Journey to the West

by Wu Cheng En


This website is about the Chinese legend and folktale, Journey to the West (Xi You Ji or Hsi Yu Chi), also known as the legend of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. Most of the writings in this website are by me, Yuen, unless otherwise stated. Please do not use any of the writings in this website without my permission. That said, please feel free to explore this site! Feedback and comments are much welcome, and can be sent to [email protected]. For recent updates, go to the bottom of the page. You can also visit my Journey to the West blog to see the newest updates. Alternatively, watch out for:

NEW!! (New Section)

NEW! (New Update)


Quick Intro

Journey to the West is a household legend and myth throughout East Asia, especially China, and among Chinese throughout the world. It is based on the real life monk Xuan Zang's (also known as Tripitaka or Tang San Zang) pilgrimage to India, to fetch back some Buddhist scriptures. Nonetheless, this fictional retelling focuses on San Zang's first disciple, the monkey king, Sun Wu Kong, who captured readers' hearts and imagination with his bold, daring, and mischievous personality. He was also very rebellious. As a matter of fact, Wu Cheng En wrote Journey to the West to criticize China's political system and society.

Basically, Journey to the West is about Tang San Zang's journey to the west (duh) and the difficulties he and his disciples face in between. It is overflowing with magic, demons, gods, immortals, and scrumptious action and adventure! It has lots of humor and some angst as well. Monkey King Wu Kong and the other disciples, a pig demon Zhu Ba Jie and the river demon Sha Wu Jing, have to battle hordes of demons, who all want their master because his flesh will give immortality to anyone who eats it.

This epic story is a captivating read, with the pilgrims getting into trouble in the most unexpected places, fighting through not only outright confrontation and abduction but also lies and disguises while using trickery of their own. Sun Wu Kong the Monkey King is especially good at this, having mastered the way of transforming himself into anything he likes, including a fly, tree, or a beautiful girl. Xi You Ji spans over a huge area, taking readers for a wild ride to the Heavens, volcanoes, seas, wide rivers, mountain peaks, demon-filled caves, right down to the pits of Hell. The plot is imaginative and full of conflict, either with external enemies or between the pilgrims themselves. The characters are well developed, with distinct, three-dimensional personalities. Well, most of them, at least. There are also underlying spiritual and religious themes. This masterpiece is frequently underestimated as it also portrays a realistic view of the political and social scenarios during the Ming Dynasty. In short, Xi You Ji is definitely worth your time. Grab the chance to experience one of the greatest classics of ancient China!

LATEST FEATURES

~ Films/Shows: Free torrent downloads to all the episodes of the 1986 CCTV Journey to the West (Liu Xiao Ling Tong version) with English and Chinese subs, courtesy of Afro Monkey (02/07/08) ~

~ Free download of Episode One of Journey to the West I (Dicky Cheung version) with English subs (30/06/08) ~


Info


 

Summary

What exactly happened on the Journey to the West? What's the story like? Here's a general summary of the story by sections.

 

Author Information

Exactly who wrote Xi You Ji? A Taoist? A scholar? A poet? History has pointed arrows to each of these, but if you want to find out more about the real author of Journey to the West, just click on the link above!

 

History of Xuan Zang

What was the real Journey to the West like? Did Xuan Zang (Tang San Zang) really flow down a river to be adopted by an abbot? What kind of person was he? To answer all these questions and more, just click on the link above! A new, much improved account of Xuan Zang's history is waiting for you! I did proper research this time, really! It's much better than the old version! Much more information, more organized, and more fun to read! I even found a few interesting anecdotes of Xuan Zang's journeys! Enjoy~

 

Origins

 Where did Xi You Ji come from? Did Sun Wu Kong just pop out of Wu Cheng En's head fully formed? Click on the link above to find out the origins of Journey to the West!

 

Character Profiles

Where did the Pig come from? Why do people love Sun Wu Kong so much? Why does he have so many names? If he didn't have parents, who named him in the first place? In-depth info, details, and spoilers on the important characters in Xi You Ji. Also has my personal comments and insights.

 


Media


 

Books

NEW! Interested in reading Journey to the West? Take your pick from a list of published English translations of Xi You Ji, unabridged and abridged. Now includes supplementary readings, including critical readings and (fan)fiction based on Xi You Ji.

 

Films/Shows

NEW! Information about films and shows based on Xi You Ji.

 

Anime/Manga

 Information about animation or manga based on Xi You Ji.

 

Music/Lyrics

Download FREE songs and lyrics from shows of Xi You Ji. Also contains my comments about the songs. Translations of lyrics to be available soon!

 

Games

Information about video or online games based on Xi You Ji.

 

Fanfiction

Contains Journey to the West fanfiction.

 


Misc.


 

 Forum

 Xi You Ji forum hosted by Monkey King's World. Discuss anything about Xi You Ji here. ^_^

 

 Guestbook

Old Guestbook Messages (Read-Only)

Go here to give me your comments, feedback and constructive criticism! I absolutely LOVE receiving comments about my site *hint* *hint* ^o^

Alternatively, send your feedback and comments to [email protected].

