Monkey: A Folk Novel of China Book Review

Monkey, was originally published anonymously by Wu Chengen resulting from informality present in the text, and its lack of Classical Chinese. Published in the vernacular during the highly formal Ming dynasty, this would have defaced the image of Wu Chengen, a highly distinguished scholar. Resulting from the rise in the merchant and middle class in literacy, in conjunction with the printing press; Monkey has become a highly acclaimed Chinese classic that has been enjoyed for generations. Due to translation by Arthur Waley this novel has become available to English-speaking people, which further allowed the distribution of this commended text. …