Zi Jing, and the Art of War.

The Buddhist monk Tangseng arrives with his disciples at a mountain monastery, and he is visited in a dream by someone claiming to be the ghost of a murdered king. The ghost claims that the king sitting on the throne is really an evil demon. Is he telling the truth or is he actually a demon in disguise? Tangseng's chief disciple, the monkey king Sun Wukong, offers to go to the king's palace and sort things out with his iron rod. But things do not go as planned... This is the 13th book in the best-selling Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on the events in Chapters 36 through 39 of 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 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 13 books in the Journey to the West series have used a total of about 1500 different Chinese words, but only 691 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. A free audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel and on www.imagin8press.com.

Welcome to 三字经, San Zi Jing, known in English as the Three Character Classic. Originally written by Wang Yinglin during the Song Dynasty in the 13th century, modified many times since then and memorized by generations of Chinese students, the San Zi Jing is a box of treasures, a puzzle within a puzzle, with layers of meaning waiting for you to discover. At the simplest level, San Zi Jing is just a workbook, a way for you to learn how to read, speak and write Chinese. But it's more than a workbook, it's a grand tour of Chinese history. It starts off with brief stories about Confucian values and principles, then shifts gears and takes us on a dizzying historical journey, starting with the legendary Yellow Emperor back in the misty beginnings of Chinese culture, and leading up to the end of the last dynasty in 1912. San Zi Jing is also a window into the soul of China. Many of the verses provide bits of Confucian philosophy, or hint at stories told centuries ago. Even the historical verses in the middle of the book show us what life in China was like in the past, and give you a glimpse of how Chinese people see the world today. Read the San Zi Jing carefully, and you'll get a glimpse of what it's like to be Chinese.

The story of Cinderella is possibly the world's most popular folk tale. The earliest known version is from Greece around two thousand years ago, and over the next thousand years, it traveled to France, Italy and Germany, and eventually to the Walt Disney studio in America. But as the Cinderella story traveled from Greece to Western Europe, it was also carried eastward to Asia along the Silk Road and other ancient trade routes. The story of Ye Xian in this book is the oldest known Asian version, first appearing in a book of folk tales by Duan Chengshi in 860 AD. That story was told in just 750 Chinese words. The Ye Xian story matches the modern Cinderella story more closely than later European versions. But unlike the Disney movie, it does not simply end with the heroine marrying and living happily ever after. The story is more complex and more interesting, showing Zhuang, Hindu, Buddhist, and Chinese influences. In this book, the best-selling writing team of Pepper and Wang retell this wonderful story using just 417 different Chinese words, most of which are in the standard 1200-word HSK4 vocabulary. This limited vocabulary makes the story easily accessible to beginning and intermediate students of Chinese. A glossary of all words is in the back of the book, along with an English translation. A free audiobook version is available on the Imagin8 Press channel of YouTube, and also at www.imagin8press.com.

Ignoring a warning from the Bodhisattva Guanyin, Tangseng and his three disciples enter a city whose king has vowed to kill 10,000 Buddhist monks and has already finished off 9,996. The travelers must avoid being killed and figure out how to show the king the error of his ways. Later, the Monkey King Sun Wukong flies over a mountain and sees a large demon with 30 little demons, all blowing fog from their mouths. This leads to a great battle where the demons use the “Dividing the Petals of the Plum Flower” trick to confuse the disciples and kidnap Tangseng. This is the 28th book in the best-selling Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Simplified Chinese. It is based on the events in Chapters 84 through 86 of 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 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 tribulations that Tangseng had to endure to attain Buddhahood. Books 1 through 28 in the Journey to the West series have used a total of about 2,000 different Chinese words, but only 912 words are used in this book. We introduce 29 new words for the first time in this book, and each one is defined on the page where it is first used. The book includes pinyin, an English translation, and a full glossary. A free audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel and on www.imagin8press.com.

In a dark forest the monk Tangseng comes upon a beautiful young woman tied to a tree and half-buried in the ground. The monk frees her, not realizing she is a deadly mouse demon. Later they arrive at a nearby monastery where she devours some monks and tries to force Tangseng to marry her. Sun Wukong learns the truth about her, lodges a complaint with the great Jade Emperor in heaven, and battles the mouse demon to save his master. This is the 27th book in the best-selling Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Simplified Chinese. It is based on the events in Chapters 80 through 83 of 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 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 tribulations that Tangseng had to endure to attain Buddhahood. All 27 books in the Journey to the West series have used a total of about 2000 different Chinese words, but only 904 words are used in this book. We introduce 23 words for the first time in this book, and each one is defined on the page where it is first used. The book includes pinyin, an English translation, and a full glossary. A free audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel and on www.imagin8press.com.

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. This is the 31st and final book in the best-selling Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Simplified Chinese. It is based on the events in Chapters 96 through 100 of 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. The entire Journey to the West story has been told using a total of about 2,000 different Chinese words, but only 1,112 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. A free audiobook is available at www.imagin8press.com, and on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel.

The Buddhist monk Tangseng goes alone to beg some food at the home of some beautiful and seemingly gentle young women. He soon finds out that they are far from gentle. Trapped in their web, he waits to be cooked and eaten while his three disciples attempt to rescue him by confronting the spider demons, a horde of biting insects, and a mysterious Daoist alchemist. This is the 24th book in the best-selling Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on the events in Chapters 72 and 73 of 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 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 tribulations that Tangseng had to endure to attain Buddhahood. The first 24 books in the Journey to the West series have used a total of about 2000 different Chinese words, but only 791 words 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. A free audiobook is available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel and on www.imagin8press.com.