The Journey to the West by Anthony C. Yu PDF Free Download
1 / 3/3
100%
The Journey to the West. by Anthony C. Yu
Review by: John C. Y. Wang
The Journal of Asian Studies,
Vol. 37, No. 4 (Aug., 1978), pp. 735-736
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2054377 .
Accessed: 18/06/2014 02:51
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Association for Asian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of Asian Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 185.2.32.49 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:51:40 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
BOOK REVIEWS 735
tinctive processes seem
to set the context
within
which these
studies
have been done. First,
in
different
ways, they
all deal with the
expansion
of
the
sphere
of
politics.
Most of the societies
covered
in these papers are post-colonial
so-
cieties
undergoing rapid politization.
Politics
in
these societies
has not only become more
im-
portant
in
life,
it
touches
more areas of function-
ing and has taken over some of the functions
previously performed by nonpolitical institu-
tions.
Second, many
of the
papers
deal
with vari-
ous aspects
of
the
process
of
democratization,
such as the
erosion
or
persistence
of traditional
ascriptive systems
in politics, the institution-
alization of competition
and
its relationship
with
parochial politics,
the
opening up
of new chan-
nels of social mobility, and the altered role of
ideologies and political platforms.
Both these processes-expansion of the
sphere
of
politics
and democratization-can be
considered
typical
of
post-colonial
societies fac-
ing up to the contemporary world, but perhaps
their complexity can be best appreciated
in a
complex heterogenous society trying
to give
substance to its new nationhood. Under-
standably, eight
of the
fifteen
papers
are con-
cerned
with
India. After
all,
India
not
only
con-
stitutes more than half
of the
Commonwealth;
it
also provides
a kaleidoscopic
view of middle-
level
leaders, as they mediate between their so-
ciety
and the
demands of
politics.
The topics
of
the
papers
on India
range
from the
aristocratic
political
functionaries of
British
India,
to Gan-
dhi's more
modest but effective
followers,
to the
cold-eyed professional politicians
of
post-Inde-
pendence
India.
There
are five
arresting essays
on
the predica-
ment of the African politician, as he is forced to
reconcile the cultural
imperatives of his society
with
the "modern" world
represented by
a dis-
junctive authority system in Uganda, Ghana,
and
Nigeria.
An essay each
on Bangladesh
and
Ceylon deal,
in
different
ways,
with
the issue of
what in
the absence of a respectable expression
one must call political
"oddities"-individuals
who either make it
or do not because of
atypical
structural or
personal
reasons.
On the
whole,
this is
a low-key
but
carefully
planned book,
with a good introduction, sane
if
not
scintillating papers,
and
a clear understand-
ing
of
the complexity of the issue involved.
ASHIS NANDY
Centrefor
the
Study of Developing
Societies,
Delhi
The Journey to the West. Volume
I. TRANS-
LATED AND EDITED BY ANTHONY C. YU.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1977. Xiii, 530 pp. Notes. $25.00
To anyone interested in Chinese literature,
the steady flow
in
recent
years of excellent com-
plete English translations of
recognized Chinese
literary masterpieces
must be deeply heart-
ening.
In
the field of the
traditional novel, espe-
cially,
there
have been significant strides. No
sooner had David Hawkes's
first
two volumes of
a projected five-volume
complete translation of
the Hung-lou meng (The Story of the Stone) ap-
peared,
than this first
volume of Professor Yu's
projected four-volume
complete translation of
the Hsi-yu
chi
came into
being.
First published in 1592 and generally ranked
with
the
San-kuo
yen-i
(Romance of the Three
Kingdoms), the Shui-hu
chuan (Water Margin),
and the Chin P'ing Mei as
one of the four great-
est works of
Ming
literature,
The
Journey
to the
West
has
been one of the
most beloved of
all the
traditional Chinese novels. Readers who for
decades have enjoyed the
work through Arthur
Waley's delightful abridged I943 translation,
known
simply as Monkey,
can now begin to en-
joy the
full
richness of the
work. Although cast
in the form of a fantastic
religious journey to
India, the work actually
comprises a series of ad-
venturous tales most of
which had been known
independently prior to their
inclusion and as-
similation
into one
single
volume. The complete
translation of
this work
into English, therefore,
will
not
only
benefit
students of literature, but
students of
religion
and
folklore as well.
Aside from the
common
difficulties encoun-
tered
in
any translation,
three are
peculiar
to the
book under consideration:
there is a vast
num-
ber of Buddhist and Taoist terms, found
throughout
the
text,
that
only experts
in
the
two
religions
can
hope to
decipher;
an
equally large
number of
verses,
of almost
all known
forms,
litter the entire
narrative;
and an almost irre-
pressible comic
and satiric
tone
permeates
the
whole work. The first
problem
could be over-
come by diligent
consultation
of dictionaries,
relevant
materials,
and authorities
in the
field;
but the other
two would
make the
translation
unbearably sluggish
and leaden in any less
skilled
hand.
