ISBN: 9780143138938
Author: Wu Cheng'EnTranslated from Chinese by Julia Lovell
Publisher Information: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: 2025/09/25
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Title: 西游记
Chinese Version ISBN: 9787020008735
Author: 吴承恩 | Wu Chengen
Chinese Publisher Information: 人民文学出版社 | People's Literature Publishing House
Chinese Publication Date: 2004/08
Topical Subject Header: Fiction, Classcial Fiction
Monkey King: Journey to the West
One of China's Four Great Classical Novels, Monkey King was written anonymously during the Ming dynasty and is most commonly attributed to Wu Cheng'en, the son of a silk-shop clerk from east China. It recounts a Tang-dynasty monk's quest for Buddhist scriptures, accompanied by an omni-talented kung-fu Monkey King called Sun Wukong; a rice-loving divine pig; and a depressive man-eating river-sand monster.
Comparable to The Canterbury Tales or Don Quixote, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, a humorous satire of Chinese bureaucracy, a spring of spiritual insight and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment.
