As we all know that the Four Classical Works are the classic works in the history of Chinese literature and are the world’s precious cultural heritage. The status of these four masterpieces in the history of Chinese literature is very important They all have a very high literary level and artistic achievement. It has deeply influenced the Chinese people’s ideology and value orientation. It can be described as the four great monuments in the history of Chinese literature.
One of these four classical works is “Journey to the West “(Chinese: 西遊記; pinyin: Xī Yóu Jì), this novel was published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty, the author is Wu Cheng’en, this novel has been described as arguably the most popular literary work in East Asia. Arthur Waley’s abridged translation, Monkey, is known in English-speaking countries.
Journey to the West has strong roots in Chinese folk religion, Chinese mythology, Confucianist, Taoist, and Buddhist philosophy. The tales of Taoist immortals and Buddhist bodhisattvas still reflect some Chinese religious attitudes today. Enduringly popular, the novel is at once a comic adventure story, a humorous satire of Chinese bureaucracy, a source of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory.
To help more people to know this popular novel, AYLUS-Syosset organized a series of learning activities of the “Journey to the West” from October 2022 to January 2023, we hold 1 session per week, and all tutors are members come from AYLUS-Syosset and AYLUS-Manhasset, They narrated the novel “Journey to the West” to all the participants in pure Mandarin, and instructed them to read it together. The novel contains forty-one short interesting stories. Different monsters appear in different stories, but all of them obstruct the task of taking the scriptures. The protagonists of the novel must overcome all those difficulties to achieve their goals.
Each participant spent a very meaningful time together during these classes, not only to gain a deeper understanding of this famous novel but also to gain a better understanding of the difficulties you may encounter and remember that there will always be ways to solve them
