Jeff Pepper

In the beginning, the King of Shang was a good man... China, 1057 B.C. The well-meaning but foolish king of the Shang Dynasty has gravely insulted a goddess. In revenge, the angry goddess sends a thousand-year-old fox demon to extinguish the soul of the beautiful young Daji, inhabit her body, and seduce the king into taking her as his chief concubine. Daji slowly gains control of the king and his kingdom, leading the Shang Dynasty towards chaos...

The Buddhist monk Tangseng and his ragtag band of disciples come upon a strange pagoda in a mountain forest. Inside they discover the fearsome Yellow Robed Monster, living a quiet life with his wife and their two children. Unfortunately the monster has a bad habit of ambushing and eating travelers. The ancient and powerful monkey king Sun Wukong, the monk Tangseng and his other disciples find themselves drawn into a story of timeless love and complex...

This book is part of the Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on the epic 16th century novel of the same name by Wu Chen'en. The novel is loosely based on an actual journey by the Buddhist monk Tangseng (formerly called Xuanzang), who traveled from the Chinese city of Chang'an westward to India in 629 A.D. and returned 17 years later with priceless knowledge and spiritual texts. Over the course of...

The Buddhist monk and his three disciples finally approach the western border of China. They find themselves in a kingdom where it hasn't rained for three years because the prefect has angered the King of Heaven. Sun Wukong brings rain and, of course, trouble. Continuing their journey, they meet a prince and his three sons. The sons want to learn how to use the disciples' magic weapons, but one night the magic weapons are stolen by a nearby lion demon....

Tangseng and his disciples have been traveling for two or three years. They arrive at a secluded mountain monastery which turns out to be the home of a powerful master named Zhenyuan and an ancient and magical ginseng tree. As usual, the travelers' search for a nice hot meal and a place to sleep quickly turns into a disaster. Although Zhenyuan has gone away for a few days, he has left his two youngest disciples in charge. They welcome the travelers,...

In a dark forest the monk Tangseng comes upon a beautiful young woman tied to a tree and half-buried in the ground. The monk frees her, not realizing she is a deadly mouse demon. Later they arrive at a nearby monastery where she devours some monks and tries to force Tangseng to marry her. Sun Wukong learns the truth about her, lodges a complaint with the great Jade Emperor in heaven, and battles the mouse demon to save his master. This is the 27th...

The story of Mulan, the young girl who joins the army to save her family and her country, is at least 1500 years old. Over the centuries, it has inspired dozens of poems, plays, novels, songs, and more recently, graphic novels, TV shows and films. The details of the story vary, but the core is always the same: a young girl living with her family in a small Chinese village learns that the army requires each family to contribute one man to fight invaders...

A young boy shares a little house in Beijing with 23 cats. His friend comes to visit, but the two of them can't sit down, can't study, and can't even eat dinner together because of all the cats. What to do? The answer, which involves a very large dog, will surprise and delight you. This wonderful little tale is for beginning Chinese students of all ages. Its tiny vocabulary of just 101 words is taken from the HSK1 list of words used to teach beginning...

"The Young Monk" is the fourth book in the "Journey to the West" series of stories by Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang. Other titles include "Rise of the Monkey King", "Trouble in Heaven" and "The Immortal Peaches". This book is based on chapters 8 and 9 of Journey To The West, an epic novel written in the 16th Century by Wu Chen'en. Journey To The West is loosely based on an actual journey by the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who traveled from the Chinese...

The travelers arrive at a tall mountain. An old man warns them that it's infested with thousands of man-eating demons but Sun Wukong ignores the warning. Soon they meet the three demon leaders: a blue-haired lion, an old yellow-tusked elephant, and a huge terrifying bird called Great Peng. The demons trap Sun Wukong in a magic jar but he escapes. Later the three disciples try but fail to defeat the three demons. Finally, with nowhere else to turn,...