Journey to the West with Notes and Annotations (A & B)

by Wu Cheng'en

This book, Journey to the West, which consists of a total of 100 chapters, mainly tells the stories about the Monkey Kings birth and havoc in heaven, the birth of Xuan Zang a reverend monk in the Tang Dynasty and why he and his three apprentices went on a pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures as well as how they managed to obtain the scriptures after overcoming eighty-one difficulties. By applying the shaping method of trinity of human being, God and beast, the author Wu Cheng-en built a unique art palace with rich, peculiar and artistic imagination, vivid plots full of twists and turns, life-like characters, and in humorous language. The novel shows the readers a brilliant mythical world, but reflects the essence of real life under the magic appearance. It meaningfully endows the majority of people with optimistic spirit to fight against the evil forces and overcome the natural difficulties, circuitously showcasing the social outlook of the feudal era. This book is an annotated edition of Journey to the West.

1515 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Wu Cheng'en (simplified Chinese: 吴承恩; traditional Chinese: 吳承恩; pinyin: Wú Chéng'ēn, ca. 1505–1580 or 1500–1582, courtesy name Ruzhong (汝忠), pen name "Sheyang Hermit," was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty, best known for being the probable author of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West, also called Monkey.