The Journey to the West, Volume 3

Book Description

The Journey to the West, volume 3, comprises the third twenty-five chapters of Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsüan-tsang (596-664), one of China's most illustrious religious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disciples in quest of Buddhist scriptures. For nearly a thousand years, his exploits were celebrated and embellished in various accounts, culminating in the hundred-chapter Journey to the West, which combines religious allegory with romance, fantasy, humor, and satire.

Customer Reviews:

The journey to the west, volume3.......2002-01-18

This is a great story not just this volume, I really recommend these books to be read by anyone it has everything that a great -great story need.
Prepare yourself for a great journey...read the story.

Journey to the west volume 3.......2000-05-28

This has got to be one of the best stories ever made. and this volume is my personal favorite. It keeps you thinking from start to end. If you are someone who enjoys mythology then this is a great book. It's also a must have for the die hard Dragon Ball fans.

Average customer rating:

Great Book!
The Source of a Childhood Memory Found.
So much fun to read
Achieve a state of childlike amusement on this humorous adventure...
this book reads like water. . . . .

Journey to the West (3 Volume Set)
Cheng'en Wu
Manufacturer: Foreign Languages Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Chinese | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Fairy Tales | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 7119006533

Book Description

Journey to the West is a classic Chinese mythological novel. It was written during the Ming Dynasty based on traditional folktales. Consisting of 100 chapters, this fantasy relates the adventures of a Tang Dynasty (618-907) priest Sanzang and his three disciples, Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand, as they travel west in search of Buddhist Sutra. The first seven chapters recount the birth of the Monkey King and his rebellion against Heaven. Then in chapters eight to twelve, we learn how Sanzang was born and why he is searching for the scriptures, as well as his preparations for the journey. The rest of the story describes how they vanquish demons and monsters, tramp over the Fiery Mountain, cross the Milky Way, and after overcoming many dangers, finally arrive at their destination - the Thunder Monastery in the Western Heaven - and find the Sutra.

Attached are a number of illustrations drawn during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Customer Reviews:

Great Book!.......2007-05-16

This is a great Chinese classic! I think that the translation is not too bad (given its history), and it would be fun to read aloud. I like how the books are divided, and the illustrations from the Qing dynasty are also fascinating. As for the content, I think it is probably widely known among people who study Chinese culture. The most lovable character is obviously Monkey, who will stop at nothing to protect his feeble Buddhist master the Tang priest Sanzang. Zhu the pig is also interesting as an incessantly loathsome character who specializes in overeating and over-indulging in just about everything. The only character I think could have been more developed was Friar Sand.. :(. The most predictable one was Quan Yin who always ends up saving Monkey for the first two books. Some great moments were: the manfruit, the false Western Heaven, and of course Monkey's bad behavior in the first 20 chapters of the book. Its a great read for any age.

The Source of a Childhood Memory Found........2007-05-07

When I was younger, I saw first on TV and then later at a Kiddies Mattinee a movie "Alakazam, the Great". If fascinated me, and as I studied more and more mythology, I realized that it must have come from a mythic source, and I tried to find that source for over 30 years. Last Spring I found out it was part of this book by watching a made for TV movies, called "The Monkey King". Here was the story I had been searching to find in this movie named and that is when I began to look for this book.
True this book has pages that are so thin that they are like tissue, but they have beautiful illustrations and in these illustrations are the characters of Alakazam, though he is only known as Monkey here in this Chinese Buddhist tale of pilgamage, and the adventures along the way.
I am used to Western Mythology, Classical, Norse, and Celtic so this was a journey that had new meaning for me. And like the characters of this journey, it is a journey into a new and as yet source of spirituality that has much influence in the world.

So much fun to read.......2007-03-17

While the story is long and can get repetitive at times, it is a classic. If you wish to undersatnd the culture of China in any way, you must be familiar with this story. Go Monkey!

Achieve a state of childlike amusement on this humorous adventure..........2006-11-25

5 stars for the translation. 4 stars for the physical book quality.

Since other people have expounded on the plot, here is a review based on the physical book. The actual paperback novels are approximately 7" x 4.25," so easy to hold in your hand and tuck into a briefcase. The pages are a bit thin, not "Bible" thin, but they are a bit thinner than most paperback books. One of my volumes didn't hold up well to sitting in a steam-filled bathroom.

