Customer Reviews

The Journey to the West

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the most complete and faithful translation of Journey to the West I have yet found. It is the third version of the story I've read, and unlike those other versions ("Adventures of Monkey King"/ISBN 0962076511 and "Monkey : A Journey to the West [ABRIDGED]"/ISBN 1570625816), it contains the complete and unabridged story, preserving very faitflly both the style and content of the original story.

This extreme faithfulness is both a strength and a weakness. It's a strength in that you get a real feeling for the scope of the original work, and you get to hear all the interesting little back-stories and side-stories that make Journey to the West one of the great works of Chinese literaure. It's a weakness because these stories often seem completely irrelevant, and may be quite confusing to someone who is not familiar with Chinese culture and religion.

For example, every time something happens in Heaven, Hell or in the palace of the Tang Emperor, the book includes a complete list of everyone who attended. In Heaven, at least, many of the names are descriptive (names of stars, constellations, etc.) and are therefore translated. In the Tang Emperor's palace, though, you'll get a list of 10 or 20 names in Chinese, and only some of the names ever get stories attached to them in the book (and I challenge any non-Chinese speaker to remember the names when they do show up again).

There's also a lot of poetry, and though the translations are good, translated poetry can never equal the original. In one sequence, a fisherman and a woodsman argue in verse for 10 or more pages of very small type, frequently singing songs set to tunes few non-Chinese would recognize by name. These characters are important only in that the end of their conversation sets up a conflict, so the only purpose of the sequence is to provide a chance to read the poetry. It's good poetry, to be sure, but it really can drag a bit.

You can't just automatically skip over all the poems, as you might do with Tolkien, either. Elements of the story are often told in verse. You can usually skim if you're not interested in a particular bit of verse, but don't skip it entirely.

The structure of the work is also surprisingly complex at times, especially given its age. It will at times veer far from the main thrust of the story to recount the entire life history of a character, and has many side stories that somehow tie back into the main plot several chapters later. You may at times find yourself wondering just why the author chose to include a particular bit of story, but there's almost always a payoff waiting somewhere down the line.

Another problem is that the style of the storytelling is not very concise. If someone in the story needs to recount what has happened to them, you'll get a second, (fortunately much abridged) version of an earlier portion of the story, written as dialog, this time. You could make similar sorts of complaints about many of the early great works of English fiction, or probably just about any other country's older fiction, so this is not really a strong criticism given the work's great age, but I often found myself wishing the author (or the translator) had just written, "he told them what had happened" and left it at that.

There were also many quirks of the translation that bothered me. The word "memorial" was used throughout instead of "memorandum". It took me quite a while to figure out that was what was going on. I read all of the abridged translation that also made the same mistake throughout, but still didn't figure it out until I was several chapters into this one.

Will all these complaints, you're probably wondering why I gave the book 4 stars. The fact is, for all its faults and quirks, "Journey to the West" is still one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. The Monkey King is without a doubt my favorite character in any work I have ever read or watched. The story of his journey is a brilliant parable on the jouney to enlightenment, while at the same time a story of great humor and exciting action. It also provides fascinating insight into the history and traditional culture of China.

If you want to get the whole story and can't read Chinese, this edition is your absolute best bet. (Indeed, it's pretty much your only bet.) Some of the other translations may be a faster read, but none are as satisfying.

There are, at present, two complete versions of the long Chinese comic novel "Journey to the West". One of them, the more recent, is published by Anthony Yu at Chicago University Press. The other, an older version made by W. J. F. Brenner for the Foreign Language Press, is made over five decades ago, but is as yet still not completely superseded.

Looking through the translations, it's obvious that both are worthy undertakings by two enthusiatic contemporary Sinologists. Anthony Yu, though not a native English speaker, is professor of East Asian studies at the Chicago University, an expert in his field, and an ethnic Chinese. Brenner is a long-time Sino translator who has rendered his fair share of Chinese classics into English. So how did these two translations fare compared with each other?

Brenner is a no-nonsensical and very sensible translator of the Wu Cheng'en's book. While he doesn't take great liberties with the text, when required, he demonstrates lots of felicities in reframing Chinese ideas and philosophies into English. Take the beginning for instance, a difficult passage which involves understanding of Chinese arithmetics and metaphysics. Here is Brenner's version:

"In the arithmetic of the universe, 129,600 years make one cycle. Each cycle can be divided into twelve phases: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII. VIII, IX, X, XI and XII, the twelve branches. Each phase lasts 10,800 years.

