Note: The additional archived translations have been moved to a new location. See the 08-09-23 update below.
Last updated: 08-09-2023
Here I present PDFs comprising the complete four volume 2012 revised edition of The Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記) translated by Anthony C. Yu (October 6, 1938 – May 12, 2015). 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.
Yu 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).
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
The cover of volume one (larger version).
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: 07-26-23
I have archived the first complete 1835 Japanese translation of JTTW. It includes amazing woodblock prints.
Archive #41 – PDFs of The Illustrated Journey to the West (Ehon Saiyuki, 繪本西遊記, 1835)
Update: 08-09-23
I have archived a list of other foreign language translations of Journey to the West, including complete and abridged editions.
- English (W. J. F. Jenner and Arthur Waley)
- French
- German
- Hungarian
Italian- Romanian
- Russian
- Spanish
- Thai
- Vietnamese
Archive #42 – PDFs of Journey to the West Translations
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.
Thank you sooo much! They are really helpful!
Hello there! I’d be interested to know if you have any information on the Chinese illustrated “comics” from the 60s/70s? I believe they had English translations as well. I grew up with them and now have idea how to track them down.
Note: I wonder if the covers of the Yu editions may be from those comics?
Are you talking about manhua or the smaller lianhuanhua comics? I know there have been many.
The covers from Yu’s edition are illustrations from a Qing-era edition of the novel.
https://journeytothewestresearch.com/2021/02/07/archive-20-qing-period-color-illustrated-complete-edition-of-journey-to-the-west/
Hi! I read the beginning of Chapter 2 in Volume One in which Monkey dances with excitement at least a few times. That leads me to wonder: does he have autism, is it just a monkey thing, or is it something that represents his childlike state of mind before he eventually grows out of it? What are your thoughts?
I think Sun was just excited by what he heard. Remember that his species is known as the “Stone Monkey of Numinous Wisdom” (Lingming shihou, 靈明石猴). The term “numinous wisdom” (lingming, 靈明) refers to religious or spiritual knowledge. This allows him to understand the deep spiritual subjects that Subodhi teaches.