Sources

Everything this site is built on — the novel, its translations, and where every image came from.

The novel

• Xiyouji (西遊記), 100-chapter Ming edition. Earliest surviving printing: the 1592 Shidetang edition (anonymous). Traditionally attributed to Wu Cheng’en — see the authors.
• Xuanzang’s Great Tang Records on the Western Regions (646 CE) — the historical pilgrimage account beneath the legend.

English translations

• Anthony C. Yu, The Journey to the West (4 vols., University of Chicago Press; revised 2012). The complete scholarly translation; copyrighted — this site does not quote it.
• Arthur Waley, Monkey (1942). The classic abridgment (roughly the first 30 chapters); the West’s beloved introduction.
• W. J. F. Jenner, Journey to the West (3 vols., 1982–84). Another complete translation, widely read.

Scholarship referenced

• The Wu Cheng’en attribution debate: Qing scholarship (Wu Yubo), Hu Shih’s 20th-century case, and modern skeptical responses.
• The Hanuman comparison: comparative scholarship on monkey-hero motifs; direct borrowing unproven — see monkey myths.
• The mind-monkey (xinyuan) allegory: traditional Buddhist commentary on the novel.

Image provenance

See the image captions for credits and context. Illustrated character art is a dramatization.

• No real people are depicted in any image.
• The Vizlings character sheet was used as a style reference only and is never displayed on public pages.
• The stream banner is generated in the style of the owner’s Vizlings character sheet and labeled as dramatization art.

Method

Plot facts are checked against the 100-chapter novel; dates are labeled documented vs. traditional vs. scholarly estimate; contested claims carry attribution. See methodology.