There is nothing quite like Monkey in Western literature. Imagine a com-bination of picaresque novel, fairy tale, fabliau, Mickey Mouse, Davy Crockett, and Pilgrim's Progress; and then imagine if you can all these elements welded into an artistic whole so that no matter how fantastic the adventure or how enigmatic the allegory, the characterization and mean-ing remain always human and realizable.

Probably the most popular book in the history of the Far East, this classic combination of picaresque novel and folk epic mixes satire, allegory, and history into a rollicking tale. It is the story of the roguish Monkey and his encounters with major and minor spirits, gods, demigods, demons, ogres,monsters, and fairies. This translation, by the distinguished scholar Arthur Waley, is the first accurate English version; it makes available to the Western reader a faithful reproduction of the spirit and meaning of the original.

Introduction, by Hu Shih

Preface

CHAPTERS

I-VII The Monkey's Story

VIII Kuan-Yin's Mission

IX Family Story of Hsiian Tsang

X The Emperor Summoned to the Under

   World

XI What He Experienced There

XII The General Mass for the Dead

XIII The Pilgrim Starts His Journey

XIV The Taming of the Monkey

XV The Dragon Horse

XVI-XVII Pigsy Is Taken On

XVIII Sandy Follows

XIX-XXI The Lion Demon in the Kingdom of

        Crow-cock

XXII-XXIV The Cart-Slow Kingdom

XXV-XXVII The River That Leads to Heaven and

         The Great King of Miracles

XXVIII The Goal Achieved

XXIX-XXX The Eighty-first Calamity