| Title | : | Journey to the West (4-Volume Boxed Set) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 7119016636 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9787119016634 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 2346 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1592 |
| Awards | : | Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse Übersetzung (2017) |
Journey to the West (4-Volume Boxed Set) Reviews
-
On hold since Summer 2006, I'm done with 3 1/2 volumes of this.
I hope to finish before I die.
9/14/07:
Seriously, I should finish this.
10/4/07:
No kidding.
10/29/07:
Give it some time.
12/9/07:
Wait for it...
2/6/08:
Uh...
4/6/08:
I've read another chapter!
5/22/08:
Guys, really.
6/17/08:
I've read another bit.
7/10/08:
This is getting ridiculous
9/30/08:
What the hell.
4/25/09:
I don't think this is ever going to be finished.
7/26/09:
Except, by some miracle, I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED.
7/27/09:
I've downgraded it from a 5 to a 4, not because of any flaw in the plot (which I hold to be one of the best in general), but because the writing simply lacks that bit of finesse in most Western literature. This is to be expected though, because of rough translations. I'm sure if I could read Chinese and then read the original in Chinese, I would make it a 5. -
Thật sự hiếm có cuốn sách nào được như Tây Du Ký khi có cả 3 thứ: giải trí, nghệ thuật và triết lý.
Phần đa những sách viết theo kiểu sử thi lớp lang đều đọc rất nản. Điển hình như Thần thoại Hy Lạp hay thậm chí là kinh sách một số tôn giáo. Kiểu sự việc cứ lặp đi lặp lại không chán sao được. Nhưng Tây Du Ký thì gần như không có lúc nào chán. Ngược lại còn cười như ma nhập ý chứ =)) các kiếp nạn thú vị và thích nhất là đối đáp của 4 nhân vật =))) Nghĩ lại duma vẫn thấy cười ịa =)))
Phần đa chuyện phiêu lưu thường không nghệ thuật. Nhưng Tây Du Ký lại cũng không vậy. Như tranh thủy mặc của Trung Quốc vậy. Rất đơn giản mà gợi. Một người duy mỹ nặng đọc cũng không cảm thấy phí thời gian. Kinh thật Ngô Thừa Ân viết cuốn này khi đã ngoài 70 và viết rất nhanh. Nhưng đúng là bút lực của cây cao bóng cả. Viết như không viết, hoàn toàn loại bỏ các kiểu dụng công màu mè mà cả vạn dặm hoa gấm vẫn hiện lên. Chỉ một câu về ngắm mây trời mà thông suốt cả ba cõi. Buồn cười nhất là lần đầu trong đời tôi thấy có người "lấy thơ làm bằng chứng" =))
Tính triết lý mới thật xứng là thuộc tứ đại danh tác. Với tính rộng khắp của tác phẩm, tôi nghĩ mỗi người đọc Tây Du Ký sẽ khám phá ra những điều khác nhau, tùy vào cái họ tìm kiếm. Với tôi, nghĩ lại thật hài hước =)) xưa tôi luôn cảm thấy bị bấp bênh giữa Phật giáo là tôn giáo tôi theo với triết lý hiện sinh là cái mà phần con trong tôi rất thích. Vừa muốn khám phá lại vừa muốn định. Nhưng đúng là tìm thì sẽ thấy. Gần đây tự dưng lại nhìn thấy một câu của Osho, đại để quả chín thì mới rụng, ngã đủ lớn thì mới hóa không. Tây Du Ký này cũng chính là vậy. Khắp trời đất thi nhau chèn cho Đường Tăng đủ 81 kiếp nạn mới thành Phật được. Chính Thích Ca xưa cũng phải qua địa ngục cám dỗ mới ngộ. Mà nó là bản chất vũ trụ thì phải. Thần thoại cũng phải đẻ ra thằng hỗn mang đầu tiên, đến Chúa cũng phải cho thiên thần hóa Satan. Nên là sống bây giờ gặp kiếp nạn thì hít sâu thở khẽ gắng mà vượt qua mới thành chính quả ;)) đời bằng phẳng thì phải như Đường Tăng, như hiện sinh, là lao vào chỗ nguy hiểm (để đạt kết quả chứ không phải lao bừa hoho). Tất nhiên bên hiện sinh cho việc trải nghiệm là thú vui, bên Phật thì cho là để giác ngộ. Hình thức giống nhau, tâm khác nhau.
Ngoài ra, cái này tôi không vướng phải, nhưng nhiều người vướng, là coi Thích Ca như thước đo cho mọi điều. Bắt người này người kia phải hành xử y Thích Ca. Làm gì có cái đó. Tầm của Thích Ca là không cần pháp nữa, nhưng người tu tập phải có pháp. Đạt được pháp rồi mới bỏ được pháp. Như qua con sông phải đi đò. Qua rồi thì bỏ đò lại. Như có người chị hỏi tôi bên Phật sao còn ăn rau quả. Rau quả cũng có đức hiếu sinh mà. Hay mong được giác ngộ chẳng phải cũng là tham sân si. Nói như Tôn Ngộ Không thì "Trời đất còn chẳng trọn vẹn nữa là". Cứ mang cái toàn vẹn ra đòi người tu ở nấc cơ sở phải theo, thật là trái với lý lẽ Phật giáo. Chính Thích Ca ban đầu cũng tu khổ hạnh lối toàn vẹn đó, chỉ hít khí mà sống thôi. Sau thấy không đạt được gì, mới nhận bát sữa, khỏe mạnh ngồi thiền giác ngộ đấy chứ. Tuyệt đối không OCD trong tu tập nha hoho Muốn không thì phải có, trong truyện đọc sẽ thấy rõ.
Có một tích trong Tây Du Ký rất hay bị mang ra bỉ bôi là A Nan và Ca Diếp đòi Tam Tạng phải hối lộ mới trao kinh. Cái này bên Phật giáo có giải thích là vì Tam Tạng chưa giải thoát, vẫn còn mê bát vàng không muốn trao đi nên bị thử thách như vậy thôi. Anw khi đọc thì thấy thứ 1 là Tam Tạng không có ý giữ bát, thứ 2 là đoạn này không được tính là kiếp nạn. Nên có khi đúng là A Nan Ca Diếp đòi hối lộ thật. Cái này cũng bình thường. Như đã nói, không nên làm quá bất cứ cái gì. Ngoài ra thì Ngô Thừa Ân cũng có phải Thích Ca đâu, viết sao chả được =))) Tôi có bà bác ưa cúng dường, con cái rất ghét, coi là mất tiền cho sư. Tôi thì thấy có mất gì đâu. Bà bác chỉ đang bỏ tiền ra để mua chút tâm an và có thể là một vé VIP khi sang bên kia. Bố thí là pháp lớn nhất rồi (bố thí nói chung). Tam Tạng đưa bát vàng, có đi có lại mới thật cân bằng, sao lại gọi là hối lộ.
Đường Huyền Trang ngoài đời khổ gấp mấy lần mới được kinh. Mình bỏ ra 5 triệu mua được cả bộ Nikaya mà lại ít khi đọc haiz. -
Kurz: Ein Meilenstein der Weltliteratur. Dem Reclam-Verlag ist gar nicht genug zu danken dieses Projekt finnziert zu haben, wohlwissend, dass bei dem Verkaufspreis das Buch sicherlich nicht die Bestsellerlisten erklimmt. Nichtsdestotrotz ist man den Weg gegangen und hat so ein Werk der Weltliteratur erstmalig komplett auf Deutsch herausgebracht.
Ebenso danken muss man auch der Übersetzerin Eva Lüdi Kong. Als jemand, der selbst bereits (wenn auch nicht kommerziell und mit japanischer Annotation) klassische chinesische Literatur in kurzen Auszügen übersetzt hat, kann ich ihre Aussagen bzgl. der Schwierigkeit der Übersetzung nur bestätigen. Die ganzen Fachbegriffe aus dem buddhistischen und d(t)aoistischen Wortschatz müssen eine Heidenarbeit gewesen sein, ebenso die immer noch zahlreich vorhandenen Gedichte im Werk.
Inhaltlich lässt sich das in 100 Kapitel gegliederte Werk grob in drei Teile einteilen. Die ersten sieben Kapitel beschäftigen sich mit der Entstehung der Hauptfigur Sun Wukong. Es wird seine Suche nach der Unsterblichkeit geschildert, die Aneignung seiner zahlreichen Fähigkeiten bis hin zu seinem Aufstand im Himmel und die Bändigung durch den Buddha Tathagata. Die folgenden Kapitel 8 bis12 erzählen den Hintergrund für die Reise in den Westen und führen den Protagonisten der Reise, den Mönch Tripitaka (im Original Tang Sangzang oder Xuanzang, ein historischer Mönch der Tang-Zeit, der die buddhistischen Sutras von Indien nach China gebracht hat), ein. Ab dem 13. Kapitel beginnt dann die titelgebende Reise in den Westen, die sich bis zur Vollendung und der Buddha-Werdung von Tripitaka im 100. Kapitel erstreckt.
