Folio Archives 294: Monkey by Wu Ch'êng-ên.1968

Monkey by Wu Ch'êng-ên.1968

Monkey, or Journey to the West, is a 16th. century Chinese folk tale that runs to thousands of pages in its full version but was translated in this abbreviated form by Arthur Waley in 1942.

The journey undertaken by Monkey, a very crafty fellow, to the West follows an actual journey by Tripitaka to India in the seventh century. Monkey is endowed with magical powers that include immortality and cloud riding amongst many that enable him to undertake the journey on behalf of Buddha in order to retrieve some sacred manuscripts. There are many fantastic adventures along the way. Tripitaka and Monkey liberate princesses, punish evil doers, resurrect the dead, fight monsters and undertake many side quests. It is actually quite entertaining to read.

The 312 page book has 12 leaves of two-colour plates by Duncan Grant and a two page unattributed introduction. It is quarter bound in dark green cloth with white paper boards that are printed with a design in red and black by Grant. The page tops are stained light blue, it has plain grey endleaves and a grey slipcase that measures 22.7x14.8cm.



















































An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

One of my early Folio titles. I bought it from someone at work.

This edition has been on my tentative wishlist. Given Folio's modern treatment of Three Kingdoms and Outlaws of the Marsh I've been hoping for a while that they will eventually bring out a new translation for Journey into the West and possibly Dream of the Red Chamber.

I recently finished Anthony Yu's newly revised translation of The Journey to the West, which I believe is the latest English translation. It's great if your up to the real thing and to 1000 or so pages not counting the copious notes, which I love in a text like this.

While I would definitely like a copy of the FS edition, I'm not sure I would call what Waley did a translation. More a adaptation and summary. But I do remember reading some quirk in his work that spurred my curiosity to check it out at some point. Probably whenever I stumble across a copy of this edition on one of my bookcrawls...

I would probably find it hard to resist if the FS did do an edition of Yu's translation similar to their treatment of Outlaws of the Marsh, the Three Kingdoms, or The Tale of the Genji.

>1 wcarter:

Excellent choice.

Arthur Waley was an eminent orientalist and his translations of both Chinese and Japanese literature and poetry have stood the test of time. 'Monkey' is a translation of 30 of the 100 chapters of Wu Cheng'en's 'Journey to the West'. Few people without a primary interest in Chinese literature need to read the one-thousand plus pages of the original and this abridgment is quite effective.

For those with an interest in Chinese literature and poetry, I highly recommend the Old Stile Press edition of 'Leading the Cranes Home', a collection of Chinese poems translated by Arthur Waley with beautiful multi-color woodblock illustrations by Ralph Kiggell.

>4 jveezer: I absolutely agree. Waley's 'translation' certainly represents more of an adaptation than an accurate full translation, and like you, I'd love to have explanatory notes for a work like this as there as simply so many cultural and linguistic references that the average anglophone would miss. Another minus for me in this old FS edition (apart from the illustrations which I find weak) is that it uses the old Wade-Giles romanisation for Chinese names rather than modern, more accessible pinyin. Fingers crossed that Folio soon publish a more complete and definitive, up-to-date edition of Journey to the West soon!

Also hope to see a full edition to match Three Kingdoms and Outlaws of the Marsh.