#monk and a bunch of furries go meet buddha

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

whenever i feel bad about going wildly off-plot with extravagant world-building and weird ocs, i just remember that 16th century author wu chengen, in an attempt to avoid his bureaucratic duties, wrote a 1k page fanfic about a buddhist monk's trip to india and devoted the entire first half to his oc, an immortal monkey who solves ALL his problems with the power of friendship and incredible violence, and it's one of china's Four Greatest Works.

[somepinkthing]

Tell me how one of the most famous chinese texts is about this absolutely gorgeous (and I mean positively smokin) monk roadtripping it with a bunch of furries to go meet buddha