Stilistisch erinnert der Roman stark an eine Mischung aus Abenteuergeschichte — es finden zahlreiche Kämpfe und Rätsel statt, vor allem Sun Wukong ist immer wieder vor Probleme gestellt und muss seine Mitreisenden retten — und Märchen. Es kommen zahlreiche Fabeltiere aus der chinesischen Folklore vor, auch endet jedes Kapitel mit den Aufforderung „… lasst uns das nächste Kapitel anhören.“ Auch ist von Beginn an der Erfolg der Reise festgelegt, die Hauptcharaktere sind, für Märchen typisch, unsterblich. Neben folkloristischen Elementen spielen natürlich auch die religiösen Elemente eine wichtige Rolle, nehmen aber nie in Form einer Moralpredigt die Überhand. Während die anfänglichen Kapitel der Reise meist in sich abgeschlossen sind wächst die Komplexität später ein wenig an, sodass sich Kapitel inhaltlich über mehrere Kapitel erstrecken. Immer wieder sind aber in sich abgeschlossene Kapitel wie das Kapitel 64, in dem Tripitaka mit Baumgeistern dichtet, oder das Kapitel 53, indem Tripitaka und der Schüler Bajie im Frauenland Xiliang nach einem Schluck aus dem yin-gespeisten Mutterfluss, gespeist von der Quelle Embryospiegel, plötzlich unter starken Bauchschmerzen schwanger werden.
Das Verständnis wird durch die zahlreich vorhandenen Fußnoten mit teilweise Original-Schriftzeichen im Fließtext erleichtert (für deren Verwendung man in dieser Form dem Reclam Verlag nur dankbar sein kann), zusätzlich erhält die Übersetzung noch ein Glossar des vielköpfigen Pantheons.
Grundlage für die Übersetzung ist eine 1663 erschienene Ausgabe, die im Gegensatz zu einer älteren Ausgabe weniger in Gedichtform (und damit zur Rezitation geeignet) und mehr in Prosaform geschrieben ist. Dadurch wird der Text erfreulich gut lesbar, trotzdem finden sich in jedem Kapitel noch genug Gedichte um einen Einblick in die ursprüngliche Form zu geben. Begleitet werden die 100 Kapitel von Abbildungen von ebenfalls im 17. Jahrhundert entstandenen Holzschnitten, die gut gewählt sind.
Dass stilistisch Schlichtheit und Grandezza der Sprache dicht beieinander liegen soll die folgende Textstelle aus dem 81. Kapitel (S. 1010/11) zeigen:
Da legte ihm die Dame den Arm um die Schulter, gab ihm einen Kuss und sagte: „Komm doch mit mir nach hinten, vergnügen wir uns ein bisschen!“
Pilger wante sich ab und versetzte: „Du bist wohl nicht ganz bei Sinnen!“
„Warum nicht bei Sinnen?“ entgegnete die Frau, „man sagt doch seit jeher: ‚Wenn das Schicksal zwei verbindet, finden sie sich über tausend Meilen.‘ Schau doch, wie schön der Sternenhimmel ist, wie klar der Mond! Lass uns doch im Hinterhof ein bisschen Liebe machen.“
Als Pilger das hörte, nickte er im Stillen und dachte: „Die dummen Mönche haben sich verführen lassen, darum mussten sie ihr Leben lassen. Und jetzt versucht sie gar, mich reinzulegen.“ Dann gab er zur Antwort: ‘Werte Dame, ich bin ein junger Mönch und weiß nichts von Dingen wie Liebe machen.“
„Komm nur mit, ich zeig es dir!“
Pilger lachte in sich hinein und dachte: „Nun gut, dann geh ich mit und schaue mal, wie sie das anpacken will.“
So gingen beide Arm in Arm aus der Tempelhalle zum Hinterhof. Dort aber stellte die Dämonin Pilger ein Bein, dass er stolperte und längelang hinfiel, worauf sie mit lautem „Oh, mein Schätzchen!“ nach seinem Geschlecht fasste.
„Ha, mein Kind, du hast ja tatsächlich vor, den alten Sun zu fressen!“ versetzte Pilger und zog sie mit einem leichten Sturzgriff an der Hand, dass sie schwungvoll am Boden landete. Selbst da fuhr das Ungeheuer noch fort zu rufen: „Oh, mein Schätzchen, du kannst ja gar deine Dame umwerfen!“
Da sann Pilger: „Wenn nicht jetzt, wann dann?“
Denn so ist es in der Tat: Wer zuerst anpackt, ist stärker. Also nahm er mit einem Satz seine eigene Gestalt an und schwang die Eisenstange. Zuerst erschrak die Dämonin und dachte: „Dieser kleine Mönch ist ja ein starkes Stück!“ Doch wie sie genauer hinsah, begriff sie auf einmal, dass es einer der Schüler des chinesischen Priesters war, nämlich derjenige mit dem Namen Sun. Dennoch blieb sie furchtlos, und schon hatte sie zwei Schwerter zur Hand, mite denen sie sich beiderseits der Stange erwehrte, dass es nur so klirrte. Während die beiden im Hinterhof ihre Zauberkräfte maßen, stieg ein kalter Wind auf, und der Mond verfinsterte sich.
Ein weiteres Beispiel für die langlebige Kultur Chinas (und der Schwierigkeit der Übersetzung) ist ein kurzes Zitat, das im Text für den Leser nicht näher durch Fußnoten erläutert wird, bei mir aber eine Erinnerung aufgeworfen hat. Im Kapitel 74 (S .910) erinnert der Sandmönch an ein altes chinesisches Sprichwort. Der chinesische Leser kennt das, der nicht kundige Leser muss nachschlagen:
„Das war wohl ein Ungeheuer, das uns hier was vorgegaukelt hat“, meinte Sandmönch, „wie der sprichwörtliche Fuchs, der die Macht des Tigers nutzt, um sich stark zu zeigen.“
Dieses Sprichwort (Übersetzung und Bedeutung der ursprünglichen Textstelle hier:
http://www.oai.de/en/45-publikationen...) geht auf einen Text zurück, der ursprünglich im Zhao Guo Ce erschienen ist und damit im 2. Jahrhundert vor Christus! Dies nur als Beispiel für die Bandbreite der der chinesischen Kultur unterliegenden durchgehenden Textgeschichte.
Der große Verdienst des Romans ist aber meines Erachtens die Verbindung des Profanen mit dem Sakralen. Der Text als Abenteuergeschichte in Märchenform ist zutiefst profan, der Inhalt mit dem Bezug auf Buddhismus, Daoismus und Konfuzianismus stellt aber natürlich die Darstellung einer sakralen Reise dar. Damit gelingt der Medienform Buch mit diesem Werk in China etwas, das im Westen in dieser Form nie erreicht wurde: Einer weltlichen, für das Volk gedachte Einführung in die Religion. Während etwa das (katholische) Christentum bis zu Luther durch den Bezug auf die lateinische Sprache und die strengen Riten der Kirche sehr exklusiv und hierarchisch war ist Religion hier in China offensichtlich etwas volksverbindendes. Der Roman mahnt die Leser natürlich zur Einhaltung der religiösen Riten und Ordnung, tut dies aber auf einer sehr spaßigen Art und Weise, die von der Übersetzerin im Nachwort auch als „unfromm“ bezeichnet wird. Durch diesen durch das Werk gezogene Humor wird das Heilige weltlich.
Neben der religiösen Vermittlung dient das Werk aber für Außenstehende auch als Spiegel der Kultur Chinas. Hier werden Alltagselemente ebenso beschrieben wie Folklore. Gemessen am großen Einfluss dieses Werkes auf den gesamten ostasiatischen Raum dient eine Lektüre somit auch dem interkulturellen Austausch mit der historisch einzig durchgehend große Kultur erschaffenden Nation China.
Dieses Werk gehört zweifellos zur Weltliteratur, wer Zeit und die Möglichkeit hat sollte sich dieses Werk nicht entgehen lassen. -
Here ends the Journey to the West.
After taking so long to read it I thought that I would never read those words.
But now that I finished it, I am starting to miss Monkey smugness, Pig idiocy and Xanzang naivety.
And... Well Friar Sand carried the luggage.
Journey to the West is something really unique, more than a novel is a collection of independent stories joined to make a cohesive and very long one.
What surprises me the most is how can it be entertaining and fresh after many centuries, and how despite the four main characters having pretty much the same set of characteristics across all the novel it never feels dull.
It is predictable at times, that is true enough; but just as we know that the pilgrims will reach their destination we also know that we are reading it for the Journey.
And about the translation, at least the present one seems to translate thing literally at parts and leaving the chinese names at others, as the translator himself has said this one is more directed to being easily readable (but sometimes it gets wonky) than being accurate.
And just a final piece of advice, do no try to read it all on a sit, that ended very badly for me.
Now I feel a desire to visit India and grab some sutras. -
Hiroshi Saito translation
Heaven Arc
The lesson of the this, the prequel section that sets up the main story, is that you can be an enormous asshole and you'll totally get your way, at least until you piss off Buddha.
