Journey to the West

[Greg_Charles]

This is the epic tale of eastern Asia, telling the story of a Chinese monk who travels to India to bring back Buddhist teachings. On the way he encounters all sorts of obstacles, usually magical in nature, but is brought through safely by his companions, notably the Monkey King, Sun Wukong.

I know the basics of the story, but haven’t read it. I have the Anthony Wu translation of volume one, but I’m finding it too scholarly to enjoy. Is there another translation that might be more fun?

[Isamu]

@Greg_Charles

This is the epic tale of eastern Asia, telling the story of a Chinese monk who travels to India to bring back Buddhist teachings. On the way he encounters all sorts of obstacles, usually magical in nature, but is brought through safely by his companions, notably the Monkey King, Sun Wukong.

I know the basics of the story, but haven’t read it. I have the Anthony Wu translation of volume one, but I’m finding it too scholarly to enjoy. Is there another translation that might be more fun?

Well, there’s the TV show, which was quite fun, but I’m not sure how closely it follows the original story…

- YouTube

[Giles]

@Isamu

Well, there’s the TV show, which was quite fun, but I’m not sure how closely it follows the original story…

And there are several other TV shows based on Journey to the West, including Dragon Ball, which I suspect is rather less true to the details of the original story.

[Autolycus]

While it’s a fun read, I’d avoid the translation by Toriyama. For starters, it’s over 9000 pages long!

[Kamino_Neko]

Arthur Whaley’s Monkey is generally well-liked, though heavily abridged.