"Now within a single day, the positive begins at the time I; at II the cock crows; at III it is not quite light; at IV the sun rises; V is after breakfast; and at VI one does business. VII is when the sun reaches noon; at VIII it is slipping towards the west; IX is late afternoon; the sun sets at X; XI is dusk; and at XII people settle down for the night."

This is elegant as is readable and comprehensible to an English audience. Although Brenner forgoes the nitty-gritties of exact transliteration, he did not excise anything of note, and got the gist of the passage right. One could imagine this is how the author would have composed in English.

Brenner's translation is consistently fine and accurate. His language is on the whole simple and easily understood as long you have a high school degree. Where Brenner is more limited, as compared to Arthur Waley's classic abridged "Monkey", is in recreating the full range of tones and satiric emotions of the original. "Journey to the West" is a satirical, high-spirited adventure story; Brenner is idiomatic and readable, but he can occasionally sacrifice some of the original's comic mischievousness. Here Waley is incomparable; though he may sound a little arch, one has no doubt Waley is at one with Wu Cheng'en's spirit. Brenner, on the other hand, can at times sound a little too matter-of-factly. There are moments where you will chuckle in delight reading Waley, but might not do so with Brenner.

Now to Anthony Yu's version. Made in the 1980s, it, too, is a highly commendable piece of work. The first thing one notices about it is its extreme faithfulness to the text - even more so than Brenner's. At times, it even strikes one as being slavish. One must praise his version for being so strictly straightforward, though at times this literalmindedness makes some word choices incomprehensible to English readers. Take his constant rendition of "Wood Mother" for instance, a term which has no meaning whatsoever in English, or "eating rice" for "taking a meal". This is a version especially good if you know your Chinese and would like a crib to read the original with. While maybe not as idiomatic as Brenner, Yu is even more academic and scholarly in that he attempts to translate every character of the language. Faithfulness to the letter of the text takes foremost priority, sometimes over readibility. The success rate is varying, but the translation is on the whole an admirable one.

Comparing the two, both Yu and Brenner can be recommended. Yu would be first choice if fidelity to the text is your priority. If you prefer your English to be more idiomatic and the story to flow better, Brenner should be considered. The two run pretty close and neither is yards ahead of the other. But Waley's translation is still a marvellous read, and even if it is highly abridged, it should under no circumstances be forgotten.

Journey to the West is probably the most well-known tale amongst Chinese folk the world over. It is a story that has been adapted in the form of operas, television series, cartoons and movies many times over. To be able to read a complete and unabridged version of this epic is a joy indeed. My only regret is that as a Western-educated Chinese, I am not able to read this masterpiece in it's original language. Although the translator does a very good job at translating the book, I am sure many nuances and subtleties of the Chinese language have been lost in the translation.

The story is a simple one. Set during the early Tang dynasty (the peak of Chinese civilisation), a holy Buddhist monk has to travel from China to India to collect the true Mahayana Buddhist scriptures from the Lord Buddha himself, in order to bring enlightenment to his fellow country men. The journey is a long and ardous one, not least because numerous demons lie waiting in ambush for a chance to capture and eat the monk, as his holy body will confer immortality on whoever eats it. Thus, the Goddess of Compassion assembles a strange group of bodyguards for the monk: the proud and mischievous Monkey, the lustful and greedy Pig, the loyal and steadfast Friar Sand, and a Dragon Prince transformed into a horse. Their various adventures are so full of humor and wacky hijinks that I cannot help myself from laughing out from time to time. Monkey is the ultimate Chinese version of the universal trickster-hero. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book. You will not regret it for a moment.

This is a wonderful translation of the Journey to the West. It is an unabridged translation, therefore it is 3 books long. But it is worth it. Not only is it written clearly, but it keeps the style of the original, meaning that interwoven between pharagraphs of prose are poems. This give the book a wonderful charm that the abridged, prose versions lack. The ancient Chinese thought, such as yin and yang, Daoism, Chinese Buddhism, also give the book an authentic flavor that enriches the experience of reading this classic. It is still the same wonderful story of the michevous Monkey King, his difficulties with the gods in heaven, and his redeeming pilgramage with the Buddhist monk/priest Sanzang to find sutras. For anyone seriously interested in this story and who doesn't read Chinese, this is the edition for them!