Earth Arc
You can continue to be an enormous ass and mouth off to gods as long as you nominally do what they say and use some more polite language.
Water Arc
The gang's all here now. It's imporant who's around when you get your divine punishment. Sometimes they shave your head and take your necklace of skulls. Sometimes you just get a new name.
Wizard Arc
It's totally ok to eat fruit that looks like babies. Though if you mess up the orchard you may need to ask a bodhisattva for some gardening tips. Just don't go killing monsters masquerading as old folks unless you've got good proof. That's a good way to get excommunicated.
Treasure Arc
Don't trust boars. They lie a lot. If you're ever excommunicated, a daring rescue is always a good way to get back into your master's good graces. Keep any imporant documents away from boars; they are always hungry. It's hard when your co-workers are useless and you have to do all the work yourself. But at least you get to feel clever. Past acquaintances have a funny way of showing up in new guises. The stove boy is an inexplicably talented swordsman.
King Arc
Bodhisattvas are basically really touchy and tend to overreact, so be careful around them. They think nothing of having their pet lion push you into a well and keeping your corpse down there for three years while you think about what you've done. And said pet will be impersonating you the whole time, by the way; at least it doesn't have a thing for your wife.
If you're having trouble with a yokai that happens to be the son of an old friend, it's understandable that you don't just want to kill them; it will make things so much harder to deal with though. However, you can always get a bodhisattva to do your dirty work for you. It helps when the yokai has been badmouthing the bodhisattva behind its back. You know how touchy those bodhisattvas are. As has been previously established, their efforts at disciplining the unruly usually involves a new hairdo.
Dragon Arc
Seriously, why are monks so delicious? If a minor dragon kidnaps your master, you can always go drink tea with his uncle while he sends people to take care of the problem for you.
Religious strife is nothing new; these taoists can't seem to get enough of oppressing monks. Then again, the three main taoists are really yokai and they aren't talking about their dark pasts, so who knows why they're being so stubborn. The fact that your brother just tricked them into drinking his urine is not helping matters. They will keep on challenging you to increasingly ridiculous contests until they eventually kill themselves. You did try to stop them, but you'll still feel bad about it.
Peaches still taste delicious. -
There are a handful of different translations out there, most of which abridge or summarise considerably (which is understandable, given that the original text typically runs over 2300 pages in its entirety). Three are worth acknowledging, in my opinion, although there's no shortage of adaptations and abridgements in all forms of media (including a 2021 abridged version translated and edited by
Julia Lovell, whose translation work I've generally enjoyed).ARTHUR WALEY (1942)
Arthur Waley and I have a complicated history. His version is highly abridged, titled simply
Monkey, and is by far the most accessible to those with no background information on the text; it is, however, very poor quality in terms of accuracy. Wade-Giles romanisation is used, and the language is incredibly dated. This version only includes around 17% of the original content.ANTHONY C. YU (1977-1983)
Anthony Yu's four-volume English-language translation was first published in 1983, then revised and
republished in 2012. The older version is only worth reading if you can't find the newer reissue, which corrects various errors and updates the romanisation system from the dreaded Wade-Giles to the more accurate pinyin. Yu's introduction is nearly 100 pages long, and incredibly detailed. This translation is the definitive academic version, with extensive notes and annotations, as well as inclusion of all the poetry and songs from the original.W.J.F. JENNER (1982-1984)
First published as a full-length four-volume translation in 1984, then republished in a single-volume abridged volume a decade later in 1994, Jenner's translation is probably the most readable which still sticks roughly to the original story. Although less accurate than Yu's translation, Jenner's easily surpasses Waley's. There's also a six-volume edition published in 2003 which has the original Chinese on the left page and the English translation on the right, although I haven't looked at that version. -
2/6/15 - Finished Volume 1 (of 4). This is a fascinating mythic journey so far. This first volume is almost more of a prologue, for those wondering how much of a journey this is going to turn out to be, out of 25 chapters, the first 7 make up the origin story of Monkey, and the next five of the monk Sanzang who at least so far appears to be the actual hero of the story, journeying to the west to receive the scriptures from the Buddha and bring them back to the Tang Emperor.
I would love to read some works on comparative literature looking at this and some western works such as the Iliad, and Dante. There's an amazing journey through the underworld, and some really funny trouble-making by Monkey and the other disciples Sanzang picks up along the way. Volume 1 ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, I'm looking forward to seeing where Volume 2 takes me.
2/24/15 - Finished Volume 2. I'm about halfway through, and not tired of the story yet. I'm starting to get a better feel for the humor, much of which comes from the character of Pig, his laziness, and his conflicts with Monkey. It's fascinating to see how the story manages to come up with varieties of challenges for the travelers to face, though there is a persistent theme of monsters catching Sanzang, and planning to eat him once they've finished dealing with his angry disciples. The editor has done a pretty effective job of ending each volume on a bit of a cliffhanger, which helps the reader maintain their momentum going forward.
3/29/15 - Finished Volume 3. This is the volume where the threats and challenges have gotten weirder than just a strong opponent who Monkey has to defeat. There are more enemies where Monkey has to explicitly call for significant assistance, and there are conflicts that are more complicated than the standard "fighting for 40 or 50 rounds" cycle. Once again, this volume ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.
4/28/15 - Finished Volume 4. Sanzang's journey to the west took 14 years, mine took 4 months. It was totally worth it. This is an amazing epic. Weird, and silly, with a structure that is clearly built up from the oral tradition from which it originated. I know there's an abridged version in English that's been published by a more mainstream publisher, and I'd like to check it out sometime to see how the translation differs, but the sheer bulk of this complete edition lent it an immersive quality that strengthened the impact of the story. -
Translator W.J.F. Jenner says :: "Because this was a book written for entertainment and pleasure I did not want it cluttered with footnotes. I reckoned that as long as readers were being carried along by the story, they did not want to be distracted by an annotator plucking at their sleeves, and explaining the countless Buddhist, Daoist and other references. Those who do want the scholarly paraphernalia can always turn to Anthony C. Yu's version."
More to the point, here's a piece by Jenner ::
'Journeys to the East, “Journey to the West” by W J F Jenner'
https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/jou... -
Ai tempi, una decina di anni fa, il "progetto Manuzio" e LiberLiber avevano avuto il permesso del traduttore e della casa editrice Rizzoli di distribuire gratuitamente questo capolavoro orientale (uno dei quattro pilastri della letteratura classica cinese), poi rimosso all'uscita di questa edizione nel 2013.
Consigliato a chiunque abbia un po' di pazienza e un pizzico di curiosità per l'oriente e le sue tradizioni, non solo letterarie. E a chi si chiede da dove Akira Toriyama abbia pescato l'idea di un bambino fortissimo con una coda da scimmia, una nuvola volante e un bastone che si allunga a piacere. Non aspettatevi dei Sayan, però. -
Fantastically entertaining
I am always astonished how readable and accessible are those old Chinese classical books. I've stated that for
The Marshes of Mount Liang, and it's even more true for the 西遊記 Xiyouji, or "Journey to the West". Dating back to the 16th century, it's as readable as if it was only written a few decades ago. Of course, there are some stylistic quirks you have to get accustomed to - retelling of a just happened event by another person, formulaic plot elements, and the wordiness that blows up this novel to its daunting 2500 pages.
But these are minor quibbles which should not distract you from enjoying this novel, because it is otherwise outstanding. Everybody will find something loveable within this book, be the reader looking for an exiting adventure yarn with many action scenes, for shining heroes and ugly villains, or for a funny and at the same time profound, tongue-in-cheek social novel with loads of obstinate, naive monks, insidious tricksters and corrupt officials. Even for those seeking spiritual enlightenment, there is enough stuff in the novel, from buddhism over taoism to confucianism. Never dry or boring, everything is told with a very potent humor.
Jenner's translation is vivid and lively and captures the Monkey King's chaotic and active personality perfectly in a modern language, without modernisms or antiquarianisms. The ubiquitous poems have not been forced into English end rhymes but remain freely rhymed (rhymed poems always break the flow of reading for me), and they have a different indention than the rest of the text.
The novel is split in 4 volumes, each of them the size of a standard paperback. The paper is the typical Foreign Languages Press paper, which means very thin and translucent.
This novel will bring you hours of high-quality entertainment with a touch of sophistication. If you liked it, you should also read the aforementioned "The Marshes of Mount Liang" and
The Sorcerer's Revolt, and maybe have a look at
Three Kingdoms as well. If the page count should discourage you - Arthur Waley's
Monkey condenses the 2500 pages in an honest manner (not always true for abridgements!) into a more palatable 300 pages. -
Over 60 years since I first read this. It took a lot longer for my brain to assimilate it this time, but glad I stayed with it for in the end I did enjoy it just as much.
