ALiteratureSideblog

A Side blog dedicated to Journey to the West (Xiyouji) and other classic literature I’m reading. Primarily it’s Chinese rn, no clue why. Hopefully this blog will motivate me to read the whole book

[aliteraturesideblog]

Hello and Hi!

You can call me Mira, and this is going to be a blog where I yap about literature I’m into.

It’s primarily gonna be classical literature, especially The Journey to the West (Xiyouji) by Wu Cheng’en and others, because I think modern storytelling is actually so boring now/hj

For some reason, I’m seriously interested in Chinese classical literature at the minute. I think Journey to the West threw me down a rabbit hole lmao.

Books in my library:

— Journey to the West/Xiyouji

— Journey to the South/Nanyouji

— Investiture of the Gods/Feng Shen Yanyi

— The Golden Lotus/JinPingMei (yes, I’m being that bold)

Just to clarify, I am no academic with a degree, I’m just a Black girl who fell down this classical literature rabbit hole and I’m just convincing you guys to come and join me down here. I have snacks

I may post art here and there about the books I’m reading as well.

[aliteraturesideblog]

I’m like, 4-5 chapters into The Golden Lotus/Jin Ping Mei (y’know, that book that got banned in Ming Dynasty China)

My thoughts so far:

- Every man in this book is deplorable. Especially Ximen Qing

- Oh, do I hate Ximen Qing

- Jinlian is…actually kinda insane herself, maybe her and Ximen actually deserve each other, icl

- Old Lady Wang having a 10-step plan on how to get Ximen and Jinlian together, she is NO ROOKIE in this game (love her regardless tho)

- WU SONG THE GOAT, THE ONLY GUY WITH A BRAIN AND MORALS

- Kinda feel bad for Wu Da tho. Poor guy

- Yueniang, Ximen’s second wife is act so tea, we love a girls’ girl fr

- Did I mention I want Ximen dead?

That’s about it

[thecinnamoncheese]

Multiple cute details here:

— The Pilgrims canonically sharing a bed <3 bless their cuddly souls

— Wukong waking up his little brother so they can sneak out and go to a party

— Sandy being so eepy

— Pigsy being such a glutton that he's listening for mentions of food while deeply asleep

— Then immediately waking up and whining about wanting to go too

— "Okay you can come just don't tell Dad"

[aliteraturesideblog]

Me: Okay, this is a book deep in philosophical ideologies and an allegory for the various aspects of the human mind, will and spirit, we gotta take this seriously

My annotations (Chapter 3):

Sorry for not posting in a while, I unfortunately still have to deal with school, so I haven’t gotten much time to read and make these. But here, take chapter three.

[aliteraturesideblog]

Listen, as a regular movie watcher, the 2023 Netflix movie, ‘The Monkey King’ is a pretty enjoyable watch, with a nice style, funny moments and an understandable plot. Nothing special, but definitely something I’d say is good for a watch with the family.

But as a JOURNEY TO THE WEST ADAPTATION THOUGH?

[aliteraturesideblog]

That one time i quite literally did math to estimate how many peaches Wukong ate in the garden.

I could be wrong, idk. I’m not good at math

[aliteraturesideblog]

I love how Pigsy’s nickname is ‘Idiot’

Like half the time he does shit, the narrator always goes ‘Dear Idiot!’

Entire personality reduced to being a dumbass.

[thecinnamoncheese]

The Silk Road comes in CLUTCH when writing Tang Dynasty cuisine. I am saved. I am free. I'm not crying it's just these damn onions BECAUSE THEY HAD ONIONS THEY HAD THEM THANK YOU SILK ROAD FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART THANK YOUUUUU

[monkeyzilla]

Watching monkey king reborn is like being thrown to the concrete ground and punched in the gut repeatedly i love this movie

it’s reborn wukong based on tang dynasty armour + some figure I found I just wanted to know what he’d look like before his 600 year punishment since he’s almost always depicted in armour during that time idk

MAYBE ILL DO DRAWINGS OF HIM BASED ON PASSAGES FROM THE ORIGINAL NOVEL IDK IM A FUCKING NERD😭

[singeamon-arts]

Reading JTTW is so funny because they describe all these celebratory banquets and stuff and like. Can I join? Where’s my food?

[thecinnamoncheese]

Honestly I think one mouthful of the food they eat in JTTW would fix me forever

[sneakydraws]

I’d have trust issues too

[aliteraturesideblog]

Chapter two essentially

[superkat500]

I think the reason so many Westerners (Americans) struggle with Sun Wukong being the bad guy is that he’s basically every cool aspect of the Native Americans and every cool aspect of the American Revolution rolled into one dude.

[emo-and-dumb]

I was watching the little Krishna series and I tought to myself:

"Oh i bet Tang Sanzang would fall in love with mangos if he tried one in india! Or were there mangos avaliable in china trough the Tang dynasty?"

AND LOOK!!!!!

If Tang Xuanzang loved mangos them I want to believe Tang Sanzang loved mangos as well

[tuima11]

Ao Lie!

Ao Lie: Great Master Brother (endearing) how are you doing this work so proficiently?

Sun Wukong: Don’t ask questions!*

*according to my friend, colloquially the attitude is more like, ‘I don’t want you to ask questions like that dude.’

[aliteraturesideblog]

It doesn’t matter what setting or theme the franchise is

If Wukong doesn’t have an undying love and care for his monkey subjects/family then you fucked up his entire characterisation

[aliteraturesideblog]

Me: Okay, this is a book deep in philosophical ideologies and an allegory for the various aspects of the human mind, will and spirit, we gotta take this seriously

My annotations (Chapter 2):

[aliteraturesideblog]

Me: Okay, this is a book deep in philosophical ideologies and an allegory for the various aspects of the human mind, will and spirit, we gotta take this seriously

My annotations (Chapter 1):

[thecinnamoncheese]

Immediate follow

[aliteraturesideblog]

Unexpected, but appreciated nonetheless🥹

Should I make this a recurring thing for every chapter read?