A ‘JOURNEY TO THE WEST’ CINNABAR LACQUER SNUFF BOTTLE, PROBABLY IMPERIALChina, 1740-1820. Of flattened globular form, deftly carved to each side with a scene from the Journey to the West, one side with Zhu Bajie disguised as a monk in a bath with beautiful ladies, about to discard his robes and join them in the water with a lustful expression on his face, the other with Tang Sanzang surrounded by court ladies, all on a variety of diaper grounds, the neck with a band of ruyi-heads. The recessed oval base neatly incised with a four-character markQianlong nianzhi and probably of the period.Provenance: Previously in a Scottish private collection.Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and few tiny nicks.Stopper: PearlWeight: 50.2 gDimensions: Height incl. stopper 67 mm. Diameter neck 15 mm and mouth 4 mmJourney to the West (Xi You Ji) is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popular literary work in East Asia. The novel is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who traveled to the ‘Western Regions’ (Central Asia and India) to obtain Buddhist sacred texts and returned after many trials and much suffering. The monk is referred to as Tang Sanzang in the novel, which retains the broad outline of Xuanzang's own account, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, but adds elements from folk tales and the author's invention: Gautama Buddha gives a task to the monk and provides him with three protectors who agree to help him as atonement for their sins. These disciples are Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing, together with a dragon prince who acts as Tang Sanzang's steed, a white horse. The pilgrims then journey towards enlightenment through the power and virtue of cooperation.Zhu Bajie (literally ‘Pig of the Eight Prohibitions’) is also known as Zhu Wuneng (‘Pig Awakened to Power’). Once an immortal who was the Marshal of the Heavenly Canopymanding 100,000 naval soldiers of the Milky Way, he drank too much during a celebration of the gods and attempted to harass the moon goddess Chang'e, resulting in his banishment to the mortal world. He was supposed to be reborn as a human but ended up in the womb of a sow due to an error on the Reincarnation Wheel, which turned him into a half-man, half-pig, humanoid-pig monster. Zhu Bajie was very greedy, and could not survive without eating ravenously. Staying within the Yunzhan Dong (cloud-pathway cave), he wasmissioned by Guanyin to apany Tang Sanzang to India and given the new name Zhu Wuneng. However, Zhu Bajie's lust for women led him to the Gao Family Village, where he posed as a handsome young man and helped defeat a group of robbers who tried to abduct a maiden. Eventually, the family agreed to let Zhu Bajie marry