★★★☆☆ The Chinese Coyote/Spider/Loki

The Journey to the West

Wu Cheng'en, Anthony C. Yu (Editor, Translator)

There are four widely-recognized classic Chinese novels. Seriously, do a web search for "classic Chinese novels" and you will find dozens of pages referring to "The Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature". (Wikipedia lists six on its Classic Chinese Novels page" -- these include the usual four, plus two others.) The phrase "Four classic Chinese novels" also appears frequently in commentary on Chinese literature. The four are

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The Water Margin
Journey to the West
Dream of the Red Chamber

Some of these come in multiple versions, even in Chinese, and multiple English translations, often with different titles. (For instance, Dream of the Red Chamber is also known as The Story of the Stone.) So it can get a little confusing.

Journey to the West is the most accessible of these to an American reader (meaning me, of course). Every culture that I know of tells stories of the trickster. Here in the USA we have Coyote (in Native American folklore) and Anansi and Br'er Rabbit (brought from Africa), as well as several European variants. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is instantly recognizable as a Chinese trickster, and many of the stories will feel familiar. Tricksters vary in stature -- Anansi and Coyote are sometimes just runty little animals, but sometimes gods. Puck is somewhere inbetween, one of the fae and a familiar of gods. The Norse trickster Loki is unquestionably a god. Monkey is somewhere in the higher echelons -- he consorts with gods and is called "Great Sage". (This is a nickname Monkey chooses for himself -- humility is not a virtue that Monkey has a lot of use for.)

The novel is attributed to Wu Cheng'en, but it is obvious that he was more compiler than creator -- collecting hundreds of stories of Monkey from folklore. He puts it all in a framework. The Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang (an actual historical figure) travels to India to obtain authentic Buddhist sutras. He is accompanied, served, and protected on his pilgrimage by Monkey, Pig, Ogre, and Horse (a transformed dragon). As they travel westward they run into difficulties that they get out of, mostly thanks to Monkey's clever tricks. Although they all give lip service to Sanzang's serious quest and holiness, no one really takes anything too seriously. Monkey serves Sanzang and purports to revere him, but Sanzang is sometimes petty, and Monkey occasionally mocks him.

Some of the stories are excellent. But the biggest problem with Journey to the West from the point of view of a reader looking for entertainment is that it is too long. By the time you reach the end the stories have become repetitive, and you will be thinking "Wu Cheng'en could have used an editor." Of course, there have been historically any number of editors and translators of this huge work. I have not read any of the abridged versions, so cannot recommend one. But if you want to undertake the Long Journey and read the whole thing, I would encourage you to skim or skip when you feel like it.

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