3 pieces from Journey to the West — each retold in modern English and traced to its source.
A river so heavy a feather sinks, and a monster wearing nine skulls who has eaten every pilgrim before this one. Two of the travelers can fight in water and one cannot, which turns out to be the whole problem — and the river will not be crossed by winning.
Home from his lessons, the Monkey King wants one thing the world hasn't got — a weapon that can match him. So he walks into the dragons' palace under the sea and asks to try everything. What he carries out, and the second errand he runs that same night, will put two complaints on heaven's desk before morning.
Banished again for killing what his master would not, the Monkey King goes off to nurse the insult — and a second Monkey King walks in, identical down to the last hair, and takes everything. Two Wukongs, same face, same rod, same powers, and no one in heaven, hell, or earth can tell which is real.