It took me a long while to finish this, but not because of a lack of interest. It's remarkable how this 500 year old Chinese classic manages to be so many things at once. It's a fictionalized account of the pilgrimage of the historical monk Xuangzang, an argument for the superiority of Buddhism over Daoism and Confucianism, an allegory of enlightenment, and a fantastical tale filled with monsters, magic, and amazing characters that reads like an unhinged DnD campaign.

While I appreciated the lengthy introduction and the many helpful footnotes, a lot of the information went way over my head and was difficult for me to get through. This translation is clearly aimed at the serious student of Chinese literature and religion, not the average reader like me. Still, as it's the only unabridged English translation available, it's the best option if you want to get the full story. And once I resigned myself to missing much of the context and stopped googling everything I didn't understand, I could appreciate the story for what it was.

The structure of the story took some getting used to, as it started with a lot of long backstory about Monkey and Tripitaka before turning into a monster-of-the-week episodic adventure once the actual journey began. Now that the gang's all assembled though and the journey is in full sway, I'm looking forward to more banter, ridiculous fights and monkey business (pun intended) in the other volumes.

If Jackie Chan summoned the Three Stooges and they went on to write a 2,000 page adaptation of Pilgrim's Progress indebted to Tolkien and steeped in alchemy, Taoism and Buddhism, it might be roughly similar. Delightful, extravagant, bizarre, ornate and luxurious.

This translation is a comprehensive work covering 100 chapters of Journey to the West. Volume I consists of the first 25 chapters. It's a bit of a slow start, but once the journey itself begins and each chapter ends on a cliffhanger, you're drawn quickly to the next adventure. (In all, it also resembles a travel book, albeit one of mythical landscapes and legendary escapades.) What is going to be off putting for quite a few readers is the translator's Introduction, which covers almost 200 pages. The Intro contains much interesting and valuable information, especially for scholars in the area, but it most appropriately should be positioned as an Afterwards. Too much analysis and detailed citing of earlier works makes it largely valueless for someone with but a bare minimum of knowledge about Journey and its place in Chinese literature.

What couldn't be helped, is my trying to find equivalents in other myths and epics. The tale of the Monkey King and his search for immortality, for example, echoes Gilgamesh. Old Monkey's abilitly to transport himself over vast distances with but one step and riding across the sky on clouds sounds similar to Seven-League Boots and Arabian Nights. And, yes, the way in which villainous characters are drafted into Tripitaka's (Xuanzang) band and made into monks, wayward though they may be, reminds me of The Wizard of Oz. Outrageous you say? Oz includes "The Dainty China Country" in its tale, and, indeed, Oz could be China.

Up next. Volume 2.

to-read

Great fun, and what a treat to finally read the whole thing (well, volume one of the whole thing, so far) rather than a condensed "best of."

Book begins a bit slowly, but soon hits its stride as Monkey wages war on the Gods themselves ... there's a slight dip in momentum once he's out of commission, but soon he's back and it's a series of mostly comedic action sequences, one after the other--a rollicking good time, and a good bedtime book as each sequence can be absorbed in small doses.

This is the first volume of the revised version of Anthony Yu's four-volume English-language translation, originally published in 1983, although this revised version is from 2012. The revised version corrects various issues 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.