This study considers the visual signification of the woodblock prints of Journey to the West, published by the Ming dynasty, paying attention to the role of such chosen motives as cloud swirls, magical staffs, and lotus thrones as the carrier of the meaning in narrative and religious grounds of late imperial China. Based on the triadic model of the sign discussed by Charles Sanders Peirce (icon, index, symbol), the analysis of three crucial prints about the figures of Sun Wukong and Guanyin decodes the functioning of the visual attributes through several semiotic registers. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship from visual culture studies, Chinese religious art, and print history, the research argues that Ming illustrators were not passive copyists but active visual narrators who embedded cosmological and moral meanings into their work. Through qualitative, interpretive analysis, the study demonstrates that these images offered more than aesthetic value; they were semiotic systems through which readers accessed theological narratives, ethical teachings, and cultural memory. By situating visual motifs within both historical context and Peircean theory, the research also traces the enduring legacy of these motifs in modern visual adaptations. This project contributes to the broader fields of visual semiotics and Chinese literary studies by offering a framework for reading illustrated fiction as dynamic, multilayered cultural texts.