Product Description

Monkey depicts the adventures of Prince Tripitaka, a young Buddhist priest on a dangerous pilgrimage to India to retrieve sacred scriptures accompanied by his three unruly disciples: the greedy pig creature Pipsy, the river monster Sandy – and Monkey. Hatched from a stone egg and given the secrets of heaven and earth, the irrepressible trickster Monkey can ride on the clouds, become invisible and transform into other shapes – skills that prove very useful when the four travellers come up against the dragons, bandits, demons and evil wizards that threaten to prevent them in their quest. Wu Ch’êng-ên wrote Monkey in the mid-sixteenth century, adding his own distinctive style to an ancient Chinese legend, and in so doing created a dazzling combination of nonsense with profundity, slapstick comedy with spiritual wisdom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12926 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Very little is known about Wu Ch-eng-en (c. 1505-80) although he is believed to have held the post of District Magistrate for a time. He had a reputation as a good poet but only a few rather commonplace verses of his survive in an anthology of Ming poetry and in a local gazetteer. Arthur Waley CBE, FBS, was a distinguished authority on Chinese language and literature. He was born in 1889 and graduated from the Universities of Cambridge and Aberdeen. He died in 1966. His many publications include 170 Chinese Poems, Japanese Poetry, The Tale of Genji (6 vols), The Way and its Power, The Real Tripitaka and Yuam Mei.

Customer Reviews

One of the four classics of Chinese Literature
I read this after having read the excellent San Guo Yan Yi (The Three Kingdoms/Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which I would highly recommend) and, having known a bit about Chinese culture, language and literature I went into it knowing what to expect and was delighted that it had surpassed my expectations.

Most often referred to as Xi You Ji or, Journey to the West, it is difficult to appreciate why the author chose to call it "Monkey". While the character of Monkey does occupy much of the first part of the book and remains the strongest and, I'm guessing, most people's favourite character throughout, he is still only part of the entourage of characters who face the Journey. Still, what's in a title?

This book is replete with humour, both obvious and subtle. It would help if you had a certain understanding of Chinese History and culture in your reading of this book to understand the many references contained within. However, even if you don't know a jot about anything to do with China, you will still find this book immensely enjoyable and full of quotable wisdoms.

It details first the story of the birth of monkey and his fate and then the birth of "Tripitaka" and then begins the Journey to the West. It might often appear a bit disjointed, leaping around topics. For example, you begin with the story of Monkey, and are then thrown into a (seemingly) completely unrelated topic. But the way Wu Cheng'An has worked all these plots into a coherent story is truly brilliant. Instead of finding it disjointed, I found the the jumps kept the book very exciting. While there are certain parts of the plot which I assume are composed according to the epic style of the time (for example, all the battles take place in rounds, or bouts, and seem to follow a standardised format of engage and retreat/chase), these don't detract anything from the novel to one who is used to epic literature (for example, the battles in the Iliad followed a pattern).

In following the path of Tripitaka, Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy you invariably pick your favourite for each has their own individual personalities and stock epithets. Pigsy is fat and glutenous and fights with a rake (!) and perhaps is one of the funniest charicatures in the book. Monkey is a mischief maker, both loveable and naughty with fabulous powers. Sandy... doesn't really do much. Tripitaka is hilarious simply because he is portrayed as the hero of this book but spends most of his time being rescued by his disciples! It truly is riotous.

Thus, even if you fail to understand the relationships of the San Jiao (Three teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism)or the nature of the bureaucracy (the way heaven mimics earth), you will still find this one of the funniest reads of your life.

Enjoy!

(The other three classics of Chinese literature are The Three Kingdoms, The Story of the Stone/Dream of the Red Chamber and The Outlaws of the Marsh and I highly recommend all of them)

Exuberant fairytale with an edge
I think I'm the exception among the reviewers here in that I didn't come to this book through the TV series - I have heard of it, but I've never seen it (although I do intend to try to find it now...).

This translation covers only sections of the Monkey/Journey to the West saga, but what there is of it conveys well the flavour of the tale without outstaying its welcome. The plot, such as it is, revolves around the priest Tripitaka and his disciples (including Monkey), who have been charged to journey to the West and return with Buddhist scriptures for the enlightenment of China.

The story can, at times, be distinctly difficult to get your head around; superficially at least, it's little more than a succession of episodes involving bizarre monsters being defeated with elaborate magical powers. There is, however, plenty of humour - generally farcical in nature, although occasionally quite dry - and the bickering of the main characters is frequently entertaining. The bureaucratic nature of heaven, in which spirits and deities are assigned strictly hierarchical posts - with salaries! - is amusing regardless of how much you know of Chinese history and society.

However, many of the Buddhist and Taoist elements may be confusing to readers unfamiliar with the basic concepts. Some of the episodes rely quite heavily on outcomes grounded in, say, the workings of karma or the achievement of enlightenment - although most do conclude with Monkey and friends beating up the monsters in question, frequently with the spiritual aid of Kuan-yin and other divinities. But I do suspect that there are allusions and layers I'm missing...

To paraphrase the end-of-chapter refrain, if you want to know whether Monkey and his companions succeed on their quest, you'll have to read the book!

an intriguing mix of philosophy, satire and buddhism.
i bought this book a while ago from amazon and could'nt wait to start it, being a big fan of the japanese 70s series of monkey! i was quite intrigued to see how it would compare. i was very pleasantly surprised, i thought it would be hard going and as dry as dust but it was very readable. the tv series is very faithful to the book, i recognised many episodes. i enjoyed it thoroughly, it was funny, thought provoking and i could'nt put it down. monkey is just as much of a star in the book as he is in the tv series, i recommend it highly to anyone who is a fan of monkey! but also to anyone who enjoys a good, thought provoking read.