Anthony
Yu must
therefore
be congratulated
for the tremendous
job he has done
in
produc-
ing
a translation
at
once lively
and
highly
read-
This content downloaded from 185.2.32.49 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:51:40 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
736 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES
able. What
is especially amazing
is that he is
able
to do so while
remaining utterly
faithful to the
original. By
carefully checking
several translated
sections against
the
original,
I have come upon
only
one place where
I would have mild
dis-
agreement
with
him.
For
"both long and deep,"
in the fifth line
in the opening
poem of Chapter
7 (p. i66), I would rather render
it as "even
deeper,"
taking the character
mi in the
original
as
an
adverb
instead of an adjective
as
Yu appar-
ently
has done.
In addition
to the translation,
Yu also pro-
vides explanatory
notes whenever called for,
and a lengthy
and illuminating Introduction
in
which he
takes up such things
as the story's
his-
torical
and literary antecedents
and questions
of
the text and
authorship. He also discusses
there
the
functions
of verse, and
the book's religious
themes and
allegory. Partly
to combat the
mod-
ern
tendency
to treat the work primarily
as a
comico-satirical
book of fantastic
adventures,
Yu goes back
to the views
of some of the
tradi-
tional commentators
in emphasizing
the reli-
gious and allegorical significance
of the
whole
journey.
While there
are
obvious religious
mo-
tifs
and
allegorical
elements
in
the work, and
in
any reinterpretation
of the
book the views
held
by traditional
Chinese critics themselves
must
not be overlooked,
personally
I still find
it
hard
to take the book as a whole
as
a thoroughgoing
religious
allegory of self-cultivation.
A major
block
to such
a
reading
is
the
all-per-
vading
comic
and satiric
tone mentioned
above.
A delightfully
mischievous
and irreverent
air
permeates
the whole book.
Nothing
is taken too
seriously.
Even Buddha, perhaps
the most
re-
vered
of
a
whole
host of deities
in
the
book,
has
to suffer
the insolence
of the hero Monkey's
urine on his
fingers.
The eclectic
nature
of the
book's material
(a collection
of diverse
stories)
undoubtedly
contributes
to this
strange
admix-
ture
of
the sacred
and
the
profane.
On the other
hand, however,
this
may
also
be regarded
as an
indication
of
the
subtlety
and
complexity
of the
work
itself.
Like
any complex
literary
work,
The
Journey
to the
West
contains
intricate
layers
of
meanings
that are not
likely
to be divulged
by
any
one single
scheme
of
interpretation.
When
the entire
translation
is done, readers
will be
able
to
formulate
for themselves
opinions
about
the
story's
significance.
Finally,
a question
for
the
publisher:
When
will a
cheaper
paperback
edition
of the
novel be
made available? It seems a shame
that the read-
ership of such a popular and
beloved classic of
Chinese fiction, so beautifully
translated, should
be limited to those who can afford the
price of
this expensive, albeit handsomely
printed, hard-
bound edition.
JOHN C. Y. WANG
Stanford University
The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady:
Interpretations
of Chinese Poetry. BY
HANS H. FRANKEL. New Haven: Yale
University Press,
I976. 276 pp. Appen-
dix,
Notes,
Bibliography,
Index,
and
Glos-
sary. $12.50
In his
essay "What
is a Classic?"
Sainte-Beuve
proposes
a definition
that begins:
"A true clas-
sic,
as I should
like
to
hear
it
defined, is
an
au-
thor who
has enriched
the human
mind, who has
really augmented
its treasures,
who has made
it
take one more step
forward." Although
he was
referring
to certain universally
admired authors
of
imaginative
literature,
Sainte-Beuve's
defini-
tion of a classic might
serve as an appropriate
description
of Hans Frankel's The Flowering
Plum and
the
Palace Lady: Interpretations
of Chi-
nese Poetry.
This splendid
volume-the culmina-
tion and synthesis of
a long and distinguished
series
of monographs,
essays,
and reviews
by
Frankel-is an outstanding
contribution
to the
study
of
traditional Chinese
poetry
and
poetics.
Its importance
to the
field of comparative
litera-
ture
will
also be apparent
to students
of other
literatures
who
seek to understand,
in
a precise
and comprehensive
way, the Chinese poetic
tradition.
In his
Preface,
Frankel states
that his book is
not intended
as "a general
introduction
to Chi-
nese
poetry."
It is,
rather,
a superbly
informed
collection of reading
notes on poems that,
in
Frankel's words,
are "personal
favorites
that
seem to have yielded
to my
efforts to make
them
intelligible
and enjoyable
in translation"
(p. ix).
In its
genial pacing,
catholicity
of
inter-
ests,
and
individuality
of
tone,
the book is
remi-
niscent
of the shih-huaa
(comments
on poetry)
and
pi-chib
(informal
notes)
traditions,
on the
one
hand,
while
it
retains
the
systematic
rigor
of
contemporary
applied
criticism,
on the other.
If
Frankel
is less judgmental
and more inclined to-
ward
elaboration
in
his
criticism
than traditional
This content downloaded from 185.2.32.49 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:51:40 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
