I’m proud to present a PDF of the original edition of Journey to the West anonymously published in 1592 by the Shidetang (世德堂, “Hall of Generational Virtue”) publishing house of Jinling (金陵, “Gold Hill,” a.ka. Nanjing). Titled Newly Printed, Illustrated, Deluxe and Large Character, Journey to the West (Xinke chuxiang guanban dazi Xiyou ji, 新刻出像官板大字西遊記), it features 20 scrolls and 100 chapters (minus the current chapter nine). It contains many charming woodblock prints depicting the events described in the story. For example, this print shows the battle between Monkey and Nezha in their three-headed and six-armed forms.

One doctoral thesis shows that this version is based on an earlier edition of the story titled Newly printed, Completely Illustrated, Chronicle of Deliverances in Sanzang of the Tang’s Journey to the West (Xinqie quanxiang Tang Sanzang Xiyou shi ni (e) zhuan, 新鍥全像唐三藏西遊释尼(厄)傳) in ten scrolls (with three to ten chapters each) by Zhu Dingchen (朱鼎臣) of Yangcheng (羊城, i.e. Guangzhou).

The PDF is quite large at 1.5 gigs, so it will take time to download. I’ve provided two options.

Archive link:

From WordPress

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zgxGr60YGfrdW1_qgpZAGp9xj9pw7UWV/view?usp=sharing

Or from Google Drive

Click to access 二十卷一百回.明.吴承恩撰.明万历二十年金陵世德堂刊本.灰度胶片.pdf

Thanks:

I downloaded this PDF from the shuge.org archive.