Hòu Xīyóu Jì 後西游記
Later Journey to the West by 天花才子 (撰)
About the work
Hòu Xīyóu Jì 後西游記 is a Qīng-dynasty sequel to KR4k0074 Xīyóu Jì 西遊記, written under the pen name Tiānhuā Cáizǐ 天花才子 (“The Talented Child of Heavenly Flowers”). In 40 huí 回, it narrates a new pilgrimage: a reborn stone monkey called Xiǎo Xínghè 小行者 (“Little Pilgrim”) sets out with a new Tang monk (the reincarnation of Xuánzàng) to retrieve a “Heart Sūtra” (xīnjīng 心經) of a deeper import than the scriptures obtained in the original journey. The text is framed as a Buddhist allegory of inner cultivation, with the preface making explicit that the “West” is a metaphor for the enlightened mind rather than a geographic destination.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The identity of Tiānhuā Cáizǐ 天花才子 remains uncertain. The pen name was used by multiple Qīng authors for different publications; in the context of the Hòu Xīyóu Jì the name is generally taken to indicate a Jiāngnán literatus of the early-to-mid Qīng period. No consensus identification with a historical individual has been reached. The preface to the Kanripo text is unsigned and undated but contains no dateable internal reference; the Qīng-dynasty character of the language and the Buddhist interpretive framework suggest composition sometime in the seventeenth century — a tentative window of 1640–1700 is proposed here, with uncertainty noted.
The novel closely follows the episode structure of the original Xīyóu Jì: the reborn monkey hero trains under Buddhist masters, acquires companions, and defeats a succession of demonic adversaries. Structurally the sequel mirrors the original: Huā-guǒ Shān 花果山 is again the starting point; the cosmological preamble replicates the huìyuán 會元 / astronomical-cyclical framework of the original opening. The Kanripo text begins with a detailed prose-verse sequence establishing the continuity with the parent work.
The sequel’s distinctive contribution is its sustained allegorical reading of the Xīyóu Jì as a Chán-Buddhist teaching text. The preface declares that the new journey seeks the “true” (zhēn 真) text of the Heart Sūtra that the original pilgrims failed to obtain in its innermost sense. This makes the Hòu Xīyóu Jì an important document in the reception history of the parent novel as a Buddhist allegory, a reading endorsed by some Qīng commentators.
No modern critical edition has been located. The text is not in the Sìkù quánshū.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The reborn stone monkey of the Hòu Xīyóu Jì undergoes a parallel origin story in the opening chapters, closely modelled on the first chapter of the original Xīyóu Jì — yet with a telling difference: where the original monkey is an absolutely spontaneous product of heaven and earth (tiāndì jīnghuá suǒshēng 天地精華所生), the reborn monkey here is described as springing from the residual spiritual energy left behind by Sūn Wùkōng’s enlightenment, framing the sequel as a spiritual continuation rather than a fresh start.