There are occasional pictures and sparse endnotes, but they do not detract from the story at all. The pictures were drawn during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and are done in the old chinese style, not some new-fangled doodles.

Some of the translation is a bit iffy, and sentences do not necessarily always make sense, but you'll understand it contextually. Some of the wording is extremely quaint, such as Pig complaining that the demons failed to drink "acuppa" with them. There is much more painfully British vernacular, but it just adds to the goofy charm of this book. Don't bother wringing your hands over the never-ending list of characters. Skim over them and read on. After all, there are an awful lot of demons and gods to meet on the journey, and quite a few of them are fated to die via Monkey's cudgel, making their characters irrelevant in the long-run. One thing I noticed is that there is an awful lot of scatological farce for a book written in the Ming dynasty (don't worry, it's still hilarious).

I've read a couple translations of Monkey King, and while they'll all stay in my personal library, this is the one I anticipate picking up again and again. I loved this book as a child and ten years later, I still do. A must-read for fans of mythology or Chinese literature in general.

this book reads like water. . . . ........2006-10-02

although a great book, somewhat marred by a less than perfect translation (although let's give credit where credit is due, i would not have liked to edit this book) - this book reads somewhat like water. about two thousand pages of the narrative deals with the journey of Priest, Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand as they travel westward in search of the scriptures of the "Greater Vehicle" - the other three hundred pages deals with the birth of the Monkey King and his rebellion in heaven at the start of the book, and the end where they finally reach the Thunder Monastary on Vulture Peak in the Western Heaven a.k.a. Tibet.

pretty much the rest of the book deals with the trials and tribulations that these four monks (only three of which are fully developed characters: poor Friar Sand is left as the fifth wheel most of the time) go through in trying to 'fetch' these scriptures for the enlightenment of all humanity. the priest is a real ding-dong, he's constantly getting himself into all sorts of trouble, and he never heeds the Monkey King's advice about anything, so the Priest is always falling into the jaws of some new monster on virtually every chapter. the Pig is no better, as he would sooner run into trouble or create trouble for everyone else for the sake of either his pride or his stomach. the Monkey King is the real hero of this book, as he is constantly rescuing everyone from some sort of demon or tempting succubus around practically every corner. and what of Friar Sand? . . . well, he is just kind of there to guide the Priest's horse.

this book is definitely worth a read though, i thoroughly enjoyed it, despite its short comings. the incessant poetry gets kind of annoying though, most of it is relevant to the "plot" so you can't really skip too much of it. i give it four stars.

Journey to the West (Xiyou Ji) (Volume 3)

Average customer rating:

Journey to the West (Xiyou Ji) (Volume 3)

Manufacturer: Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe, Beijing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

All Chinese Books | Chinese | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: B000EX413A

Product Description

Traditional characters. Vol 3 of 3 volume set.

Average customer rating:

Journey to the West Volume 3
Wu Cheng'en
Manufacturer: Beijing Foreign Languages Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000O0AYCK

THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST Volumes 1,2,3 and 4 (set)

Average customer rating:

THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST Volumes 1,2,3 and 4 (set)
Anthony C. Yu
Manufacturer: University of Chicago
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JVCH74

Average customer rating:

Journey to the West. 3 Volumes.

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IBINPK

Book Description

An All-New Xanth AdventureFirst Paperback Edition!A fickle flux in the fabric of space has allowed a horrendous hurricane to blast into Xanth, stirring up mischief and madness wherever she goes. Trapped in a preposterous form by a cosmic wager, the Demon X(A/N)th must join forces with a vexatious vixen named Chlorine to save Xanth from this terrifying and tempestuous threat.Their companions on this haphazard quest are a hapless human family - Jim and Karen Baldwin and their two teenaged sons, David and Sean - gusted into Xanth from the mundane world beyond. Together they encounters a host of turbulent misadventures as they struggle to keep Xanth from being blown off the map forever.A brisk and breezy adventure in the grand Xanth tradition, Yon Ill Wind is sure to bring gales of laughter and excitement to Piers Anthony's legion of loyal readers.

