Journey to the West is a 1986 Chinese live action TV series made by CCTV adapting the majority of the literary classic Journey to the West. The show became an instant classic in mainland China and is still being praised as the best and the most authentic interpretation of the original novel. Journey to the West (traditional Chinese: 西遊記; simplified Chinese: 西游记; pinyin: Xīyóujì; Wade-Giles: Hsiyu-chi) is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Originally published anonymously in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty, and even though no direct evidence of its authorship survives, it has been ascribed to the scholar Wu Cheng'en since the 20th century. The novel is an account of the Buddhist monk Xuánzàng's pilgrimage to India during the Táng dynasty in order to obtain Buddhist sutras.