I've always loved books, particularly the kind that create a new and different world and draw you into it. It seems I was pretty serious about my fantasy reading, as evidenced by an inscription to my children in the back of The Fellowship of The Ring, mass market paperback edition circa 1977. I wrote the inscription with a ball-point pen when I was 10. My daughter showed it to me when she was 14 or so. It said something to the effect that I love this book so much that my only wish is to pass it on to my kids so that they can feel what I did when I first read it. Apparently I did, and apparently they did.

I still feel that way about The Lord of The Rings, but I read Journey To The West a couple of years ago, and it made me feel the same way except magnified. I was 37 when I first read it. It was like Tolkien, plus all the L. Frank Baum Oz books plus the Arabian Nights, all the Greek myths, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams all rolled into one. This book is over 2300 pages, so it took some discipline to get through. But as you go, you savor each moment, each line. When I turned the final page, I was seriously tempted to start again at the beginning. Seriously, it's that good.

It is that good, despite being very far out of context for most people like me. What I mean is, I'm about as Western as you can get, or at least my parents intended me to be so. My understanding is that Chinese kids absorb the Monkey King story by osmosis, they drink it like mother's milk from they day they are born .... kind of like Big Bird or Elmo in the west.

But that's not at all a fair comparison. Big Bird and Elmo fall in the category of pop culture. This same category is fair game for any number of PhD theses in any number of fields of learning. Do you reckon anyone will know who Elmo is 500 years from now? Neither do I. But we still know Monkey today, and I bet we will still know him 500 years from now, if there is anyone around to know anything.

It is possible that Journey to the West is the most widely read or known text in the history of humanity. That's a bizarre thought to those of us brought up in the isolated shelter of Judeo-Christian mythology. I'm sure it is less analyzed than the Christian bible, but then it doesn't exactly beg for analysis: it's obviously a very long fable, indicating very little in the way of how to live one's life, whether or not to eat bacon with tea on a Tuesday morning, or anything else relevant to modern life. It's not about textbook ethics, nor is it about everyday morality. It's not about how to please God or your fellow man (woman if you are one, to quote Colin Hay). It's about fantasy. It's about delight in the sheer variety of the world around. If I were a book, I would want to be about that.

All that is left is for me to suggest that you read Monkey King. It's a project, and you need to get in the right frame of mind. You're going to need some fortitude to read it all, but it's worth it. It really is worth it.

What follows is my somewhat lame attempt to summarize a book which probably shouldn't be summarized. Please ignore it, I wrote it in a fit of passion 2 years ago.

Sun Wukong is the Handsome Monkey King, Great Sage Equaling Heaven. This book is about Sun Wukong, the Monkey.

The novel is composed of 100 chapters, each told as a story such as an oral storyteller might relate. Each chapter ends with a sort of cliffhanger and a directive to read on if you want to know what happens next.

In chapter 1 Monkey is born (hatched ?!) and asserts himself as a force to be reckoned with. He's fairly happy eating exotic fruits and being king of the mountain but eventually the idea of death occurs to him, and he gets quite naturally upset. One of his monkey friends suggests to him that there are 3 kinds of beings who are free from the cycle of death and rebirth: Buddhas, Immortals, and Sages. The Immortals are enlightened ones of the Taoist faith, and Sages refers to Confucianism. The Handsome Monkey King decides to set out on a journey to gain immortality. Eventually (after about 10 years have passed) he runs into a Taoist Immortal who imparts the secrets of everlasting life and great travel powers to him.

Having acquired great cosmic powers, Monkey proceeds to use them. He causes no end of distress to the kings of Hell in Chapter 3, and soon comes to the attention of Heaven (i.e. the Powers That Be). Heaven attempts to placate Monkey's insatiable lust for power and recognition with a fake job and title. Monkey can be fooled, but only for so long, and in the end he causes chaos in Heaven (which is a bad thing). The Jade Emperor of Heaven calls out all the armies of demons, heavenly generals and warriors, you name it. Time after time they try to take Monkey into custody and fail, until finally the Buddha himself steps in and traps Monkey. Handsome Monkey King is imprisoned under a mountain for some 500 years.

