Upon the initial release, I was entranced by the cover art for the 2012 revised edition of Anthony C. Yu’s famed Journey to the West translation. For example, the cover for volume one (fig. 1) featured the pilgrims crossing the Flowing-Sands River via a boat made from Sha Wujing‘s skull necklace and a heaven-sent gourd. I loved the individuality and color scheme of each figure. They look almost like characters from a comic book. Though the art style was old, I assumed the bright, vibrant colors signaled the illustration was a modern reproduction. This was not the case. I later learned that the art was made by an anonymous painter of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The paintings from this series were later gathered into an abridged ten-volume set titled Qing-Period Color-Illustrated Complete Edition of Journey to the West (Qing caihui quanben Xiyouji, 清彩繪全本西遊記, 2008). Here I present lower res PDFs of this work, complete with the gorgeous artwork. Each page is formatted with simplified Chinese dialogue on the left side and art on the right (fig. 2).

Fig. 1 – The cover of volume one (larger version). Fig. 2 – An example of the page format (larger version). It portrays the pilgrims finally coming before the Buddha in India. The formerly subjugated “Peng of 10,000 Cloudy Miles” (i.e. Garuda) can be seen hovering above the Enlightened One’s throne.

Book links

• Volume 1 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb001.pdf
• Volume 2 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb002.pdf
• Volume 3 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb003.pdf
• Volume 4 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb004.pdf
• Volume 5 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb005.pdf
• Volume 6 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb006.pdf
• Volume 7 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb007.pdf
• Volume 8 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb008.pdf
• Volume 9 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb009.pdf
• Volume 10 – https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/e6b885e5bda9e7bb98e585a8e69cace8a5bfe6b8b8e8aeb010.pdf

Disclaimer

These have been posted for educational purposes. No malicious copyright infringement is intended. Please support the official release.

Citation

Ming, Q. (Ed.). (2008). Qing caihui quanben Xiyouji [Qing-Period Color-Illustrated Complete Edition of Journey to the West]. Beijing: Zhongguo shudian.