Ok, so I just put that thread title up because I used to love watching Monkey Magic when I was young.

Has anyone read the book 'Journey To The West' (Hsi Yu Chi)?

I really want to get my hands on a full unabridged version, but I want to know if it's worth paying quite a bit for. I've seen a few abridged versions but don't really want to miss out on the full 100 chapters.

Anyone read this classic?

Natisse said:

So have you read 'Journey To The West'?

never heard of either ... but anyway

Mach said:

Oh, you're missing out. This show was phantasmagorical!

phantasmagorical!

Ok. 'Journey To The West' was one of the Four Extraordinary Books of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The whole thing is 100 chapters long, but my fascination in particular is with the Monkey King.

Mach said:

Yes indeed. And that's not a word you hear every day.

From what I can gather, it's definitely my kind of book. I got this from an introduction to 'The Art of War' translated by Thomas Cleary:

The central figure of this novel is a magical monkey who founds a monkey civilization and becomes its leader by establishing a territory for the monkeys. Subsequently the monkey king overcomes a "devil confusing the world", and steals the devil's sword.

Returning to his own land with the devil's sword, the monkey king takes up the practice of swordsmanship. He even teaches his monkey subjects to make toy weapons and regalia to play at war.

Unfortunately, though ruler of a nation, the martial monkey king is not yet ruler of himself. In eminently logical backward reasoning, the monkey reflects that if neighboring nations note the monkeys' play, they might assume the monkeys were preparing for war. In that case, they therefore take preemptive action against the monkeys, who would then be faced with real warefare armed only with toy weapons.

Thus, the monkey king thoughtfully initiates the arms race, ordering pre-preemptive stockpiling of real weapons...

Come on. Where are the scholars of the org?

Failing that, the book club members.

Someone must've read this book!