By now we're up to chapter 8, in which the Bodhisattva Guanyin sets out on a journey to appoint a pure hearted priest to go west and bring back the scrolls of wisdom from the Buddha's Western Paradise. On the way Guanyin flags a couple of demons to help the priest on his journey. In chapters 9 through 12 we learn about Sanzang, the Tang Priest who is destined to recover the scriptures from the West, a million miles away, or so it seems. Sanzang is a rather weak fellow, a mere mortal with no special powers of any kind. His strength is the pureness of his heart and his faith in his mission.

The Journey to the West is Sanzang's voyage to recover the scrolls, and it really begins in chapter 13. He does not have an easy time of it, being almost constantly beset by tigers, monsters and demons, not to mention deep dark forests and formidable mountain ranges. However the Tang Priest quickly gets help, in the form of a dragon transformed into a horse, a flesh eating demon who works as a bodyguard and gopher, and a gluttonous moronic pig-demon who serves nicely as a luggage carrier. But most importantly he acquires Monkey, who is freed from his imprisonment under the mountain on the condition that he helps the Tang Priest and cultivates his behavior, learning to be a good Buddhist monk. Imagine Monkey with a shaved head.

Once the cast is assembled, the journey begins in earnest. Monkey, the Idiot (Pig), Sandy and the dragon horse accompany Sanzang through 30000 miles of dangerous terrain, beset by evil spirits and demons at every turn. By this time we're done with chapter 25, 585 pages into the novel, and we've closed the back cover of Volume 1. In the other hand we hold Volume 2, almost drooling with anticipation.

Throughout the next 75 chapters, the action is pretty much non-stop. There are lots of bad guys, and Monkey gets lots of chances to show off his incredible magical powers, his sheer brute force, and his amazing mental capacity. His conversations and arguments with The Tang Priest and The Idiot are always amusing and sometimes hilarious. His martial prowess, wielding the As-You-Will Iron Cudgel, is unparalleled. Sometimes even Monkey gets in over his head and has to call in an air strike in the form of Heavenly forces, or various Gods, Constellations, or other muscle.

I won't give away the ending, but suffice it to say it's a happy one, after 2317 pages.

As to the quality of the translation I have nothing to add. It was more than readable to me: it was a delight, poetry and all.

As to the quality of the editing, it's not perfect. On the other hand, the flaws don't detract from the experience at all.

As to the quality of the printing: keep in mind that this is published by Foreign Language Press of Beijing. In some ways FLP doesn't live up to American standards of production quality, but in others it excels them. The paper is necessarily thin, but the books are tightly bound. These are not mass-market paperbacks. One does not feel that the books will fall apart on a second reading, and there is very little danger of breaking the spine. Also, Journey to the West is nicely illustrated with Qing Dynasty pictures. The quality of the reproductions is not the highest, but let's not bite the hand that feeds us. My box of Journey to the West was a bit scuffed and dinged and dented. Same with the other titles I have purchased from FLP through Amazon. I imagine this is FLP's fault. I'm not entirely happy about it but for a book this great, I can live with a couple of small physical flaws (especially at this price). I'm just happy I got my grubby little monkey paws on it.

This is the second complete English translation of "A Journey to the West", the first being Yu's. Jenner's version makes compelling reading and I found it very difficult to put the book down. The translation is sprightly and idiomatic and the extensive passages in verse are attractively rendered. The only demerits are the lack of footnotes to explain some of the references to individuals and doctrines (for which one needs Yu's version) and the relatively poor standard of printing and typography: better proof-reading would have helped! However, I cannot say that these shortcomings impaired my enjoyment of these volumes and I would strongly recommend them to anyone in search of a readable version of this engrossing epic.

The Journey to the West has remained of the most popular and enduring works of fiction in China since it was first published in the late sixteenth century. It is an allegory of Buddhist doctrine, based on the real life pilgrimage of Tripitaka, a Chinese monk who traveled to India in search of religions scripture in (I believe) the seventh century. The very descriptive text contains some of the most astoundingly beautiful poetic passages I have ever encountered. Footnotes contain references to everthing from historical notes to daily customs of the period. This set of books is among the most treasured in my library.

