西遊記 · 第一回

Name: 西遊記 · 第一回
Availability: InStock
Author: Wu Cheng’en

Journey to the West · Chapter 1

by Wu Cheng’en

From the world’s creation, the tale turns to a monkey born of stone.

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Original language: ChineseLevel: Advanced1,386 characters · ≈ 6 minSource: Wikisource

Authentic text: the opening of a public-domain original
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Books behind this year’s screen adaptations

Several Journey to the West projects are under way in 2026, including an animated film and a new live-action series announced by CCTV.

Sample: three-line reading

Each word has its meaning in this sentence underneath, and each sentence has a full translation. Read the original and glance down only when you need to.

詩poem曰says

The poem says:

混沌未分chaos had not yet been divided天地heaven and earth亂were in disorder茫茫vast and boundless渺渺vague and indistinct無人no one見to see

Before chaos was divided, heaven and earth were in disorder, vast and vague, with no one to see.

自從since; from the time of盤古Pangu (the primordial giant in Chinese myth)破broke; split open鴻濛the great mist; primordial chaos開闢opening up; the act of creation從茲from then on; from this point清濁the clear and the muddy辨were distinguished; became differentiated

Since Pangu broke the great mist, from then on opening and clearing distinguished the clear and the muddy.

覆載cover and support群生all living beings仰look up to至仁the highest benevolence發明bring forth萬物all things皆all成善become good

Covering and supporting all living things, they look up to the highest kindness; bringing forth all things, all become good.

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About the book

This is Chapter 1 of Journey to the West, a 16th-century Chinese novel attributed to Wu Cheng'en. The chapter recounts the creation of the world and the stone monkey born on Flower Fruit Mountain, retaining the opening verse and classical narration. As one of the four great Chinese novels, it tells of Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India and rewards slow, careful reading.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 西游记 (CC BY-SA)

How the glosses are made

Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.

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