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西游记对我的影响很大，但是之前我对西游记的主要认识主要来自于六小龄童版的西游记电视剧。很长一段时间以来我一直把这电视剧默认为西游记本身，对其中的情节，人设从未产生一丝的怀疑。直到读了原著之后我才发现电视剧与原著出入颇多，其中不乏很多有意思的事实。
第一点，剧里的三位徒弟的形象都是骗人的。老板电视剧里的美猴王真的是英姿飒爽，威风八面，五官标致，身段修长。而原著的“美猴王”就徒有虚名了。直到现在还难以接受一个身高只有四尺，雷公脸的猢狲竟然是原型。而猪八戒也没有那么皮白肉嫩，憨态可掬。真实的他是满嘴獠牙，皮肤黝黑粗糙，背后有一溜又硬又长的钢毛的存在。他并非家猪而是大野猪，猪刚鬣这个名字才是老猪的真正名号。再说沙和尚，以前并不明白为甚么小妖精向老怪报告的时候总说“大王不好啦，有三个和尚打破山门了！一个雷公脸，一个长嘴大耳朵还有一个晦气脸”，这“晦气脸”从何而来？原来沙和尚的皮肤竟然是靛蓝色的，这在古代是一种不被人喜欢的晦气的颜色。不但如此，他还有一张血盆大口，这和剧里老实本分的庄稼人的形象简直是天差地别。此三人原著里的形象是更科学的。因为从本质上来说，他们在这一世全都是妖怪，与别的妖怪不同处在于他们接受了观音菩萨的offer，护送取经人而已。没有道理说别的妖怪都是凶神恶煞，而惟独这三个妖怪面容和善，和蔼可亲。
说了说颜值上的出入，再来谈一谈性格方面的。孙悟空和猪八戒绝对是当时的吐槽帝，取经路上如果没有他们的互黑互坑，那旅途将会很少了很多欢乐。大圣一方面非常骄傲自大，把任何妖怪都不放在眼里。另一方面有有些悲观。遇到一些难过的坎也会泪流满面、怨天尤人，也曾经想过放弃。他的这些忧愁主要来自于对取经的责任感。
八戒则很少落泪，神经比较大条。在他眼里看来取得真经固然是功德一件，但山穷水恶，路途艰险。取不到真经也不丢人，他仍旧可以回去做他的高家贤婿，对取经是可有可无的态度。
不得不说唐僧是师徒四人中取经信念最坚定的。尽管每次命悬一线的是他，被妖怪吓得魂飞魄散掉下马来也是他，取经的动力却从未消减。但让我失望的是他的这份信念大部分其实是来自于对皇权的绝对服从而非对佛法的虔诚。这一点可以从他的话语中推断出，他经常挂在嘴边的一句话就是，若取不到真经如何向皇兄交代？想当年唐僧向李世民许下宏愿，如若完成不了那可是欺君之罪。
这师徒四人的关系也是妙趣横生。这古代的徒弟真是不容易，简直就是小厮加丫鬟加保镖加长工，师父就是老爷。担子有人挑，下马有人扶，渴了饿了有人找水化斋，被人绑了有人舍命相救，可以说什么事都不用做。而作为所谓的师父，唐僧可是一点义务都没尽到。他从未教徒弟门打坐参禅，念经拜佛，连教导的话都很少说。怪不得历经十三寒暑三个劣徒没一点长进。而且谁要是把唐僧惹毛了，他是会恶语相向的，这哪有一点高僧的样子。
最后有趣的一点是，以前觉得齐天大圣大闹天宫，猴哥太牛了，简直天下无敌。其实不是大圣厉害，而是天宫太菜，唐僧师徒取经路上遇到的妖魔我估计随便来一个就能再闹一遍天宫。后来降伏牛魔王那一节，场面比大闹天宫大多了，感觉全书所有的神仙都组团来捉牛，最后飞了老鼻子劲才把老牛打趴下。牛魔王不愧是十三太保排行第一，孙悟空单挑他肯定是打不过的。
最后的最后实在要感叹下西游记的神级构架。师徒四人西天取经，降妖伏魔，历尽艰险，终于取得真经的这种architecture真是高明。其extendability，flexibility，readability，maintainability都是五颗星，剧情之间loosely coupled，highly modular，每一个entity有自己独有的functionality，duplication极低，interface又这么friendly。怪不得它永远都不会deprecated。 -
Finally, it came to an end. 3 months. Books like this should be the slow reads that are done along side with other shorter, faster-paced books.
To be honest, I hadn't expected much when I started: I watched every TV series version available maybe a zillion times before. I believed that I practically know everything about this Journey.
But perhaps my memories blurred, or that they were the little details that I never noticed when I was sitting in front of the b/w 14" television when I was 5; or perhaps it's because the translator did a terrific job. Perhaps because reading brings different experiences from watching: the liberty to pause and ponder on whatever I want to, the liberty to change to another book that suits my moods better. Anyway, I enjoyed the story very much, and "discovered" many things new. The conversations between enemies are somewhat hilarious, I even found the wording done with a good sense of humor and refinement.
The adventure itself is not completely interesting. It's boring, in fact. But once you learn how to ignore the repetition to see and enjoy the dialogues, the folklores… you'll see why it's a classic. Boring, yet enjoyable. Just like textbooks.
I also appreciate the 1986 tv series adaption(s). Many things were modified, maybe totally skipped, maybe exaggerated, and that brought more colors to the original story. -
Sarà il mio libro da comodino per i prossimi 12 mesi.
Ma eccome se ne vale la pena. -
Đã hoàn thành 1 quyển trong Tứ đại danh tác rồi. Xem phim đã mòn mà truyện cũng có phong vị lắm ấy, nhiều đoạn tả bằng thơ hay hay
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Let’s be clear first. This is a picaresque epic that tells the story of how Buddhism was brought to China from what they call India, which is, in fact, either Tibet or Nepal, which is to say high in the Himalayas. The version of Buddhism depicted in the saga is very close to the Tibetan version with strict reference to reincarnation, strict reference to dying not being death but rebirth, though the pilgrims are, at first, very human despite them being one man, one monkey, one pig, and one “fish.” By human I mean they are constantly suffering from fear, torture, violence, and fighting. They should not be afraid of dying since they will – not would, no doubt about it – be reincarnated, but true enough what will they be reincarnated into? Merit is hard to accumulate, and you may lose it for any small misdeed. I say this from the very start because it is important to understand the end. The four pilgrims, in fact, three of them only, become living Buddhas at the end because of their long trip to get the scriptures. This is not at all in keeping with Theravada Buddhism, the Buddhism of the Dhammapada. Reincarnation is not even clear in this Theravada Buddhism, and when you reach enlightenment, you do not become a living Buddha, eternal and body-free. You become pure energy and you merge into cosmic energy, back into your very source and origin since all beings are part of this cosmic energy originally, and life is the accumulation of the merit that will enable you to get rid of the material body of yours.
The story is the symbolic, even ritual, eradicating of evil in Chinese society. Evil is ever present and always dominant in this society, everywhere, and among all sorts of communities. To be able to get the scriptures and bring them back to China, the pilgrims have to accomplish nine times nine good cleansing operations of evil, which is to say eighty-one such operations. We are dealing here with the magic of numbers, not any numbers, mostly two and three. 9 is 3 multiplied by 3. 81 is 9 multiplied by 9, hence 3 multiplied by 3 multiplied by 3 multiplied by 3, hence 3 multiplied by 3 four times, and this 4 is 2 multiplied by 2, and this 2 is central for the enlightenment of the person who has to get on the eightfold path: 2 multiplied by 2 multiplied by 2, hence three times. And note how 81 is 8+1=9, and thus 9 multiplied by 9 is 9 twice, but the latest addition is 9 too, thus bringing this 81 to three times 9. Such numbers are constantly present and referred to with the four pilgrims who are, in fact, one real pilgrim and his three disciples, three disciples who are, in fact, four with the horse who used to be a dragon, and in the end, four will be transformed into Buddhas (three) and back into a dragon, but the fifth one will not reach that level of recognition and will only be rewarded with an intermediary state requiring more merit collecting to become a Buddha, maybe, later, perhaps, if ever.
I will not enumerate the various evils that are eliminated by successive adventures, cleansing operations, at times repetitive though in incredibly imaginative variations. There are no limits on such evils from cannibalism to plain cruelty and extreme exploitation. But what is surprising is the fact such evils, such criminals committing these evil acts are systematically monsters who are beings that were under the control of gods or other divine beings and who escape this control, stealing or not some magical elements that gave them the power they needed to be the monsters they became. Evil comes from good by escaping good and using magic to become evil, with a lot of complicity from local deities and even secondary characters from the various heavens.
The Tang priest who is the main pilgrim sent by his older brother, the Tang Emperor to the Great Thunder Monastery in India to retrieve the scriptures, is supposed to be a fully pure and prepared monk for the mission. He reveals himself very weak indeed. He is always afraid and is confronted by women, devils or not, who want to take advantage of him, of his masculinity. This battle for his purity is in full contrast with Pig, his second disciple who eats like a pig and only dreams of taking and possessing all the women he could take. But he never can do this because the Tang priest is always present, and when he is not then Monkey is. The purity of these four is at stake all the time and Pig is the one who did not succeed completely.
