Wu Cheng'en: Journey To The West

waalkwriter

waalkwriter

Reader
Can't believe there's no thread on this. Probably the most important of the four Classic Chinese texts, and still widely popular today. This is the central piece of China's folklore; a story universally known, and constantly adapted. Here's a link to the text online:

http://www.chine-informations.com/fichiers/jourwest.pdf

Only 1410 pages long. In all seriousness, I'm going to have to lock myself in a monastery some day, and read all four of the Four Great Classical Chinese novels, as well as Tale of Genji. Has anyone here read Journey to the West? (And Mirabell you aren't allowed to say you have, which knowing you, is most likely the case. You probably read it when you were a bored 18 year old).
 
waalkwriter

waalkwriter

Reader
Re: Journey to the West

Except, you know, Journey to the West is a cornerstone of the cultural heritage of about 1.5 million people across Asia, and still wildly popular in China. It's hard to understate it. China's leaders are still, to this day, apt to speak with reference to this work; Mao based many of his speeches around Journey to the West. It's culturally, and politically relevant to an emerging economic and military super power, and has a level of near universal familiarity and popularity that you'd be hard-pressed to find for any text in the west other than the Bible. So it's a bit different. If The Voyage of Bran had been read by 600 million people or so, you might have a point :p
 
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hdw

Reader
Re: Journey to the West

waalkwriter said:
Except, you know, Journey to the West is a cornerstone of the cultural heritage of about 1.5 million people across Asia, and still wildly popular in China. It's hard to understate it. China's leaders are still, to this day, apt to speak with reference to this work; Mao based many of his speeches around Journey to the West. It's culturally, and politically relevant to an emerging economic and military super power, and has a level of near universal familiarity and popularity that you'd be hard-pressed to find for any text in the west other than the Bible. So it's a bit different. If The Voyage of Bran had been read by 600 million people or so, you might have a point :p
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Did you never watch the Japanese TV version, shot in China and dubbed into rather weird English? It was a cult classic over here. Shown on Saturday mornings if I remember correctly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_(TV_series)

Harry
 
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mesnalty

Reader
Re: Journey to the West

I've read the abridged translation by Arthur Waley published under the title Monkey, but I'd like to read a complete translation someday.
 
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lawpark

Reader
waalkwriter said:
Can't believe there's no thread on this. Probably the most important of the four Classic Chinese texts, and still widely popular today. This is the central piece of China's folklore; a story universally known, and constantly adapted. Here's a link to the text online:

http://www.chine-informations.com/fichiers/jourwest.pdf

Only 1410 pages long. In all seriousness, I'm going to have to lock myself in a monastery some day, and read all four of the Four Great Classical Chinese novels, as well as Tale of Genji. Has anyone here read Journey to the West? (And Mirabell you aren't allowed to say you have, which knowing you, is most likely the case. You probably read it when you were a bored 18 year old).
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Well, I wouldn't say it is the most important of the Four Classic Novels ... it might be important in the sense that it is good type of story for primary school students; but of the Four I think the Story of the Stone / Dream of Red Chambers is clearly the most respected as a literary work.

And btw, the Four Classical Novels were called so under specific contexts: first, that the novels was considered "the literary form" in the more advanced western societies (1st half of 20th century), and second, the name "Four Famous Works" are named so by the Communist Leadership, most of whom (other than Mao who is clearly well-read and literate) were actually of very low literacy. The name is also a misnomer, in China, there are already Five Classics and the Four Books; comparatively the novel is a very late form, and is generally held in relatively low esteem compared with poetry.

It is not that one should not read the novel - just need to know that it is not as important as some introductions make it sound like.
 
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ArthurDestiney

Reader
lawpark said:
Well, I wouldn't say it is the most important of the Four Classic Novels ... it might be important in the sense that it is good type of story for primary school students; but of the Four I think the Story of the Stone / Dream of Red Chambers is clearly the most respected as a literary work.]

Indeed, The Dream of Read Chambers is considered the pinnacle of China's accomplishments in novels.
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