Graded Readers for Chinese Language Learners (Level 2) Literary Stories Journey to the West (1) Havoc in Heaven

The series Graded Readers for Chinese Language Learners is composed of 50 books, divided into three subseries, namely folktales, literary stories and historical stories, corresponding to Levels 1-3 respectively. The rich and fun content and easy-to-understand language makes it easy for everyone, whether they are foreigners learning Chinese, children with parents of Chinese origin, ethnic minority students of the Chinese language, or even primary school students in China, to read this series. It enables the readers to gradually improve their Chinese reading skills and enhance their understanding of Chinese culture by reading and enjoying stories.

The “Literary Stories” subseries is based on the Four Great Classical Novels in ancient China. From each novel some epic snippets are extracted and adapted into 4-6 books, each with 20-30 thousand characters. Altogether there are 20 books in the subseries, six of which are from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, four from Water Margin, six from Journey to the West and four from Dream of the Red Chamber.

Journey to the West is a mythological novel, telling the story of a Tang dynasty monk called Xuanzang (Mong Tang) who, under the order of the Tang emperor, went west on a pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures with his three disciples Sun Wukong the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie the Pigsy and Monk Sha. During the journey, they defeated demons and monsters and experienced all kinds of ordeals. There are six books in this series based on this novel, namely Havoc in Heaven, The Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures, Three Battles with the White Bone Demon, The Flaming Mountains, The Real and Fake Monkey King and The Leiyin Temple.

Havoc in Heaven tells the story of the birth of Monkey King and the havoc he made in heaven.

On the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits there was a monkey born from the stone who set out to sea in search of the immortals to learn the way of immortality.

He found an immortal, from whom he learned amazing skills, including going to the heaven and the earth and changing into 72 forms. His master named him Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong caused turbulence in the Dragon Palace of the East Sea and took the golden cudgel away as his own weapon. He also intruded into the Palace of the Underworld and caused trouble there. When the Heavenly Emperor sent troops to fight him, he made havoc in heaven. At last, Buddha from the west subdued him and trapped him under the Wuxing Mountain.  

Ms. Chen Xianchun is a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University who has engaged in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language since 1975, equipped with rich Chinese teaching experience. Professor Chen has made profound research into the teaching of Chinese reading and has published, in addition to more than 20 academic papers, many monographs and textbooks such as Teaching Reading and Psychology, Typical Characters and Events in Chinese Culture, A Primer on Modern Chinese Reading, An Intensive Chinese Course, and Read This Way.