But there is an undertone that normal people when they are taken over by evil, evil beings, monsters, or whatever bad are unable to solve their problems because this evil comes from inside, their inability to block it, their inability to fight against it. So, they submit, and it takes the four pilgrims, particularly Monkey and his magic to protect the other pilgrims and solve the problems of normal people and ordinary communities. In several episodes, they are confronted by Taoist priests and groups who control some communities and exploit the people in these communities for their own comfort. The Taoists are comprehensively shown as targeting the Buddhists, killing them, enslaving them, etc. Those Taoists have to be brought back onto the proper way, their slaves liberated, and their victims compensated. Do not wonder whether the brand newly promoted three Buddhas will be eternal Buddhas though they have not died really, and anyway, eternity requires being alive, otherwise, you are dead and eternally dead. That’s the dilemma of Buddhism in India as expressed by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956), a Dalit that converted to Buddhism: the reincarnation he believed in was the heritage a person left behind in the memory of people or the libraries of his community, or the heritage of his country. In fact, we have to understand that the scriptures that are going to be copied first, and then published for everyone, keeping the original version in a special library, is the real reincarnation of Tang Sanzang, and they will survive him as long as the human librarians are taking care of these scriptures.
Note that this epic is the narration of what actually happened when in the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, a Buddhist monk named Xuan Zang (602-664) traveled alone through Central Asia to the land of Tianzhu (present-day India) to seek the original Buddhist scriptures. Hence the epic or saga we have here is the reincarnation of this monk and he has become eternal since the saga or epic has been republished many times and this modern edition in English comes from Beijing directly and is part of the Chinese culture spread in one international vernacular languages.
A few recent quotations from President Xi Jinping on the cultural heritage of China and humanity will make this clear.
"Having gone through over 5,000 years of vicissitudes, the Chinese civilization has always kept to its original root. As the unique cultural identity of the Chinese nation, it contains our most profound cultural pursuits and provides us with abundant nourishment for existence and development," he said during a speech at the UNESCO headquarters in March 2014 in Paris.
For him, the Chinese civilization is an example of the constant exchanges with other cultures over time. These interactions are crucial for mutual respect and understanding and a bridge to a better future.
"Diversity spurs interaction among civilizations, which in turn promotes mutual learning and their further development. We need to promote exchanges and mutual learning among countries, nations, and cultures around the world, and strengthen popular support for jointly building a community with a shared future for both Asia and mankind as a whole," Xi said during the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations in May 2019 in Beijing. […]
"A civilization is the collective memory of a country or a nation. We should keep our own civilizations dynamic and create conditions for other civilizations to flourish. Together we can make the garden of world civilizations colorful and vibrant," he said at the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations in May 2019.” (China Global Television Network,
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-03...)
What I regret a little bit in this epic is that moral progress and political improvement are coming from the four pilgrims with at times heavy help from various divinities or divine bodies. The main central idea of Buddhism is that society can only be improved when each individual and all of them, if possible, at least as many as possible, get onto the road of improvement due to their relying on meditation, the use of the mind to understand a situation and deal with it. This individual responsibility of any individual in the future of the world and society is clearly expressed by Theravada Buddhism.
For me, it all starts with three philosophical concepts: Anicca (everything always changes), Dukkha (wrongly reduced to “suffering” and expressing the constant cyclical existence of anything at all as having a beginning, a span of life that is evolving and changing all the time into its own end), and Anatta (nothing can be granted an essence, soul, or even spirit that would have any defining stability and durability: no “being” and no “soul”).
Then we can move to a standard presentation of these Buddhist ethics.
“The Basic Teachings of Buddha which are core to Buddhism are (as presented by Ven. Phramaha Nopadol Saisuta, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Buddhism, Maha Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. “The Buddhist Core Values and Perspectives For Protection Challenges: Faith and Protection”
https://www.unhcr.org/protection/hcdi...
The Three Universal Truths;
1. Nothing is lost in the universe
2. Everything Changes
3. The Law of Cause and Effect
The Four Noble Truths;
1. Dukkha: Suffering exists: Life is suffering. Suffering is real and almost universal. Suffering has many causes: loss, sickness, pain, failure, and the impermanence of pleasure.
2. Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering. Suffering is due to attachment. It is the desire to have and control things. It can take many forms: craving for sensual pleasures; the desire for fame; the desire to avoid unpleasant sensations, like fear, anger, or jealousy.
3. Nirodha: There is an end to suffering. Attachment can be overcome. Suffering ceases with the final liberation of Nirvana (Nibbana). The mind experiences complete freedom, liberation, and non-attachment. It lets go of any desire or craving.
4. Magga: In order to end suffering, you must follow the Eightfold Path. There is a path to accomplishing this.
And the Noble Eightfold Path. The Buddha's Eightfold Path consists of:
Panna: Discernment, wisdom:
1. Samma ditthi: Right Understanding of the Four Noble Truths. Right View is the true understanding of the four noble truths.
2. Samma sankappa: Right thinking; following the right path in life. Right Aspiration is the true desire to free oneself from attachment, ignorance, and hatefulness.
These two are referred to as Prajna or Wisdom.
Sila: Virtue, morality:
3. Samma vaca: Right speech: No lying, criticism, condemning, gossip, harsh language. Right Speech involves abstaining from lying, gossiping, or hurtful talk.
4. Samma kammanta: Right conduct or Right Action involves abstaining from hurtful behaviors, such as killing, stealing, and careless sex. These are called the Five Precepts.
5. Samma ajiva: Right livelihood: Support yourself without harming others. Right Livelihood means making your living in such a way as to avoid dishonesty and hurting others, including animals.
These three are referred to as Shila or Morality.
Samadhi: Concentration, meditation:
6. Samma vayama: Right Effort: Promote good thoughts; conquer evil thoughts. Right Effort is a matter of exerting oneself regarding the content of one's mind: Bad qualities should be abandoned and prevented from arising again. Good qualities should be enacted and nurtured.
7. Samma sati: Right Mindfulness: Become aware of your body, mind, and feelings. Right Mindfulness is the focusing of one's attention on one's body, feelings, thoughts, and consciousness in such a way as to overcome craving, hatred, and ignorance.
8. Samma samadhi: Right Concentration: Meditate to achieve a higher state of consciousness. Right Concentration is meditating in such a way as to progressively realize a true understanding of imperfection, impermanence, and non-separateness.”
You have to keep in mind all that to understand how Sanzang is deficient, despite all that is said about his great purity. He falls into traps absolutely all the time. He wants to see the world as being innocent and pure and all monsters are the best hunters of such naïve people. And Sanzang does not learn at all with a Monkey who little by little learns how to manipulate this naivete and solve the problems, by keeping Sanzang in his fix for a while, hoping he might understand, but he does not.
A real long trip in the mind of the Chinese, in the cultural heritage of present-day China that is pushed by the aggressivity of the West, particularly the USA, to go back to Mao Zedong”s famous reference of the imperialists being paper tigers. It is true Nancy Pelosi does not look like the brutal Captain Tom Chandler in the series The Last Ship. Maybe President Xi is not Kung Fu, but I cannot see Nancy Pelosi in a one-on-one with even one single Chinese marine. Vanitas Vanitatum et Omnia Vanitas.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU -
The Journey to the West is one of the four great classics of Chinese literature. As an English translation runs to over 1800 pages tackling it seems to be as daunting a task as reading all of Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. In fact W.J. Jenner's fabulous translation turns the thing into a fabulous comic romp.
The Journey to the West is the epic of how the Monk Tang Sanzang conducts a 14 year voyage to India in order to obtain Buddhist scriptures to bring back to China and thus spiritually redeem the Chinese. Sanzang is accompanied by three disciples on his voyage: San Wukong (a monkey with the agility of Spiderman, the sauciness of Bugs Bunny and the brains of Einstein; Zhu Bajie (a pig with the thirst of Boris Yeltsin and the sexual appetite of Bill Clinton); and finally Friar Sand a discreet monk.
Sanzang is in his 10th reincarnation at the start of the journey. Male demons want to eat him because they believe that they will attain immortality by doing so. Female demons want to have sex with him so as to deprive him of his virginity which he has maintained through 10 reincarnations.
Throughout the journey Sanzang the leader proves to be a dolt at every turn blithely walking into 81 traps set for him by evil demons. His disciples rally around to rescue him on all 81 occasions. On the 81st rescue which is the magic square of nine, the journey is complete. Sanzang arrives in India with his body in one piece and his virginity intact. He receives the sacred scriptures. The four companions then return to China in 8 days. Sanzang and the monkey become Buddhas while the other two disciples receive lesser honours. Jenner makes this all wildly funny.
