The Journey to the West, Volume 1
Feb. 11th, 2025 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliThe Journey to the West, Volume 1 by Wu Cheng'en translated by Anthony C. Yu
What a roller-coaster.
This is translated in very literal manner, with all the luminous pearls, fragrant clouds, and other wonders and metaphors from the original. It produces quite an effect.
A monkey king masters the arts that make him and his subject monkeys immortal. He's still a monkey, however. When the Jade Emperor tries to make things orderly with posts and titles, he can only achieve temporary fixes, and finally all sorts of heavenly forces are brought to bear, both Taoist and Chinese gods. Finally the Buddha tricks him into a captivity. (Just a touch of talking up the greatness of Buddhism in there. There will be more.)
After more tales featuring a carp that is really a dragon king and a long-lost child, a man delivering melons to Hell and retrieving his wife, the decision is made to send a monk after scriptures that a Bodhisattva told the emperor about. The monk frees the monkey and gets other companions in the midst of free-wheeling high-powered adventures.
What a roller-coaster.
This is translated in very literal manner, with all the luminous pearls, fragrant clouds, and other wonders and metaphors from the original. It produces quite an effect.
A monkey king masters the arts that make him and his subject monkeys immortal. He's still a monkey, however. When the Jade Emperor tries to make things orderly with posts and titles, he can only achieve temporary fixes, and finally all sorts of heavenly forces are brought to bear, both Taoist and Chinese gods. Finally the Buddha tricks him into a captivity. (Just a touch of talking up the greatness of Buddhism in there. There will be more.)
After more tales featuring a carp that is really a dragon king and a long-lost child, a man delivering melons to Hell and retrieving his wife, the decision is made to send a monk after scriptures that a Bodhisattva told the emperor about. The monk frees the monkey and gets other companions in the midst of free-wheeling high-powered adventures.