I've been a long time reading this 2300-page classic Chinese "novel." The quotes are there because, if you read it as a novel, you'll grow tired of the repetitive elements in the large body of the story. Think of it more as a comprehensive compendium of folklore tales centering around the central character, Monkey. The seed of the story was the actual journey of a Tang dynasty Buddhist priest from China to India and back. This journey caught the Chinese imagination and somehow became embellished with the mythical Monkey, who ultimately became much more interesting than the priest himself. Many stories grew around a formula of Monkey protecting the priest from monsters along the journey. The author, Wu Cheng'en, organized many of these stories into a single narrative, which apparently became the authoritative record of all the Monkey folklore.

This unabridged translation by W. J. F. Jenner includes a "Translator's Afterword," which I recommend you read before (not after) you read the story itself. It helps you to understand why there are so many incidents that do little to develop the story or the characters. This edition was prepared for and printed by the Foreign Language Press of Beijing, so do not expect it to meet American standards of proofreading.

If you are chiefly interested in enjoying the story itself, read Arthur Waley's abridged translation, "Monkey." He keeps all the essential elements so that you learn the plot and get to know the characters, but cuts out most of the formulaic "Monkey vs. monster" stories, so it is paced more like a modern novel.

5 stars for the translation. 4 stars for the physical book quality.

Since other people have expounded on the plot, here is a review based on the physical book. The actual paperback novels are approximately 7" x 4.25," so easy to hold in your hand and tuck into a briefcase. The pages are a bit thin, not "Bible" thin, but they are a bit thinner than most paperback books. One of my volumes didn't hold up well to sitting in a steam-filled bathroom.

There are occasional pictures and sparse endnotes, but they do not detract from the story at all. The pictures were drawn during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and are done in the old chinese style, not some new-fangled doodles.

Some of the translation is a bit iffy, and sentences do not necessarily always make sense, but you'll understand it contextually. Some of the wording is extremely quaint, such as Pig complaining that the demons failed to drink "acuppa" with them. There is much more painfully British vernacular, but it just adds to the goofy charm of this book. Don't bother wringing your hands over the never-ending list of characters. Skim over them and read on. After all, there are an awful lot of demons and gods to meet on the journey, and quite a few of them are fated to die via Monkey's cudgel, making their characters irrelevant in the long-run. One thing I noticed is that there is an awful lot of scatological farce for a book written in the Ming dynasty (don't worry, it's still hilarious).

I've read a couple translations of Monkey King, and while they'll all stay in my personal library, this is the one I anticipate picking up again and again. I loved this book as a child and ten years later, I still do. A must-read for fans of mythology or Chinese literature in general.

JOURNEY TO THE WEST," IS A CELEBRATED CLASSIC WRITTEN ABOUT FIVE CENTURIES AGO BY WU CHENG'EN, AKA MASTER OF SHEYANG, ABOUT THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST TO FETCH THE SUTRA, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT IS a story of every person's purpose in life, to live a righteous life, go on the road he or she must go, until he or she reaches the Western Paradise. This person, represented by a team of the Tang Priest and his four disciples, has personalities like each of them.

We may not know it, but we have an ounce of cleverness and bravery and strength in each and every one of us, like Monkey King, and are we not as stupid, lazy, and lascivious as Pig? Like Frair Sand, we can be steadfast to our beliefs, what is right, and can tell what is man and what is demon, what is right and what is wrong? The horse is repentant of his crime and accepted his converted life as a horse, are we not like that too? The Tang Priest represents everything that is pure and right, but is a gullible person.

The demons they met on their way represent different sins and temptations, to fight them is a battle within oneself, fighting for what is right and against what is wrong. At last, when all battles against evil are won, they are pure and righteous and changed over the course of the journey, worthy to meet Buddha, get the Sutras, and become Buddhas themselves.

This simple story is lesser known as a religious story, but is still highly recommended by me, because of its exciting plot, great characters,a reflection of Chinese feudalism and society of the time Wu Cheng'en lived, teachings of Buddhism, and knowing a thing or two about Chinese culture, all packaged in one.

A true classic!