The monk of the novel 西游记, based on the real 玄奘, who travels to India for Buddhist scriptures guarded by 孙悟空. Pious, gullible and long-winded, his name is now used for anyone who nags.
Demons in the novel believe that eating his flesh grants immortality, so 唐僧肉, 'Tang Monk meat', now means a prize everyone is scrambling to get a bite of, such as a rich client or a lucrative project.
culture
In 唐三藏, 三藏 is the Buddhist canon's 'three baskets' of sutras, monastic rules and treatises, a title for a monk learned in all three. Arthur Waley's English version simply calls him Tripitaka, the Sanskrit for the same thing.
16th-century novel by Wu Cheng'en; one of the Four Great Classical Novels. Tangseng leads Sun Wukong, Pigsy, and Sandy on a journey to fetch Buddhist scriptures from India.
