The Demons of Spiderweb Mountain

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 Traditional Chinese characters and includes pinyin, an English translation, and a full glossary.