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Master List of Journey to the West Research Blog Posts

Jim R. McClanahan

Hello! Welcome to the Journey to the West Research blog, a repository for research on the great Chinese classic Xiyou ji (西遊記, 1592 CE). The story follows a Buddhist monk and his fallen gods-turned-monster disciples on a quest to procure salvation-bestowing scriptures from the Buddha in India. The main characters include:

The three main disciples—Sun, Zhu, and Sha—work hard to protect the Tang Monk from all manner of fallen gods or escaped divine mounts-turned-monsters, cultivated animals-turned-spirits, and mischievous ghosts wanting to eat his divine flesh. Along the way, the pilgrims encounter or are aided by Buddho-Daoist deities, immortals, and sages. See this article for a full character list. Also, for those short on time, please consult this wonderful 100-chapter summary of the novel over at the Journey to the West Library blog.

Studying the characters, events, mythology, religion, and philosophy of Journey to the West has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life, but I have entered a new phase of research that focuses on Sun Wukong in a much, much broader sense. I recently started a new project centered around the Greco-Roman hero Heracles–Hercules. My hope is that studying a mythic figure from a different time and place will provide more insight into our favorite primate immortal as a hero of the world and not just China. And since my attention will be focused on that, I likely won’t post new, in-depth research as often as I use to. This doesn’t count upcoming guest posts or the backlog of articles that I have almost finished. Nor does it count new archives of important materials or the occasional update I will make to existing pieces.

In the meantime, I have organized a master list of all 200-plus blog posts, including all of the books, papers, and comics I’ve archived over the years. Each has been placed in categories to make finding a particular subject easier. I must note that some posts will repeat as they belong in more than one category. The resulting list has been pinned to the top of the website to greet new and seasoned readers.

(Note: I’m slowly updating articles with linked tables of contents and notes. This will take some time to finish.)

Table of Contents

Categories

1. Three Newest Posts

2. Top Ten

These are the top ten most popular posts according to my site analytics.

  1. Archive #11 – PDFs of the Journey to the West 2012 Revised Edition
  2. A Study of the Four Celestial Primates from Journey to the West
  3. The Story of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King
  4. Origin of the Six-Eared Macaque and the Character’s Influence on Black Myth: Wukong
  5. The Origin of Sun Wukong’s Golden Headband
  6. What Does Sun Wukong Look Like? A Resource for Artists and Cosplayers
  7. The Origin of Sun Wukong’s Cloud Somersault
  8. Sun Wukong’s Names and Titles
  9. The Worship of Sun Wukong the Monkey King: An Overview
  10. The Tightening Spell of Sun Wukong’s Golden Headband

And here are a few more because I’m proud of them.

3. The Novel

3.1. Precursors

3.2. Standard 1592 Edition

3.3. Sequels

4. The Cosmos

5. Characters

5.1. Tripitaka/Sanzang/Tang Monk

5.2. Sun Wukong/Monkey King/Great Sage

5.2.A. His Golden Headband

5.2.B. His Staff

5.2.C. Great Sage Worship

5.3. Zhu Bajie/Pigsy

5.3.A. His Worship

5.4. Sha Wujing/Sha Monk/Sandy

5.5. White Dragon Horse/Bai Longma

5.6. Patriarch Subodhi/Master Puti

5.7. Buddha

5.8. Laozi

5.9. Others

7. Archives

These are assorted books, papers, and comics.

8. Guest Posts

These are articles written by friends of the blog.

9. Assorted Subjects

10. Story Ideas

11. Reviews

12. Artist and Writer Spotlights

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