The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 1

By: Anthony C. Yu

Narrated by: Brian Nishii

Listen to the legendary Chinese classic that inspired the hit game Black Myth: Wukong!

Anthony C. Yu’s translation of The Journey to the West, initially published in 1983, introduced English-speaking audiences to the classic Chinese novel in its entirety for the first time. Written in the sixteenth century, The Journey to the West tells the story of the fourteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Xuanzang, one of China’s most famous religious heroes, and his three supernatural disciples, in search of Buddhist scriptures. Throughout his journey, Xuanzang fights demons who wish to eat him, communes with spirits, and traverses a land riddled with a multitude of obstacles, both real and fantastical. An adventure rich with danger and excitement, this seminal work of the Chinese literary canon is by turns allegory, satire, and fantasy.

With over a hundred chapters written in both prose and poetry, The Journey to the West has always been a complicated and difficult text to render in English while preserving the lyricism of its language and the content of its plot. But Yu has successfully taken on the task, and in this new edition, he has made his translations even more accurate and accessible. The explanatory notes are updated and augmented, and Yu has added new material to his introduction, based on his original research as well as on the newest literary criticism and scholarship on Chinese religious traditions. He has also modernized the transliterations included in each volume, using the now-standard Hanyu Pinyin romanization system. Perhaps most important, Yu has made changes to the translation itself in order to make it as precise as possible.

One of the great works of Chinese literature, The Journey to the West is not only invaluable to scholars of Eastern religion and literature, but, in Yu’s elegant rendering, also a delight for anyone.

This audiobook is expertly read by Brian Nishii, with audio engineering by Transient Audio. It was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2013 Anthony C. Yu (P)2025 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

Unique, Informative, and Surprisingly Hilarious

I considered taking one star off story, as my biggest criticism is that there are parts of the story, especially before the Journey itself has actually started, that a modern reader would find too confusing, blunt, or repetitive. However, with the mindset that this is a classic text from over 500 years ago, that can be accepted and even offer a mythical quality that one finds reading religious scriptures or ancient epics.

Imagine if a priest had to be protected by the Three Stooges with godlike powers. The story of Sun Wukong’s rise and fall and the Journey itself, especially once new characters are introduced, struck me as being both genuine and hilarious, with their flaws causing most of the events that unfold. That’s so crucial to a story like this, where Sun can feel overpowered, as now the problem is that he is both overpowered, cocky, selfish, and rambunctious. It’s easy to relate to Tang Zang as a man who just wants to fulfill his holy mission, but keeps getting into awful situations because of the actions of the only people who can actually protect him. While the lessons taught are mostly of their time and well-known by now, the humor itself is both unique and refreshing to this day.

The reader does a wonderful job of giving the different characters unique voices that amplify their personalities. He is very well spoken, and reminds me that I need to become more familiar with Chinese names and pronunciations.

Overall, excellent, and I’m even more excited for the rest now that we’ve gotten to the adventure proper.

Been waiting for this for years, can't wait for the other volumes to be released

I've been waiting for an English unabridged journey to the west for years. I'm glad it is this edition. Even better that it is one of my favorite audio book narrators (I love this Narrator's version of Musashi). I hope remaining volumes are recorded and released fairly soon.

A real accomplishment

It’s a remarkable feat that a work this long and complicated was rendered so well as an audiobook. Thanks to all involved.

The Journey? To the West. That Monkey? Mischievous. Tripitaka? A coward. Hotel? You already know…

16th century Chinese dudes were cooking with this one. GOATED translation by Anthony C. Yu. Narration is gas as well. Bro does voices for all the characters even the women. Might be the greatest story of all time. I’ll have to finish the rest of the volumes to find out.