Just as Westerners seldom read through the complete Grimm Brothers or Hans Christian Anderson in one go, the Chinese do not as a rule read all of the journey to the west at once. Every child, however, will know some of the stories. My advice is to get the book and read stories from time to time as the spirit moves you. -
三藏道：我略略的言語重了些兒，你就怪我，使個性子丟了我去。像你這有本事的，討得茶吃；像我這去不得的，只管在此忍餓。你也過不去啊！
這根本撒嬌啊...三藏你還是性轉吧
----
人生第一本章回小說
小學低年級看完漢聲那套孫悟空歷險記之後
(那套現在傳給表侄了，漢聲的童書都可以傳好幾手啊)
中高年級時看到家裡的原版就拿來翻了~
應該是我看最多次的古典小說了
不過都是無注釋硬啃
這次用kindle看注釋版應該是這十年間第一次完整重讀吧~
唐三藏好愛跟孫悟空撒嬌啊，剛收悟空為徒時悟空不服管教跑走
悟空回頭時三藏說：
"我略略的言語重了些兒，你就怪我，使個性子丟了我去。像你這有本事
的，討得茶吃；像我這去不得的，只管在此忍餓。你也過不去啊！"
不過三藏收了八戒之後就偏心了XD
現在再看，除了都拿道家鍊丹概念來說佛教取經很故意之外
整本書根本就是有關係就沒關係教戰手冊啊~~
妖怪如果是神佛坐騎侍從或根本就神仙本人臨凡
快被打爆時靠山就出來說：
"山中方七日，世上已千年。不知在那廂傷了多少生靈，快随我收他去。"
我佛慈悲為懷，座騎下山吃人就當沒看見吧~
要是沒靠山，就算是山主大王也是一棒打死洞府尋些枯柴燒掉啦
整個教壞小孩啊?!
最後感謝注釋讓我看懂很多詩詞典故和專有名詞 -
Incredibly entertaining for its size, but probably not for everyone.
So, somehow I cannot really say I got bored of the four long volumes of Journey to the West. That is not to say I do not have any criticisms, yet the entertainment value of the book makes up for most of them.
Journey to the West is comprised of 100 chapters that recount the fortunes and misfortunes of the holy monk Sanzang and his converted disciples (former demons with godlike magical powers)—Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand—that are sent to the Western Heaven in India to fetch the scriptures from the Buddha and bring them back to the east. The first few chapters are introductory, telling the stories of Monkey and Sanzang, the last three wrap things up, but overall, the book can hardly be said to be one intricate story: instead, the central chapters tell relatively independent stories of their own, usually following similar formulae: 1) Sanzang gets in trouble/is captured by an evil demon who wants to eat him; 2) The disciples (primarily Monkey) either defeat the demons by brute force, by wit, or by calling in the divine army of some god or relation of his; 3) The monks receive endless gratitude from someone affluent or powerful that is positively affected by their subduing the demon; 4) Repeat. Because of this trend, the book can get somewhat repetitive.
However, it is very easy to read. The style and story are simple and there are many poems that break up the prose. My guess is that much is lost in the translation of these poems, and they come off as rather rough in English, but they are enjoyable nonetheless.
The thing I found most disappointing was the lack of intellectual depth. Sure, the book has a clear Buddhist message, and it has been debated whether it criticises Taoism or parodies certain political figures of the author's time, but my impression of this was very vague. There is also very little character development and there is not much that ties the full story of JttW together other than the fetching of the scriptures. Nevertheless, many of these aspects are addressed in the translator's afterword, and it is useful to put the story in its historical context. I warn that this is not a 19th century European, War and Peace-style equivalent of Chinese literature: it is in no way comparable to the insight and depth of the European classic novels—but then again, it is not meant to be.
One last thing is that this edition is really bad. I can say little about the translation. I am referring to the typos in every chapter, the pages that are so thin that the text can be seen on the other side, and the overall bad quality of the print. This is a minor point, as what matters is the content, but I found it frustrating nonetheless.
In conclusion, despite all the criticisms, I still got much pleasure from reading the Journey to the West, and I look forward to reading the other books of the 'four classics of Chinese literature' in the future... perhaps after a break though. 2300 pages are a lot of pages for one book, which is why this might not be for everyone. Would you rather read 10 230-page books or 1 2300-page book? Well, I would suspect that if asked, I would choose the former, but I did the latter this time—and I do not regret it.
Also, -
The book consists of 100 chapters. The first seven deal with the tale of Monkey's revolt against heaven. A stone monkey is born on the Eastern Continent, becomes the monkey king, and travels west to attain immortality. He is taught by a Taoist master who warns him never to reveal how it was that he attained his powers, and prophesises that in 500 years he will be struck down by heaven lest he finds a way to escape his fate. None of this ever comes up again, because an overarching theme of the book is a contempt for continuity.
This takes us to the main section of the book. The Buddhist priest Sanzang is tasked by the Bodhisattva Guanyin to travel to distant India (36,000 miles, or 1.5 times around the world) to worship the Buddha and retrieve some Buddhist scriptures, as a test of his faith. The "divinity testing mortals" trope is stupid in the best of times, but unfortunately this is not the best of times. This is Journey to the West. As such, in order to assists Sanzang on this "test" he is allotted three immortal companions -- Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand -- a dragon horse, an arsenal of magical artifacts, and some two dozen attendant gods. When that proves insufficient, as it often does, the Jade Emperor and his heavenly hosts, Lord Lao Zi, the Buddha from the Western Heaven, and Guanyin herself turn up to rescue him from the predicaments he winds up in. To make things worse, it is revealed that some or all of the obstacles in his path have, in fact, been placed there by Guanyin. So in other words this "test" of Sanzang's faith involves of Guanyin setting up problems, and then solving them herself. How this is any different from bringing the scriptures over on her own is anyone's guess.
This is just as well for the sake of the story, however, as Sanzang is completely useless, and would fail any test set before him when given the chance. Not only do his disciples save him from every peril he, seemingly intentionally, blunders into during his quest, even the banal details like begging for food and carrying the luggage is left to the immortals, while Sanzang sits on his horse doing nothing. I can accept that, being a mortal, he does not have any magical powers himself and has to rely on his disciples to do the heavy lifting for him, but it's not like he has any redeeming features to make up for it. He is an utter moron, and completely incapable of learning, falling for the same tricks again and again. He is a coward, and falls of his horse whenever someone looks at him funny (not to mention the time he spent an hour gathering up the courage to talk to some women. "Primal masculinity" indeed). And, despite the book going on about his virtue, in his interactions with other characters he frequently comes across as an asshole.
The adventures themselves are dull and repetitive. They follow the formula of, the pilgrims come to a mountain/river, Monkey warns of a demon, Sanzang abuses Monkey, demon captures Sanzang and tries to eat/mate with him (but doesn't actually, even if given more than enough time), Monkey either whacks the demon on the head with a cudgel, or goes and gets another divinity to whack the demon on the head with a cudgel. Repeat 81 times. In the afterword the translator mentions that we cannot reasonably expect any suspense from the stories because the pilgrims triumph in the end, but it's a lot worse than that -- we know that Arnie will eventually shoot the badguy, but at the same time there is risk involved: if he gets shot in the head he would die. Not Monkey. Monkey is indestructible, as he points out and demonstrates on many an occasion. The problem is no that we know in advance that Monkey won't fail, but rather that failure is impossible. Monkey can't die, and even if Sanzang were to die then Monkey has demonstrated that he is perfectly capable of bringing the dead back to life. His powers are so vast, that there is absolutely nothing that could stop him.
Which brings us to the next problem, the magic overload. Monkey's powers are so enormous that the author simply cannot come up with any credible challenges to him. At the end of the day, he could simply fly Sanzang to the Western Heaven and be done with it (the author does attempt to lampshade this -- "Mortals are heavier than mountains" -- only problem is, Monkey is perfectly capable of transporting Sanzang and other mortals by air when it suits him, as are other monsters. Oh, and, Monkey is perfectly capable of lifting mountains). The translator notes that the appeal of the stories is the cleverness of Monkey's solution to them, but it's hard to appreciate this cleverness when Monkey's choice of strategy is dictated not by the challenge he faced, but by the author's decision to write about one ploy or another. In one adventure Monkey knocks down the gates of a monster's abode. In another he turns into an insect and flies through the gap. In another he stands outside helpless. Why? Are these gates unbreakable? Are there no cracks to squeeze through? No, no reason is given. We can only assume the gates are the same as always. It's just that the author decided that this particular adventure needs a McGuffin of some sort. Or the intervention of another deity. Or, just, that the book is somehow not long enough as it is.
Of course, this makes it difficult to interpret the situations in which Monkey actually does find himself powerless to defeat one monster or other. Monkey made war on heaven, and only just lost. And now some animal spirit on the way to India is stronger than Monkey? Just how tenuous is the Jade Emperor's hold on authority? Why does none of these monsters depose him and be done with it?
The most interesting bit of the book is the translator's note at the end, which details some of the book's history, confirming the reader's suspicion that it is most likely a collection of independent stories than a cohesive whole. However, unlike the translator I do not believe that this lets the book of the hook for being terrible. Good stories need no excuses, they can stand against the best of novels on their own strengths. This is simply not a good collection of stories. -
Wow, nunca había leído un libro tan largo. Pasan tantas cosas aquí que es difícil hacer una reseña, por lo que solo dire que lo disfruté mucho, me declaro fan del Rey de los monos. Tripitaka está lleno de sabiduría y definitivamente es una aventura tras otra.
