Here are the three or four English translations I'm familiar with: * Waley. Waley selected a lot of different stories from the original, but far from most of the stories. His selection is largely from the most amusing and adventerous stories, the fun and funny stories and so forth, not the deeper and perhaps more meaningful or philosophical stories. It is the shortest of the translations and as such it's probably best for the person who only wants to dip their toes into the world rather than dive in. As a translation, Waley is quite lively and enjoyable to read. In fact, I think he has the best style of any of the major translations. However, he's not entirely faithful to the original, he often plays it quite fast and loose. And he's getting to be a bit dated in language since his translation was published in the 1940s, though he's still readable. Waley is probably the most well known translation of the story, the "classic" translation as it were. * Yu. Yu translated the full unabridged version which is called Journey to the West (4 vols.). Yu also did an abridged version called The Monkey and the Monk. Yu is the most scholarly and faithful translation, he includes everything, even the poetry and songs from the original. He has extensive notes that are first rate. He uses the Pinyin romanization system instead of Wade-Giles. However, Yu doesn't "sing" as a translation, he is a more academic read, often a dry read, and as such arguably loses much of the flavor of the original. * Jenner. This too is a translation of the entire work of Journey to the West. Indeed, Yu and Jenner are the only completely unabridged English translations that currently exist. All other English translations are abridged or adaptations or retellings. Jenner isn't as beautifully poetic as Waley, but he is more so than Yu. Also Jenner is more faithful to the original Chinese text than Waley, but perhaps not quite as faithful as Yu. As such, Jenner may be a decent compromise between the academic but dry Yu and the idiomatic and poetic but less reliable Waley. * Lovell. The most recent translation (2021). It is available in a beautiful Penguin Classics Deluxe edition titled Monkey King. As is the case with every translation that's not Yu or Jenner, Lovell is also abridged. The translation itself takes a fair bit of liberties, though it makes the story very accessible to contemporary ears. That said, it may be a bit too contemporary for some tastes (e.g. a more sardonic or even snarky tone that may better fit the 21st century UK and US than ancient China). Edit: fixed grammar, misspellings
Having watched Monkey back in the 1980's, my love of Xianxia/Wuxia stories was born. Sun Wukong appears in many of these stories. I have never read Journeys to the West, as often these older stories don't live up to your wishes. This is why I rushed to see this review. Now I will try to get the full translation as many of the Translated novels I've enjoyed are at least 40 to 50 books long.
The journey to the west is one of the 4 great classic Chinese literature for a reason. There's so much to analyse, but basically the monkey is merely a chess piece in a struggle for power between giants. It gets much more deeper than MC fighting monsters and levelling up.
Not even close…the new game tries to label itself as “black myth” because the source is a critique of bureaucracy、government and society structure，through the storys of gods and monsters. Sun wukong actually means “the monkey aware of meaningless”, the whole story is about the system trying to tame a creature that human hypocrisy should never apply to in the first place.Not about him maturing up.
As Chinese i would say thank you for introducing one of our greatest books. The bridged version is good for knowing the story, and of course some subtle things must be overlooked unfortunately. This book has many themes, like the conflict between Buddhism and Taoism, the allusion of the criticism of the government. Here is one interesting interpretation of this book: it is designed that the monkey has to suffered from 81 times of similar difficulties, as you mentioned the stories are in the same pattern. Before the journey the monkey had been punished but it seems that he is not regulated. Therefore, the whole journey is to tame him to obey the buddhism principles. People praise for the rebellious behaviours under a bad environment. However the authorities will now let them do and try to repress them. I will read all the classics before I die🤣.
My first experience with Sun Wukong is with the new game Black Myth Wukong. I know Goku and probably many others are inspired by him. Is everyone on a monkey kick right now😂
@Zechree I have seen a couple of different versions of journey to the West, including a pretty bad American movie where they actually got Jet Li and Jackie Chan in it. Jet Li was Wukong. Yes, Goku is actually directly based on wukong, and yes, the new game was the kick in the but I needed to finally pick up the book.
My first experience with Journey to the West is the anime Saiyuki which isn’t an exact retailing but it’s similar enough that it made me interested in the actual story.