 

Blog

Contains updates and progress reports about the projects related to Journey to the West that I'm working on. One of those projects is this website, and I've listed the features I'm planning to include in this website. Once I've updated the site with a particular feature, I mark it as 'Done' in the blog. So you can see from this blog what I'm going to add and what I've added! You can even suggest improvements or give comments on the updates! Another of those projects is the translation project for the 1996 Journey to the West drama series starring Dicky Cheung as the Monkey King so you can see what I'm contributing to it as well. Also contains information about my other Journey to the West projects.

 

Water Curtain Cave

 An online store selling items related to Chinese culture such as books, movies etc. Created by me. ^_^

 

Links

Contains links to websites about Xi You Ji.

 


DISCLAIMER

Most of the writings in this website are by me, Yuen, unless otherwise stated. Please do not use any of the writings in this website without my permission.

� Liew Xiang Xiang (a.k.a. Yuen) 2005-2008

Contact e-mail: [email protected]

end junk mail


   UPDATES

Updated the Books section: Added Professor Anthony C. Yu's newest abridgment of his original translation, The Monkey and the Monk: An Abridgment of The Journey to the West and an adaptation for children called The Making of Monkey King.

- Yuen, 7th August 2008

Updated the Films/Shows section. Thanks to Afro Monkey, there are now links to the free torrent downloads of all the episodes of the 1986 CCTV Journey to the West (Liu Xiao Ling Tong version) with English and Chinese subs! Hurray!

- Yuen, 2nd July 2008

Updated the Films/Shows section. Added free download of Episode One of Journey to the West I (Dicky Cheung version) with English subs, thanks to all the people from the Sun Wukong Fansubs Project! Also added link to download of the Spanish sub of the same episode, thanks to afro monkey. Also added information about a dubbed version the coordinator of the project is working on. See my blog for more details.

- Yuen, 30th June 2008

Updated the Games section: Added information about The Monkey King: The Legend Begins for the Wii console. Another amazing game. Also added information about Monkey King Chinese Chess Xiangqi Set and opened a new section for it, 'Board Games'. Added more information about Monkey Magic. The Games page is starting to look really decent now! Yeah!

- Yuen, 3rd June 2008

Update in Films/Shows section. Added buy link for The Lost Empire. Added information for the remake of Monkey/Saiyuki (Japanese version of Xiyouji).

Revamped links page. Removed some links until only the best sites are left.

- Yuen, 31th May 2008

Rearranged the Films/Shows section. See my blog for more details.

- Yuen, 30th May 2008

Updated the Films/Shows section: Added information about The Forbidden Kingdom. I also added information about the 1996 Journey to the West (Xiyouji) drama series starring Dicky Cheung. Finally there a group subbing this amazing series and one of those people is me! Go here to see the part of Episode 1 that we've subbed already! The full version should be out very soon.

Updated the Games section: Added information about Saiyuki: Journey West by Koei. Awesome game, must play for any Journey to the West fan.

Special Update: Added a blog! For now it contains updates to this site and progress reports about projects related to Journey to the West that I'm working on. One of those projects is this website, and I've listed the features I'm planning to include in this website. Once I've added it to the site, I mark it as done in the blog. So you can see from this blog what I'm going to add and what I've added! You can even suggest improvements or give comments on the updates! Isn't that fantastic? Yes it is. Hehehe. Another of those projects is the translation project for the 96 version of Journey to the West so you can see what I'm contributing to it as well. And some others as well, of course.

I also rearranged the format of the guestbook so that it's now part of the Misc. section.

I hope that this (relatively) massive update makes up for all those months of neglect.

- Yuen, 25th May 2008

I LIVE! Yes, after months of hiatus, I'm finally starting to update the page again! Yay! My final exams are finally over and I have approximately 3 months of rest before flying to the US for tertiary education. And I've decided to start again nice and slow with a small update in the:

Music/Lyrics section: Added the original soundtrack for Monkey Magic.

- Yuen, 24th May 2008

The guestbook service I was using is going to shut down soon, so I have set up a new guestbook. Everyone is welcome to post messages there - your feedback makes me very happy! I know I haven't really updated in a long while, because the school work is piling up like crazy, and plus there's those uni apps to get through, but I promise that once I can actually breathe I'll update this page with more info! Thank you for your support!

- Yuen, 7th October 2007

Minor update in Films/Shows section.

- Yuen, 19th July 2007

Special Update: Added Yu Long's character profile!

Updated the Music/Lyrics section: Added the theme song for Dicky Cheung's version of Journey to the West.

- Yuen, 12th July 2007

Updated the Books section: Added a graphic novel - American Born Chinese and fixed the Fictions of Enlightenment link.

Updated the Anime/Manga section: Added info about Alakazam the Great and its manga counterpart.

- Yuen, 9th July 2007

Updated the Books section: Added information about Tung Yueh's Tower of Myriad Mirrors and fixed the broken link.

Updated the Links section: Linked to an awesome new site called Monkey - Great Sage Equal of Heaven (Monkey Magic).

- Yuen, 16th June 2007

For more updates, click here.