Customer Reviews:

Love em all!.......2006-01-06

I love these books I love piers anthony I love Xanth I read 1-22 didn't have the rest and started the series again. Yon Ill Wind is by far one of my favorites I have read it 3 times now! All these people are saying they are tired of the puns tired of the same ole same ole but come on who can get tired of the puns in all their glory and lamesness they are still fun and they still crack a smile on this face I don't think I will ever stop reading or loving xanth!

Loved it!.......2004-10-22

I have read all of the books in the Xanth series leading up to this book. I then waited for what seemed an eternity for this book to come out in paperback. When I finally bought it I just couldn't get interested - I'm not sure why, but I'm sure it had something to do with my new children keeping me busy. :^)

Anyway now that my kids are a little older and I have more time to read again, I dug this book out to read. I loved every bit of it and couldn't put it down. I read it in two days! The ending was perfect and I immediately searched the internet to see what book came next. I was rather surprised to see the long list of books that had been published since I bought this one! I'm dissapointed though, because the next book 'Faun and Games' doesn't seem to pick up on the Nimby/Chlorine storyline, but is something compelety different. I can't wait to find a copy to read - I just hope it says whats happens to them next!

My only complaint is the puns and sexual reference. The puns really got annoying and old. I guess I liked them though when I started the series in high school. The sexual references seemed uneccesary and I felt like they were being forced on me. I get it - panties freak men out in Xanth!

Despite those two things, I really enjoyed the book and I can't wait to get caught up (again!) on the series.

Great book, dissapointing ending.......2003-04-03

Out of all the Xanth Novels that have come out, this is undoubtebly one of the most fascinating in recent memory. The Demon X(A/N)th goes to Xanth as a dragon with a donkeys head to try and win a bet with all the other demons. There, he meets Chlorine, a ugly girl with a bad temper. And with that, the two of them head off to adventure. Along the way, they will meet a Mundane familly, fight a hurricane, and help save Xanth.

Its great fun to see the demon X(A/N)th as a central charachter this time around and he has a great personality that eventually becomes really likable. The Mundaine familly are a great read, I really liked how they adjusted to being in Xanth. All the other charachters are likable, although they never really got charachterized. (The pets are likeable though)

As usual, there are many puns in Yon Ill wind and I enjoyed them all, although others may not. Another thing I really liked was the "1 squeak yes, 2 squeak no, 3 squeak off track" thing (It will make sense in the book)

In summary, there is really nothing wrong with the book. It has a good plot, likeable charachters and lots of interesting situations. But the only bad thing about it is it's adrupt ending. I'll try to avoid giving anything away, but certian charachters just vanish in a sentance, where we could say goodbye to them, when they could have been seen doing some more things. The ending to the book is so adrubt, so quick and short, you wonder if Mr. Anthony lost the last few pages on his way to delivering the final manuscript to the publisher, and had to quickly write up a new ending in a minute or so before his deadline. And that ending is quite sad, and depressing. In fact, I'll go so far as to say its the most dissapointing ending I've ever encountered in a book. Its a shame that the ending is dissapointing, but the rest of the book is great.

The good:
Great book
Great charachters
Lots o' puns

The not so good:

Horrible ending
Some charachters are not explored enough

Summary: A great book, but be sure to pick up the next book (Faun and Games) because you will want to read it upon finishing this book.

Not as good as the earlier ones.......2002-04-25

I am a big Xanth fan, but I hadn't gotten any new episodes for over 10 years, because of becoming a very busy working mother. My brother-in-law got me this one after I had recently re-read all my old ones. The kids having finally gotten interested in Xanth got me going on my re-reading project.

I don't think this one measures up. It doesn't flow like the others and you don't get into the story. Maybe it's because there are too many main characters, so that none of them can be developed very well. They all run off in different directions and it's hard to keep track of what is going on or what the characters are like.

Maybe it's because, while the earlier stories were essentially cheery, this one has an underlying gloominess throughout.

When certain ones of the characters are announced to be in love, it seems like sort of an afterthought. You just don't get inside anyone's head enough to really empathize with them, so there's not enough buildup that would justify the characters' feelings.

The puns don't seem to be as good as they used to be either.

