Monkey (novel)
Penguin Classics edition
|
|
| Author | Wu Ch'eng-En |
|---|---|
| Original title | Xi You Ji (Journey to the West) |
| Translator | Arthur Waley |
| Country | China |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Shenmo, Chinese mythology, fantasy, novel |
| Publisher | Allen and Unwin |
|
Publication date
|
1942 (original release date) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 350 |
Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China, more often known as simply Monkey, is an abridged translation by Arthur Waley of the sixteenth-century Chinese novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en of the Ming dynasty. Originally published in 1942, it remains one of the most-read English-language versions of the novel. The translation also won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1942.
At the outset of the novel, Buddha seeks a pilgrim who will travel to India. The hope is to retrieve sacred scriptures by which the Chinese people may be enlightened so that their behaviour may accord with the tenets of Buddhism. The young monk Tripitaka volunteers to undertake the pilgrimage. Along the way, he encounters and frees the Monkey King, and he and Monkey thereafter recruit Pigsy and Sandy. They liberate a captive princess and punish her abductor, who has also murdered her father. The father is resurrected and reinstalled as king. They meet several bodhisattvas and fight fierce monsters, before finally arriving at Buddha's palace.
Arthur Waley's abridged translation was published in 1942, and has also been published as Adventures of the Monkey God; and Monkey: [A] Folk Novel of China and The Adventures of Monkey, and in a further abridged version for children, Dear Monkey. Whereas previous abridged versions of Journey to the West retained the original number of chapters but reduced their length significantly, Waley adopted the opposite approach; he translated only 30 chapters out of 100 episodes, but did so nearly in full, omitting mainly the poetry. He is also responsible for inventing the names of the main characters: Sun Wukong as "Monkey"; Xuanzang, as "Tripitaka"; Zhu Bajie as "Pigsy"; and Sha Wujing as "Sandy."
...
Wikipedia