Es una obra muy extensa, por lo qué hay momentos en los que puede cansar o sentirse que no se avanza en absoluto, pero es de esos libros con los que te tienes que comprometer para poder terminar.
También debo mencionar que la cuestión de los nombres puede llegar a ser confusa si no se pone atención, ya qué hay ocasiones en las que los personajes cambian de nombre por distintas razones.
Conclusion: Me gustó mucho, no es un libro para todos, y hace tiempo que le traía ganas, así que soy feliz de finalmente haberlo leído. -
This has been one of the best books which I have ever read and up until now, I have read only a version with reduced content. After reading the full 3 volume version, my love for the series has greatly improved and still its a must read in anyone's life.
Not only it's funny, but it's philosophical enough to be read by any matured reader. While different to theravada Buddhism, it's one of cornerstone in Buddhism literature. -
Journey to the West is one of the 4 great classic Chinese novels. I like this specific version because you are able to have the 4 books, 100 chapters, in the same set inside a cardboard box.
This must be one the earliest fantasy novels ever written in the whole world. So, if you are a fantasy fan and want to read a fantasy book written in China in the 16th century during the Ming Dinasty, it is tailor-made for you. Jorney to the West tells us the story of Sun Wukong, the monkey king, an immortal monkey born from a stone right after the original chaos. He goes from monkey king to gardener in the Jade City. Then he wrecks havoc in the Celestial Palace and is punished. He becomes a Buddhist monk and must help the Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang to take the Buddhist sutras of "transcendence and persuasion for good will" back to the East. Along the way they meet one of the funniest and most beloved characters in the book, Zhu Bajie, or simply Pig. After many tribulations and adventures featuring rain-making dragons, monsters, ghosts and evil spirits, they finally accomplish their mission and Sun Wukong is rewarded for his ordeals. He becomes a Buddhist Bodhisattva. When you finish the book you will become a long-lasting fan of the mischievous and fascinating Monkey King. -
One of the Four Great Literary pieces of China and my favorite tale of the four. Through and through, it is a epic tale similar to the Iliad or the Odyssey. The prose takes some getting used to as it is not written in any stylistic matter at all. Rather, it told in tales with each chapter being a new story and event that occurs during the journey to the West. Due to this, I am sure that there are people who would struggle though this. Nevertheless, this tale has always been a part of my culture and for that simple reason alone I love it.
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Talk about a long, strange trip… Journey to the West is, by far, the longest book I’ve ever read (my edition was over 2,000 pages divided into 100 chapters), and certainly one of the most unique. It is considered one of the
Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, and of those, is probably the most fantastical. It took me five years to read, but it was well, well worth it.
I’ve got quite a lot to say about this book, so either strap yourself in, or leave this review for later. This one’s going to be a doozy…
Let’s take it from the top. What is this book?
Calling Journey to the West a novel, and suggesting that it was written by Wu Cheng’en is a bit misleading. While it’s true that Wu Cheng’en is the most likely author of this particular version of the story, he was by no means the first—nor did he invent this tale wholecloth. Instead, the version of the story we have today can be considered the endpoint of centuries of collaboration and oral history passed down from generation to generation.
The story of Journey to the West was inspired by an actual journey. In the seventh century, a monk named Xuanzang was said to have traveled from China to India to obtain the Buddhist scriptures for the Tang emperor. It took him seventeen years, and he even wrote an autobiography, so there’s plenty of detail about his journey (and was at the time this book was being compiled). Nevertheless, fantastic stories began springing up from all corners about his adventures traveling from China to India and back, and these stories formed the basis of the novel Journey to the West.
Though the stories changed hands many times and were elaborated and exaggerated over the centuries, there are a few overriding themes and characters which I’ll sketch out briefly before delving into a full summary. Sanzang, the incarnation of the Buddha, is sent by the Tang emperor to India to obtain the scriptures. On his journey he’s helped by three disciples: A stone ape called Monkey, a pig beast named Pig, and a kind of ogre named Sand.
With that basic outline down, let me give you a more detailed summary.
In the days of old, lightning strikes a great stone on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and produces a monkey. This is the character known as Monkey, the great hero of Journey to the West. Monkey quickly becomes the ruler of all the other monkeys, and trains under a Taoist master to become more powerful. Not being satisfied with all this, though, Monkey undertakes a series of adventures to become the most powerful being in the universe.
First he travels to the Underworld and removes his name from the rollsheets of the dead, assuring himself (and his fellow monkeys) immortality. Then he goes up to heaven and basically wrecks up the place. He demands to be given the title “Great Sage Equalling Heaven” to show that not even the ruler of heaven is better than he. While in heaven, he eats a fruit that gives him immortality, and then gets drunk. Thinking they can be rid of him, the heavenly soldiers stuff him into a furnace to burn him up. Ho, ho, but that only makes him stronger (not kidding)! The fires refine his essence, so that Monkey becomes invincible. In order to calm him, they give him an official task (he’s made the protector of the horses), but that’s not enough for him, of course.
Then Monkey meets his “match” (see below for my comments on this). The Buddha decides to fix Monkey once and for all. He grabs Monkey and puts him in his hand and tells Monkey that if he can jump out of his hand, he’ll be the ruler of heaven. If not, the Buddha will imprison him. Monkey fails, and the Buddha slams Monkey down to earth, imprisoning him beneath a mountain where he’s trapped for five hundred years, with nothing to eat but hot gravel.
At this point, the novel enters its second stage. The story shifts to the Tang empire, where the emperor has a terrifying dream. In it, he mistakenly beheads the king of the dragons, and as punishment, he’s ordered to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures or else. He engages a holy monk named Sanzang to do so, and Sanzang sets off on his task.
Before he sets off, Sanzang meets with Boddhisattva Guanyin (basically a deus ex machina). She gives him a special headband and instructs him to find three disciples to help him on his journey (as well as gives him a horse that used to be a dragon). It’s Sanzang who, a chapter or two later, frees Monkey from underneath the mountain. He frees him on the condition that he become his disciple, and agreeing, Sanzang puts the headband the Boddhisattva gave him on Monkey’s head. This is the only thing that can control monkey. See, the headband is magic, and if Sanzang says a particular magic spell, he can tighten the headband, causing Monkey endless torment. Monkey absolutely hates the band tightening spell, and will do anything to get Sanzang to stop saying it, or to prevent him from saying it in the first place.
After this, Monkey helps Sanzang get two more disciples: Pig, a lecherous lout who’s Monkey’s comic foil, and a nondescript fellow named Sand. With the band all together, they set off for the Thunder Monastery in India to get the Buddhist scriptures.
Now comes the bulk of the novel: More than 80 chapters that are nearly identical. All of them go roughly like this:
Sanzang and the gang have traveled x number of miles and come upon a foreboding mountain/city/castle/cave/monastery. Monkey takes a look at it and says, “We should stay away from there. There are demons in there.” Sanzang, Pig and Sand (none of whom have Monkey’s powers) can’t see any demons, so they berate Monkey, saying he’s being superstitious, and that they should move on. Monkey protests, and Sanzang, getting upset, threatens to say the band tightening spell. Monkey recoils, and they press on, heading to the foreboding mountain/city/castle/cave/monastery.
Once inside, the demons spy Sanzang, and, having heard a rumor that anyone who eats his flesh will gain immortality, abduct him straight away. Pig, terrified and lazy, says they should all go their separate ways. Monkey says, “No, we have to save him.” Reluctantly, Pig agrees to help. Monkey tells Sand to stay with the horse and the luggage (Sand’s most important [and only] task).
Monkey goes to the mouth of the cave/castle, etc. and insults the leader, saying something like, “Hey, you dirty tadpole! This is your great, great grandfather speaking! If you give up the Tang priest now, I’ll only beat you half to death! You better do as I say!” The big bad guy hears this and sends out a junior devil to see what’s going on. The junior devil sees Monkey and is terrified. He reports back and says that there are two ugly monks outside, and that one of them looks like a Thunder God (for some reason, Thunder Gods look like monkeys, and anytime anyone sees Monkey, they say he looks like a Thunder God [rather than he looks like a monkey]).
The big bad guy, fed up with the insults, goes out to fight. He and Monkey and Pig fight a hundred and twelve rounds, with no one gaining the upper hand. Seeing that he might be losing, the big bad guy unleashes his super secret weapon, and manages to escape and/or capture Pig. Monkey, annoyed, gets on his somersault cloud and flies up to the Western Gate of Heaven for help.
The guys up in heaven just can’t stand Monkey, of course. They know what he did once upon a great long while ago, and they just want him to leave, so they agree to do whatever he asks. They send down some soldiers to fight the big bad guy, and so they all go down to the cave/castle, etc.
