It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.The novel is a fictionlisted account of the legends around the Buddhist monk Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India during the Tang Dynasty in order to obtain Buddhist religious texts called sutras .THe Bodhisattva on instruction from the Buddha, gives this task to the monk and his three protectors in the form of disciples together with a dragon prince who acts ad Xuanzang's horse mount.
