Since its publication, The Journey to the West has been widely circulated among the people, and various versions have emerged one after another. There are six kinds of editions in Ming Dynasty, seven kinds of editions and manuscripts in Qing Dynasty, and thirteen kinds of lost editions recorded in ancient books. After the Opium War, a large number of China's classical literary works were translated into western languages, and The Journey to the West gradually spread to Europe and America, and was translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, sign language, Swahili, Russian, Czech, Romanian, Polish, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. Chinese and foreign scholars have published many research papers and monographs, which have given high evaluation to this novel.
The Journey to the West is a classic of China's ghost novels, reaching the peak of ancient romance novels, and is called the four classical novels of China together with The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin and A Dream of Red Mansions.
The Monkey King is one of the famous mythological figures in China, which comes from the four classical novels The Journey to the West. Born in Dongsheng, China, he was born from the immortal stone. He led a group of monkeys into water curtain cave and became the Monkey King, who was honored as the "Monkey King". Later, he became a Bodhi teacher, named the Monkey King, and learned superb spells such as seventy-two changes of the earth demon, somersault cloud and immortality.
The Monkey King, whose magical powers are just emerging, first made a scene in the Dragon Palace to get the golden hoop, and then made a scene in the underworld to check the life and death books. Later, he was blessed by heaven and was named Bi Marvin. After learning of his low status, he angrily returned to Huaguoshan, defeated the crusade of King Tota and the three princes, and forced the Jade Emperor to make him the Great Sage of Qitian, and built the Great Sage of Qitian in heaven to manage the Flat Peach Garden.