Journey to the West – Episode 1 – Picture story

Prologue

In the beginning, the world lay shrouded in darkness—an era named “Chaos.”

After 5,400 years, the light elements rose to form the sun, moon, stars, and constellations. Another 5,400 years passed, and the heavy elements condensed below, shaping water, fire, mountains, stones, and earth. Following yet another 5,400 years, all living beings came into existence.

The world was divided into four great continents:

• East Purvavideha Continent (Dongsheng Shenzhou),
• West Aparagodaniya Continent (Xiniu Hezhou),
• South Jambudvipa Continent (Nanshan Buzhou),
• North Uttarakuru Continent (Beiju Luzhou).

On the East Purvavideha Continent stood the Flower and Fruit Mountain (Huaguo Shan). At its peak lay a divine stone, nurtured since the dawn of creation by the essence of the sun and moon. Over millennia, it gained sentience—and eventually unleashed chaos upon the heavens.

Five centuries later, monks from the South Jambudvipa Continent were tasked with journeying to the West Aparagodaniya Continent to retrieve sacred Buddhist scriptures, seeking to end humanity’s suffering. Their quest demanded enduring eighty-one calamities to succeed.

At the heart of this legend lies a figure who dared to challenge heaven and earth: the Handsome Monkey King (Sun Wukong).

The Birth of the Stone Monkey

Long, long ago, in the Aolai Kingdom of the East Purvavideha Continent, there stood a mountain named Flower and Fruit Mountain. At its peak lay a divine stone.

Since the dawn of creation, this stone had absorbed the spiritual energies of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and moon. Over time, it conceived a celestial embryo. Then, one day—crack!—the stone split open, and out leaped a stone monkey.

Born with innate agility, the monkey learned to crawl and walk in moments, soon climbing trees and swinging through branches. He drank mountain springs, gathered wildflowers, and feasted on fruits, living in carefree joy.

He made his companions the tiger and the lizard, the wolf and the leopard; he befriended the civet and the deer, and he called the gibbon and the baboon his kin. At night he slept beneath stony ridges, and in the morning he sauntered about the caves and the peaks.