I don't think I'm just becoming jaded, because I was reading the earlier ones again to my kids at the same time I was reading this one and the earlier ones just seem better.

Yon Ill wind.......2002-04-12

This book was an absolute masterpeice. It had a great plot, good characters, and just an all around good storyline. I have read every Xanth novel twice, and I think this is one of his better ones. The only drawback I think that this novel had was its seemingly unconcluded ending. I read the last sentence of the novel and I feel that the book was uncompleted. I have never known Peirs Anthony to end any of his novels that way. If it would have ended better I would have given it a 5.

Book Description

What would happen to our culture if men ceased to exist? Mary E. Bradley Lane explores this question in Mizora, the first known feminist utopian novel written by a woman.

Vera Zarovitch is a Russian noblewoman—heroic, outspoken, and determined. A political exile in Siberia, she escapes and flees north, eventually finding herself, adrift and exhausted, on a strange sea at the North Pole. Crossing a barrier of mist and brilliant light, Zarovitch is swept into the enchanted, inner world of Mizora. A haven of music, peace, universal education, and beneficial, advanced technology, Mizora is a world of women.

Mizora appeared anonymously in the Cincinnati Commercial in 1880 and 1881. Mary E. Bradley Lane concealed from her husband her role in writing the controversial story.

Customer Reviews:

Feminist Utopia.......2007-08-04

As with so many Utopian stories, this combines high ideals with wonderful if improbable consequences of following those ideals. And, in some ways, this story contains remarkable prescience.

It foretells a world without men and wholly better for that omission, a fantasy that I'm sure many women have held at least briefly. But, where at least one other manless Utopia (Herland) sustained itself with miraculous parthenogenesis, Lane's women reproduce by means of Science. OK, she's a bit vague on the details, but today's bioscience gives the idea a believable sound. Lane also counts on Science to sustain youthful good health far into what we consider old age, and to keep the women's cities clean and healthful. Electric vehicles replace draft animals in this world, eliminating the unsightly and unsanitary waste that inevitably follow them. Our own pollution problems are just as bad even if different in kind, and we're only now catching up to her foresight. And, in using mechanism to replace human drudgery, Lane even proposes the robot floor-cleaner - easily recognized as today's Roomba and floor-washing Scooba. Because Lane looked to technology to solve social problems, her society equips itself well with technologists. This dreamworld features universal education; the society's highest esteem and reward go to its most skilled educators.

Credibility falters at about this point, as Lane describes how this society reshapes the people within it. They are, of course, innately moral. The only prison remains as a monument to the bad old days, unused for at least a century. (It's last inhabitant was held for the crime of striking her child!) Outward beauty necessarily follows inner, so these citizens uniformly embody beauty, the blonde and blue-eyed kind, grace, musical sense, and athleticism unconstrained by the crippling corsetry of Lane's day. As these people vanquished their darker urges, darkness of skin and hair vanished in consequence - a merger of morality and racism that today's reader finds bizarre and repugnant.

Lane's lyrical praise for Mizora's beautiful populace gets to be a bit much at times, but the story fascinates even so. And, despite its sentimentality, it leaves the reader wondering - could these ideas truly change our world for the better?

-- wiredweird

All-Female, All-Blonde Utopia.......2005-09-18

It's only fair that both of the 20th century's most murderous ideologies should get a 19th-century all-female Utopian novel, so just as communism had "Herland" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, someone wrote Mizora, hauntingly remniscent of Nazism. As in Herland, there is no interest in sex or romance, but the women wear beautiful and elaborate clothes. Instead of Herland's agrarian subsistence, Mizora is technologically highly advanced; they synthesize most of their food from minerals, have cured most diseases, have flying machines, and their parthenogenesis takes place in a laboratory. Their planned economy, unlike every planned economy in real life, has created great prosperity for all. Everybody is blonde and blue-eyed. The Nazis did not invent their "master race" theory all by themselves; in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, not only did many people take the pseudoscience of eugenics seriously, but there was a widely held theory that blue-eyed blonds were the highest type of human. The theory is discussed in depth in Joanna Pitman's fascinating book On Blondes.

The novel is an intriguing glimpse into the utopian theories of the 19th century, but highly disturbing to read now that we have seen the results of those theories in the 20th.

