Last updated: 02-12-23
Here I present PDFs comprising the complete four volume 2012 revised edition of The Journey to the West translated by Anthony C. Yu. This is considered THE most accurate translation of the tale available. I hope those who read and enjoy the digital version will support the official release.
Anthon C. Yu (October 6, 1938 – May 12, 2015) was Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Professor Emeritus of Religion and Literature in the Chicago Divinity School. I shared a long email correspondence with Prof. Yu, during which we became friends. He was always quick to answer my many questions. His translation remains a treasure trove of explanatory notes and sources.
1. Book blurb
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 […] 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 (source).
The cover of volume one (larger version).
2. PDF Files
Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Click to access the-journey-to-the-west-2012-volume-2.pdf
Vol. 3
Click to access the-journey-to-the-west-2012-volume-3.pdf
Vol. 4
Click to access the-journey-to-the-west-2012-volume-4.pdf
Update: 03-01-22
I’ve archived a scan of the original Chinese version of the 1592 edition of the novel.
Archive #31 – The Original 1592 Edition of Journey to the West, Complete with Pictures
Update: 02-12-23
I’ve found a digital copy of the W. J. F. Jenner four-volume box set translation of Journey to the West. I’m archiving it here for those who want to compare it with Yu’s version. Please keep in mind that the page numbers are not the same as the physical copy.
Click to access Wu-Chengen-Journey-to-the-West-4-Volume-Boxed-Set-2003.pdf
The four-volume box set in my collection (larger version).
Disclaimer
These have been posted for educational purposes. No malicious copyright infringement is intended. Please support the official release.
thanks for posting these! any chance you can post epubs as well?
Much appreciated for sharing these.
Volumes 1 and 4 have all the poems cut off on the right margin… sadness… Is there any chance you might post these again without this error?
My copy has the same thing. However, the letters are still there, just not visible. If you copy the poems and paste them into Word or an email, you can see them. I’m not sure why they are cut off like that.
What I’ve heard is that it’s because a pdf leaves certain margins in the document that aren’t always present in the original document, usually for printing convenience. Google tells me you can fix it by setting a custom page size like mentioned here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/text-cuts-off-left-and-right-when-i-print-or-save/52b64dc4-2c99-4e7b-94d8-e61c426b2a62, though I don’t know if that’s exactly the problem you’re having, or if you can do that with an epub. If you have the time, you could test it out. I would, but word isn’t properly converting the pdf to an editable format for me.
I have updated the PDFs.