Sun Wukong is one of the most famous characters in Chinese literature and culture. His legendary bravery, his foolish mistakes, his sharp-tongued commentary and his yearning for immortality and spiritual knowledge have inspired hundreds of books, television shows, graphic novels, video games and films.
The full story of Sun Wukong’s adventures is told in Journey to the West, an epic 2, 000-page novel written in the 16th century by Wu Cheng’en. Journey to the West is probably the most famous and best-loved novel in China and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. Its place in Chinese literature is roughly comparable to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey in Western literature. Wikipedia sums up the book’s role perfectly, saying, ‘Enduringly popular, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, a humorous satire of Chinese bureaucracy, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment by the power and virtue of cooperation.’
The original Journey to the West is a very, very long story, consisting of a hundred chapters. It is loosely based on an actual journey by the Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled from the Chinese city of Chang’an westward to India in 629 A.D. and returned 17 years later with priceless knowledge and texts of Buddhism. Over the course of the book Xuanzang and his companions face the 81 tribulations that Xuanzang had to endure to attain Buddhahood.
This book is not a literal translation of Journey to the West. Rather, it’s a retelling of the story in easy-to-read English. Unlike the other full-text translations, this is a graded reader that uses a restricted vocabulary, simpler sentence structure, and fewer proper nouns. The chapters start off quite easy and gradually increase in complexity. The authors have made every effort to remain faithful to the original while retelling it in simple language.
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A GUIDE TO DIFFERENT FORMATS
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This easy-to-read retelling of The Journey to the West is available in several different formats, depending on what you’re looking for. They are listed below. To learn more about these editions, visit www.imagin8press.com.
In English only
- Paperback and ebook
In Simplified Chinese only
- Paperback, ebook and audiobook
In Simplified Chinese, pinyin and English
- Oversized hardcover and ebook
A series of 31 individual books in Simplified Chinese, pinyin and English
- Paperback and ebook
A series of 31 individual books in Traditional Chinese, pinyin and English
- Paperback
A series of 11 compilations in Simplified Chinese, pinyin and English
- each compilation contains 2 or 3 individual books
- Paperback and ebook
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