Ready Reference Treatise: Monkey

By Raja Sharma

“Monkey” by the Confucian scholar Wu Ch’eng-en was written during the Ming Dynasty in China. The book was written in the sixteenth century. The book is subtitled “A Folk Tale of China. It is said to have been translated by Arthur Waley.

The book was originally published in 1942. The present book has remained one of the most widely read English version of the book “Monkey.”

Ready Reference Treatise: Monkey
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Major Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Thematic Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Feb 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310957123

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: Monkey

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: Monkey

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2016 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

Monkey by the Confucian scholar Wu Ch’eng-en was written during the Ming Dynasty in China. The book was written in the sixteenth century. The book is subtitled "A Folk Tale of China. It is said to have been translated by Arthur Waley.

The book was originally published in 1942. The present book has remained one of the most widely read English version of the book Monkey.

Wu Ch’eng-en was believed to be a great scholar, very well-respected literary poet. It is very surprising that the book was originally written in very plain and simple language during the era when most of the writers used to yearn for classic writings.

The author did not claim the authorship of the book, but it was not surprising during the time because most of the books were written anonymously. The author was said to be a good friend of one of the ‘Literary Seven’ who were the leaders of the neoclassical movement.

The upper class literary people of the society did not like the subject matter of the novel Monkey. They were doubtful whether folktales or oral tradition could be of any value. However, the novel became very popular in a very short period of time and it has continued to maintain its status as a household name up to the present day. The book has been adapted into movies, television serials, and plays several times.

The characters and names in the present treatise follow the names of the characters which are there in the 1942 translation written by Arthur Waley. It is probable that the names of the characters are different in some other versions of the novel.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

As the novel opens, Buddha happens to be looking for a pilgrim who will travel West, particularly to India. Buddha hopes to get back the ancient sacred scriptures which might provide enlightenment to the Chinese people. Buddha wants that the Chinese people should also know about the tenets of Buddhism.

There is a young monk named Tripitaka. He volunteers to go on that holy journey, the pilgrimage to India. He begins his journey, but the path happens to be quite strenuous and dangerous. On the way, he has to face several obstacles.

During his journey, he frees the Monkey King. Then the Monkey King and Tripitaka recruit Pigsy and Sandy and resume their journey.

On the way, they rescue a captive princess and give punishment to