Unfortunately, not even this works. The big bad guy uses his super secret weapon and bests the armies of heaven. Humiliated, they all go back, and Monkey makes more of a clamor, and so they give him someone who’s really good (like Prince Nezha or the Boddhisattva). When they get there, they manage to get the big bad guy out and capture him, and Monkey’s about to kill him, when some heavenly person cries, “No, stop! I know who that is. It turns out that’s my stag/horse/lion/tiger that went missing hundreds of years ago. He must have come down to earth to cause mischief. What a naughty stag/horse/lion/tiger you are! Come back at once!” And so the big bad guy, who is actually some pet of the heavenly being, goes obediently back, Sanzang and Pig are safe, they make a couple jokes, and they move on.
Now imagine reading an expanded version of that (this is the short version) about fifty times over. That’s what it’s like to read Journey to the West.
But hey, unlike a bad anime, this one actually does have an ending! And what an ending it is! Unbelievable!
So, after like 96 chapters and more than 2,000 pages, you, the reader, along with Sanzang and the gang get to the Thunder Monastery. After reading all that, it feels like you too have been journeying for fourteen or fifteen years (or, in my case, five). What happens is nothing short of astounding.
First, in a small section I actually found a bit sad, the gang has to cross the river that separates the living from the dead. Monkey, Pig and Sand, who are already immortal, can walk right across without any problems. Sanzang, however, tries to get in and sinks. He’s afraid. Monkey tells him not to worry and snickers, and in something that seems like a dream, he points out to Sanzang that he’s okay. He lifts him up on the water, and points to his body (Sanzang’s) floating away downstream. And so, their lives behind them, they head up to the Thunder Monastery.
Along the way, they’re stopped by two lesser buddhas. The buddhas bug them to give them…something; I forget what (money?)—and as the travelers have nothing on them, the buddhas decide to play a trick on them (more on that later).
They get to the top and a great vegetarian feast is laid out for them. Then they meet with the Buddha and ask him for the scriptures. The Buddha, naturally, refuses. Yeah, that’s right: He refuses. He says the scriptures are too important to just be handed out willy nilly, but he says he’ll have some of his disciples copy out some of the less important scriptures, and they can take those with them. And then he shoos them away. The entire scene probably takes up less room than my description of it.
So they go to his disciples, and who do they turn out to be but the lesser buddhas that were bugging them on the way up. They recognize the gang, and decide to copy out what scriptures they’re allowed to take with them in disappearing ink. They load up these scriptures on the horse, and the gang heads down the mountain
Monkey, being a bit sharper than the rest, decides to look at the scriptures at some point, and he notices that they’re blank. Ticked off, they all go back, and Monkey reads Buddha the riot act. The Buddha kind of laughs it off, but then, finally, has half of the scriptures copied out (in real ink), and they leave Vulture Peak.
After this, they get back in four days (magically), Sanzang gives his sermon, and each of them receives a reward. Both Monkey and Sanzang become buddhas; Sand becomes an arhat; the horse (the dragon prince, remember) becomes a naga; and Pig becomes an altar cleaner (he eats whatever’s leftover when people leave offerings).
And there you have it.
If you’ve gotten this far (and, no we’re not even close to being done yet), you may be wondering, “Why should I read this if it’s so dull and repetitive?” Repetitive it may be, but dull it is not, and that’s thanks to two characters: Monkey and Pig.
First, Monkey is one of the most extraordinary characters in the history of literature (though you won’t find him in any top ten list since no one reads anything written east of
Russia). He’s whimsically wistful, arguably invincible, and utterly incorrigible. I mean, he goes down to the underworld to strike his name off the registers of the dead so that he’ll never die! He makes the gods in heaven tremble! And yet he’s one of the most likable characters you’ll ever come across. He literally laughs in the face of danger (multiple times a chapter), and never shows any concern over anything (except that band-tightening spell).
Combining him with Pig was a stroke of genius. Pig is lazy, loud, stupid and coarse, and he and Monkey are always at loggerheads. Their over-the-top antics are reminiscent of
The Three Stooges. I remember one scene in particular. Sanzang has been captured (for probably the twelfth time), but this time, Pig all of a sudden grabs the luggage, throws it on the ground and proclaims, “Well, it’s over! Let’s split the luggage up and go our separate ways.” Then Monkey, of course, conks him on the head and tells him they’re going to save the master. The book is filled with little scenes like this that make the whole thing (yes, the whole thing) a joy to read.
Despite this, the book has some serious flaws. Consider, for example, one of the four “main” characters, Friar Sand. What’s his deal? I don’t really know, and I’ve read the book. That’s because in all 2,317 pages, you can probably fit Friar Sand’s lines on five pages—and most of them will come from the chapter where he becomes Sanzang’s disciple. I figure that Wu probably realized around chapter 40 that Sand wasn’t getting much action, and he figured at that point that it was too late to rescue it, so he just gave it up.
It’s hard to imagine what role Friar Sand would play, anyway. In battle, Monkey’s the invincible one, Sanzang’s the weak one, and Pig is the bumbling one. Friar Sand is…pretty good at fighting? And that’s it.
In social settings, Sanzang alternates between pious and wise and a blubbering coward. Monkey alternates between brash and brilliant, and Pig is…well, Pig (they don’t call him “the Idiot” for nothing). Friar Sand doesn’t add to this dynamic, and interjecting him would only intrude. Some of the best scenes in the book involve Monkey, Sanzang and Pig all arguing over something (Monkey makes Pig upset, Pig complains to Sanzang, Sanzang tries to punish Monkey, Monkey tries to explain, etc.). In fact, if you removed Friar Sand from the book entirely, no one would notice—and the result would probably be better. That’s something that shouldn’t be said about one of the main characters of a book.
In addition to the troubling issue of Friar Sand, the book isn’t very well written. The prose doesn’t “sparkle”: it’s merely there. That might have something to do with the poetry (I’ll get to that in a minute), but for one of the greatest novels ever written, it’s just not written very well. It’s adequate, and that’s the best you can say for it.
The repetition has already been mentioned, but I haven’t said anything about the curious dei ex machina. Frequently Wu will have a great big battle, and then the monster will be defeated somehow, and then after that, someone like Monkey (or the narrator) will explain, “Wu Bajie was lucky, because he remembered his Ring of Golden Rain, which made him invulnerable to the monster’s attacks”. Of course we haven’t heard of the Ring of Golden Rain before, but that’s just the beginning. This thing isn’t even introduced when it’s relevant (i.e. when Pig’s in danger). Wu will introduce it after the conflict has already been resolved as a further explanation of how it was resolved!
The book is filled with issues like this. If you want to read Journey to the West, you have to take all of them and just swallow them up whole. If you stop at every issue like this that arises, you won’t get past chapter 1.
One of the most notable features of the novel that I haven’t mentioned yet is the poetry. If the book comprises more than 2,000 pages, I can say, without exaggerating, it also comprises more than 3,000 poems (and yes, I realize that comes out to more than a poem a page; I’m still probably underestimating). In chapter 94, for example, there are 21 pages and 23 poems. Some of them are short (just two lines), others longer (the longest is about four pages long), most are somewhere in between (a quarter of a page to half a page long), but all of them are important if one hopes to describe the structure.
Each chapter of Journey to the West usually begins with a small poem, and then the action moves thus. Sanzang et al. come across some mountain or castle (as mentioned above), and there’s a poem to describe it. Then when they meet up with someone, Sanzang or Monkey will have some little poem to explain a point (or make a joke). Then when Sanzang is abducted, Monkey will battle with some demon, and the entire battle will take place in a poem that usually sounds something like this:Cudgel and sword clash in the sky!
The cudgel booms like thunder,
The sword flashes like lightning.
One fights to save his master,
The other to defend his cave.
Plus a few more lines like that. Then the narrator will find a way to insert six to ten more poems here and there before the chapter is up, and the chapter will always come to a close with a little two line poem. By the end of the book, I was able to recognize the different types of poems, even though the poetic styles themselves weren’t translated (by this I mean you can translate the meaning of something like a
sonnet without preserving the strict structure of a sonnet. These translations were similar).
What fascinates me about the function of the poems is that they’re considered…authoritative, I guess you can say. Most poems are introduced by the stock phrase, “and here’s a poem to prove it.” To prove it! So, for example, they’ll come across a woman who’s very beautiful, and the author will say as much in prose, but that, evidently, isn’t good enough (I mean, since it’s in prose, it could be false!). In order to say anything with any authority, it must be proven with a poem. Just wild!
Though the book’s content is a delight, there are several plot issues that trouble me—or that, at least, still have me thinking. The first is Monkey’s encounter with the Buddha.
As I mentioned before, the Buddha dares Monkey to jump out of his hand. If he can do so, he’ll admit defeat. Monkey fails to do so, though, and the Buddha imprisons him under a mountain.
Now, it’s clear why this makes sense allegorically. Monkey is trained by a Taoist monk, and one of the main points of the book is that Buddhism is “the” way. Therefore, Monkey, as a representative of “inferior” Taoism, is supposed to be defeated by the Buddha. But despite what happens, I maintain that that matchup is unfair
