Journey to the West - Monkey

Readings from Journey to the West (Monkey) - translated by Anthony Yu:
   Journey to the West, also known as Monkey (in honor of the real main character, Sun Wu Kung, a highly gifted ape), was written in the Ming Dynasty, based loosely on the journey of a Buddhist monk West to India to bring back Buddhist scriptures for the Chinese people during the Tang Dynasty.  Translator Anthony Yu has done a spectacular job of bringing this Chinese classic into modern English.  Because of its central role in Chinese culture (similar to the impact The Odyssey has had on Western Civilization), we include the first seven of the one-hundred chapters as part of the required reading for the World Civilizations course.

  The readings can be downloaded either as a Word Document or as an html page.  Simply click which one you want.

Additionally, as part of the class, we are reading a brief excerpt from Chapter 14 in which Tripitaka, the monk, and Sun Wu Kung (the Monkey) encounter a group of dangerous bandits on the road.  You can read that excerpt here.

While Monkey can be read by students on a 7-day schedule, with one chapter per day, I have provided a suggested outline of a more moderate 12-day breakdown of the readings into more manageable size and thematic unity, with suggested breaks for those following the Yu Translation.