Anyone who had read Journey to the West probably shared the same impression: Tripitaka was weak. The whole journey relied on his disciples. Of the eighty-one trials, rather than saying Tang Monk had it hard, it would be more accurate to say Sun Wukong and the others had it hard.
After all, Tang Monk's only role in it was getting tied up, getting tied up, and continuing to get tied up.
The only time he ever suffered a direct blow was in the True and False Sun Wukong episode, when the enraged Great Sage nearly smacked his old back in two with one slap.
It had to be said, that episode was a classic.
It spawned plenty of interpretations—commercial versions and dark versions alike.
The commercial version roughly said that the Great Sage had learned to be cunning and made a duplicate. He kicked up a fuss before the Buddha—meaning he went crying to the big boss. If he was not given an explanation, then the grand undertaking of fetching the scriptures from the West would stop right there.
It forced the Buddha to have a flash of inspiration and bring out the Four Celestial Monkeys, granting Sun Wukong the Buddhahood Fruit Position.
A naked case of the crying child getting candy.
As for the dark version, its contents were far too wicked, especially in how massively they shattered the worldview of Great Sage fans, so let us leave that aside for now.
But broadly speaking, Tang Monk's role on this journey to fetch the scriptures from the West was to get tied up and shout a couple of times. As for female demons, they did not even bother tying him up anymore.
Only Sister Guanyin noticed there were not enough calamities and drowned Tang Monk once.
This was to