Here are the three or four English translations I'm familiar with:
* Waley. Waley selected a lot of different stories from the original, but far from most of the stories. His selection is largely from the most amusing and adventerous stories, the fun and funny stories and so forth, not the deeper and perhaps more meaningful or philosophical stories. It is the shortest of the translations and as such it's probably best for the person who only wants to dip their toes into the world rather than dive in. As a translation, Waley is quite lively and enjoyable to read. In fact, I think he has the best style of any of the major translations. However, he's not entirely faithful to the original, he often plays it quite fast and loose. And he's getting to be a bit dated in language since his translation was published in the 1940s, though he's still readable. Waley is probably the most well known translation of the story, the "classic" translation as it were.
* Yu. Yu translated the full unabridged version which is called Journey to the West (4 vols.). Yu also did an abridged version called The Monkey and the Monk. Yu is the most scholarly and faithful translation, he includes everything, even the poetry and songs from the original. He has extensive notes that are first rate. He uses the Pinyin romanization system instead of Wade-Giles. However, Yu doesn't "sing" as a translation, he is a more academic read, often a dry read, and as such arguably loses much of the flavor of the original.
* Jenner. This too is a translation of the entire work of Journey to the West. Indeed, Yu and Jenner are the only completely unabridged English translations that currently exist. All other English translations are abridged or adaptations or retellings. Jenner isn't as beautifully poetic as Waley, but he is more so than Yu. Also Jenner is more faithful to the original Chinese text than Waley, but perhaps not quite as faithful as Yu. As such, Jenner may be a decent compromise between the academic but dry Yu and the idiomatic and poetic but less reliable Waley.
* Lovell. The most recent translation (2021). It is available in a beautiful Penguin Classics Deluxe edition titled Monkey King. As is the case with every translation that's not Yu or Jenner, Lovell is also abridged. The translation itself takes a fair bit of liberties, though it makes the story very accessible to contemporary ears. That said, it may be a bit too contemporary for some tastes (e.g. a more sardonic or even snarky tone that may better fit the 21st century UK and US than ancient China).
Edit: fixed grammar, misspellings
Having watched Monkey back in the 1980's, my love of Xianxia/Wuxia stories was born. Sun Wukong appears in many of these stories. I have never read Journeys to the West, as often these older stories don't live up to your wishes. This is why I rushed to see this review. Now I will try to get the full translation as many of the Translated novels I've enjoyed are at least 40 to 50 books long.
The journey to the west is one of the 4 great classic Chinese literature for a reason. There's so much to analyse, but basically the monkey is merely a chess piece in a struggle for power between giants. It gets much more deeper than MC fighting monsters and levelling up.
All the extra content would basically be 500y old
Filler episodes 😂
I hope the next classic will be the romance of three kingdoms
That would awesome especially when comparing it to the political parts of game of thrones
I've never heard of that one. I'll have to look into it.
Not even close…the new game tries to label itself as “black myth” because the source is a critique of bureaucracy、government and society structure，through the storys of gods and monsters.
Sun wukong actually means “the monkey aware of meaningless”, the whole story is about the system trying to tame a creature that human hypocrisy should never apply to in the first place.Not about him maturing up.
As Chinese i would say thank you for introducing one of our greatest books.
The bridged version is good for knowing the story, and of course some subtle things must be overlooked unfortunately.
This book has many themes, like the conflict between Buddhism and Taoism, the allusion of the criticism of the government.
Here is one interesting interpretation of this book: it is designed that the monkey has to suffered from 81 times of similar difficulties, as you mentioned the stories are in the same pattern. Before the journey the monkey had been punished but it seems that he is not regulated. Therefore, the whole journey is to tame him to obey the buddhism principles. People praise for the rebellious behaviours under a bad environment. However the authorities will now let them do and try to repress them.
I will read all the classics before I die🤣.
My first experience with Sun Wukong is with the new game Black Myth Wukong. I know Goku and probably many others are inspired by him. Is everyone on a monkey kick right now😂
@Zechree I have seen a couple of different versions of journey to the West, including a pretty bad American movie where they actually got Jet Li and Jackie Chan in it. Jet Li was Wukong. Yes, Goku is actually directly based on wukong, and yes, the new game was the kick in the but I needed to finally pick up the book.
Don't forget Lego Monkie Kid. That's what made the monkey ocs and kick explode BIG
My first experience with Journey to the West is the anime Saiyuki which isn’t an exact retailing but it’s similar enough that it made me interested in the actual story.
Can we get a link to the book so we can purchase the correct one from the video.
Where can we purchase this book?
A Korean Odyssey was a fun modern version of these tales.