Average customer rating:

Magisterial

The Triumph of the Idea of Ideas

Very good, just like the other parts of the series

A History of Religious Ideas: From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms (History of Religious Ideas) Vol.3
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Comparative Religion | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Theology | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
History of Ideas | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity (History of Religious Ideas)

The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion

Patterns in Comparative Religion

Images and Symbols

Myth and Reality (Religious Traditions of the World)

ASIN: 0226204057

Book Description

This volume completes the immensely learned three-volume A History of Religious Ideas. Eliade examines the movement of Jewish thought out of ancient Eurasia, the Christian transformation of the Mediterranean area and Europe, and the rise and diffusion of Islam from approximately the sixth through the seventeenth centuries. Eliade's vast knowledge of past and present scholarship provides a synthesis that is unparalleled. In addition to reviewing recent interpretations of the individual traditions, he explores the interactions of the three religions and shows their continuing mutual influence to be subtle but unmistakable.

As in his previous work, Eliade pays particular attention to heresies, folk beliefs, and cults of secret wisdom, such as alchemy and sorcery, and continues the discussion, begun in earlier volumes, of pre-Christian shamanistic practices in northern Europe and the syncretistic tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. These subcultures, he maintains, are as important as the better-known orthodoxies to a full understanding of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Customer Reviews:

Magisterial.......2006-02-16

This three volume series is an excellent overview of human thinking and aspiration. The accomplishment is magnificent, a life work.

Editing: Four Stars. Translations are always difficult.

Copy Editing: Five Stars. Very clean.

The Triumph of the Idea of Ideas.......2004-01-03

The final volume of the trilogy is the smallest, the most succinct and the most approachable of the three. After a brief review of the religions of Eurasia (from Turkey to Finland) we plunge in to the formative years of Christianity when the first step is taken toward ensuring an orthodoxy that would later be enforced with torture. Origen and Augusting, the two greatest writers of the church, are discussed in this context.

Next is the story of Islam - or rather Muhammed - and how he became a warrior-ruler, leading his tribe to ever larger victories over Christendom. The lonely years of Judaism (from the fall of the Roman Empire to late in the Middle Ages) is given a empathetic hearing before moving onto the church in the Middle Ages, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Finally, a last look at Buddhism, the Tibetan way. ALways informative and entertaining, provocative with his conclusions.

Very good, just like the other parts of the series.......2000-08-15

Mircea Eliade could be reasonably considered as one of the Re-founding Fathers of modern study of religion. His History of Religious Ideas is thus one of the corner stones of modern research in this field. This particular part of his history is as well written as the others. It deals very well with most of the improtant currents in mediaeval Christianity, including the spread of Christianity to Slav tribes, the Cluny rerform, the religious life associated with the rise of mendicant orders, Meister Eckhart, devotio moderna but he does not forget about the rise of neopaganism in Renaissance Italy, about the role of alchemy in religious feeling of the sixteenth century, he even ventures to say that modern physics was created almost unintentionally. This book is truly amazing.

There are also some down sides to the book. One, it cannot be taken as the "state-of-the-art" of religous study. Eliade has been surpassed by new research in the field. It is therefore better to use the book as a general background. Second, it has been shown that Eliade unfortunately developed the habit of sometimes stretching the truth to fit his analysis. He did not use this questionable method to such an extent as to render his whole analysis worthless but it does cast a shadow on his academic honesty.

BTW, I do not feel qualified to comment on his treatment of religious phenomena outside the Judeo-Christian cultural sphere.

Average customer rating:
A History of Religious Ideas Vol. 3 : From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms
Mircea; Hiltebeiten, Alf (translator); Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane (translator) Eliade
Manufacturer: University of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KRVP8E

Average customer rating:
A HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS: VOLUME 3 FROM MUHAMMAD TO THE AGE OF REFORMS
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: University of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPDQG6

Average customer rating:
A History of Religious Ideas: Volume 3, From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: Chicago
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LZEX2U

Average customer rating:
A History of Religious Ideas: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries (1); From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity (2); From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms (3): Three Volumes

Manufacturer: Univ of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSRUBS

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books