Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
These characters and stories will be familiar to anyone who watched the Monkey Magic series back in the '70s.
The first part shows how Monkey became a king, learnt his magic powers, got his staff and ended up imprisoned in a mountain by Buddha.
Then the priest Tripitaka comes along on his mission to get scriptures from India and releases Monkey after 500 years.
Meeting up with Pigsy and Sandy along the way, they then have more adventures along the way.
A good translation of the original source makes this book funny as well as an adventure. There are some lessons about acceptance and behaviour through it.
The first part shows how Monkey became a king, learnt his magic powers, got his staff and ended up imprisoned in a mountain by Buddha.
Then the priest Tripitaka comes along on his mission to get scriptures from India and releases Monkey after 500 years.
Meeting up with Pigsy and Sandy along the way, they then have more adventures along the way.
A good translation of the original source makes this book funny as well as an adventure. There are some lessons about acceptance and behaviour through it.
Monkey! I love this adaptation and translation. Most chapters end with a variation on "and if you want to know what happened next, well, you'll have to read the next chapter." And if you want to know the story that inspired [book: Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book], [book: The Laughing Sutra], Saiyuki, One Piece, Dragonball, and innumerable other adaptations both Eastern and Western, well, you'll have to read this book.
Rating of 2,5 stars.
First off, for anyone who loves classic storytelling methods and poetry interwoven with their text, even after 500 pages of text, then this book is right up there for you. You will probably enjoy it more than I would have.
I picked this book up for the single reason that the Monkey Kong, also known as Sun Wukong was in this book and in a way, he is the main character in many ways. This book obviously has many layers of symbolism scattered around its poems and many descriptive sentences, from the spiritual terms and Buddhistic mantras.
The book was in some parts really intriguing. Especially the first 100-150 pages which described Sun's origin story was interesting and the parts of when the journey started halfway through the book were also kinda interesting. Overall the stories were kinda episodic and the story was sometimes even tedious, but that's in the mastery of literature long-gone.
The book is a slow read, that's for sure. I recommend this book especially to people who are interested in Sun Wukong, in Chinese literature or just worldly stories in general. For me, this wasn't my favorite book but I can't deny that it is a masterwork of China and I respect the time I have given to this book as a time to learn something more about culture.
First off, for anyone who loves classic storytelling methods and poetry interwoven with their text, even after 500 pages of text, then this book is right up there for you. You will probably enjoy it more than I would have.
I picked this book up for the single reason that the Monkey Kong, also known as Sun Wukong was in this book and in a way, he is the main character in many ways. This book obviously has many layers of symbolism scattered around its poems and many descriptive sentences, from the spiritual terms and Buddhistic mantras.
The book was in some parts really intriguing. Especially the first 100-150 pages which described Sun's origin story was interesting and the parts of when the journey started halfway through the book were also kinda interesting. Overall the stories were kinda episodic and the story was sometimes even tedious, but that's in the mastery of literature long-gone.
The book is a slow read, that's for sure. I recommend this book especially to people who are interested in Sun Wukong, in Chinese literature or just worldly stories in general. For me, this wasn't my favorite book but I can't deny that it is a masterwork of China and I respect the time I have given to this book as a time to learn something more about culture.
I thoroughly enjoyed this classic of Chinese literature. The translation to English seems to have preserved intact the spirit of the original. An excellent read filled with myth, adventure, tall tales and feats of wonder, and the message that while mischief and gaiety are to be valued, so too is responsibility to be respected.
I liked it. I mean, it's not my favorite book I've read for school but it was okay. I really enjoyed learning about the culture and the history behind thos, though. Plus, it was cool to real a folk tales from another culture. It was a really unique reading experience for me