Journey to the West, Volume 4: Volume 4

This is the final volume of one of the four great written masterpieces of China, beautifully translated by Professor Yu. You can feel the long and arduous journey to India coming to an end at last, along with the end of the even longer and harder journey from immaturity to maturity. The point of the Monkey King's very first teacher, "Nothing in the world is difficult, only the mind makes it so" comes back to the fore in this brilliant wrap up to a story that has no equal. If you have been using some visual aids, such as the CCTV production, to help with your comprehension up to this point, my advice is not to use them for the last part of this volume. The arrival of the group at Vulture Peak and all the incredible human vices, bureaucratic red tape and mistakes that occur from that point on are most impressionable if experienced in the imagination though reading.

I have long adored Chinese Classics, this being my favorite one. I have Chinese ancestry, but cannot speak or write or read Chinese. I am glad this book has now been put into English for many readers to read. Journey to the West tells of a Tang Priest who is sent on the Tang Emperor's orders to get the scriptures from the Tathagata Buddha in the West. Along his journey, he frees Monkey from the five elements mountain, gets Zhu Bajie (Martian Tian Peng), but now a pig, and Sha Wujing. They overcome 81 obstacles to finally reach the Buddha and become buddhas themselves. The characters in this book are so vivid (especially Sun Wu Kong). The way the author writes, its like being with the Monkey King and watching his journey. When I first watched the Journey to the West the TV show in HongKong, I was hooked. The fascinating martial arts, the humorous bits in the show, and the plot that makes you hang on the edge of your seat. When I read the book, I was so intrigued in the writing, I couldn't put it down. THis is definitely a book worth reading. The language is moderately difficult. I had quite an easy time reading it (and I'm only 8). A must read, it is absolutely fantastic. (by the way, the Monkey King is played by Dicky Cheung in the movie, who is a WONDERFUL actor. Journey to the West (not animated, its real picture) is a great show! )

One of the most important features of this translation is its accuracy. It is difficult to find a translation that is as true to the original language as this is. Much of the Chinese, especially the poems, is not only archaic but extremely obscure and difficult to approximate in the English language. The author has accomplished this with this work. The footnoting should also be mentioned, The information contained in the extensive footnotes and appendix's has been an integral part not only in my understanding of this book but much of my other studies of Asian mythologies and related materials.