Further Adventures on the Journey to the West

Book excerpt: As the audacious Monkey King battles his way through a landscape of inexplicable places and unfamiliar passions, Further Adventures on the Journey to the West offers a wry, revisionist critique of the late-Ming fascination with desire. Building on the great sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West, which recounts the escapades of a monk and three companions traveling to India in search of Buddhist scriptures to carry back to China, this sequel is a parable of self-delusion that explores the tension between desire and emptiness from a Buddhist perspective. The consummate literati novel, written by an accomplished artist for a well-educated readership, it is filled with allusions and parodies and features a dream-sequence narrative that is innovative and sophisticated even by modern standards. This new, fully annotated translation by two acclaimed scholars and translators brings to life this remarkably inventive, playful early modern text. The volume includes the original commentaries and illustrations, a critical introduction and afterword, and notes that highlight the sources of the novel’s intertextual references, revealing the author’s erudition and versatility. The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.