Reddit reviews Monkey: Folk Novel of China

On the top half of your comment: Word.

On the second par: I had read parts of the tao te ching before on the internet, but I read it for class last semester in what seemed like a pretty good translation. I don't remember the translator's name, but It had a lot of good explanations on translation issues, showing the chinese characters for reference.

In a similar vein, I'm now reading (for class) Monkey, which is really cool and tao but in a jokey way.
Monkey was the inspiration for Dragon Ball, so if you've never seen that you might enjoy the first couple episodes (after which it loses touch and turns into only fighting).

There are two I'd recommend: Three Kingdoms and Monkey.

Three Kingdoms is obviously what you and I slightly discussed. It's a period in China after the fall of the Han Dynasty where three kingdoms fought for unified control. The Han Dynasty was so significant Chinese people still refer to themselves ethnically as Han, among other groups like Hakka, Uighur, etc. And the Japanese term kanji comes from the Chinese han ji = "Characters of the Han". Anyway, the book I referenced above is a novel written about the three kingdoms. If you've seen the movie Red Cliff, that was about a decisive battle during this period.

Monkey is my favorite Chinese novel. It's also known as Journey to the West. Historically there was a Chinese monk named Tripitaka who traveled to India to fetch scriptures for his people. He made it back and succeeded his journey. Now this book, however, was written about 100+ years since this monk and the author threw in some really esoteric and crazy shit. Using the monk's journey as a backbone for his story, the author actually writes about an extremely intelligent monkey who learns the ways of the gods, wages war against the gods, and somehow found himself becoming Tripitaka's bodyguard on his journey to India. There are two other characters that follow on the journey, but it's mostly focused on Monkey. It's amazing how much more human Monkey seems than the gods/people he meets.

Even though Monkey was a fictional character, some Chinese people actually worship him now. Strange, I know.

I'll be honest, Three Kingdoms is a bit more dry. It jumps back and forth and goes on and on about certain characters and events. If you've read the Iliad, it's along those lines but not as bad. Well, I read the unabridged English translation of the Iliad which was a challenge.

Monkey is an easier read and it still inhibits some lengthy scenes but it's more comical and fun. All the Chinese gods are involved in this book. From Buddha to the Bodhisattva, they're in here.

Fun fact: The Bodhisattva was originally a male in Indian Buddhism. As Buddhism traveled east other cultures changed the Bodhisattva to a female. If you ever come across Korean Buddhist paintings you might just notice she'll have a mustache.

tl;dr

1. Three Kingdoms
   
2. Monkey aka Journey to the West
   
3. The Monkey King himself

Here is the book.

I read and greatly enjoyed Arthur Waley's translation. The translator did a fantastic job keeping the tone consistent with how the book was intended, and it basically felt like I was reading Ancient Chinese Loony Tunes.

"Monkey" is the only abridge version of Journey to the West I can recommend.

I own a revised edition of Journey to the West that I picked up early last year. It's the most modern version of Journey to the West. Alex Yu's translation is the best one out there. Wu Cheng'en's translation used to be recommend. If you were to compare both translations together, Wu Cheng'en's is a bit dated.

I've read an abridged version of Journey to the West, but it leaves out entire chapters. It's only good for a general gist of the story, but the translation was quite nice. I was actually doing some research to find a more fully-translated version. Are you reading a translated version? If so, I'd like to be directed to it, as it's been proving quite difficult to get information about what exactly the translators have translated. This is the version I read.

As far as I know, the two main English translations of Journey to the West are Anthony Yu's version and Arthur Waley's version

Its a great story and its an awesome read. Waley's version (just called "Monkey") is a bit more abridged, but its easier to read, and I'd recommend starting with that one.

Journey to the West has many adaptions and translations for their story since it is extremely old. Now I can give you a couple recommendations.

Book Translation: Monkey: Folk Novel of China

Movie Adaptation: Based on the first 7 chapters focused on Wukong's story and Now the actual Journey to the West I haven't watched these, but I heard good things.

I hope this helps! I'm glad I could help interest you in the story!

Favorites:

Wizard and Glass -King

American Gods -Gaiman

Inside Delta Force -Haney

Zoe's Tale -Scalzi

20,000 Leagues -Verne

Obscure:

Monkey - Wu..... Seriously, one of my all time favorite reads.

The Complete Book of Swords -Sabrehagen

Eyes of Horus -Grant

http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Novel-China-Wu-Cheng-en/dp/0802130860/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264524263&sr=1-1