100 Books Like Journey to the West

This book examines the exotics imported into China during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) and depicts their influence on Chinese life. During the three centuries of Tang came into the land the natives of almost every nation of Asia, all bringing exotic wares either as gifts or as goods to be sold. Ivory, rare woods, drugs, diamonds, magicians, dancing girls—the author covers all classes of unusual imports, their places of origin, their lore, their effect on fashion, dwellings, diet, painting, sculpture, music, and poetry.

This book is for students of Tang culture and laymen interested in the same topic. Its author Edward Schafer was an eminent American sinologist.

The Tang dynasty is often called China’s “golden age,” a period of commercial, religious, and cultural connections from Korea and Japan to the Persian Gulf. It was a time of unsurpassed literary creativity. Lewis captures a dynamic era in which the empire reached its greatest geographical extent. And, he shows that under Chinese rule, painting, and ceramic arts flourished, women played a major role both as rulers and in the economy, and China produced its finest lyric poets (Wang Wei, Li Bo (Li Bai), and Du Fu). 

This book is a useful companion volume to my book, which is about the founding and the rise of the Tang dynasty.

This book by the famous Yale sinologist Arthur Wright is written with the general readership in mind. It covers the rise and fall of the Sui empire with great clarity. The Sui empire reunited China for the first time since the fall of the Western Jin in the early 4th century. The Tang dynasty rose on the ashes of the Sui. Many important characters in my book were key actors in the Sui-Tang transition, including Tang Taizong Li Shimin and his father Tang Gaozu Li Yuan. 

Based on a true story from the eighth century, it is a fictionalized telling of one of the most powerful, tragic chronicles in Chinese history: the events leading up to the Rebellion of An Lushan and the fall of the Emperor Minghuang (Xuanzong) and his Precious Consort Yang Guifei and the dazzling Yang family. All of the major characters are real people, immortalized in the works of renowned Tang poets Li Po (Li Bai) and Du Fu.

This novel deals with the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, grandson of the Empress Wu and Tang Gaozong, and great-grandson of Tang Taizong (Li Shimin). Thanks to their meticulous research into the customs, language, and records of the period in question, the authors of The Court of the Lion give us a convincing, fascinating tale of eighth-century China grounded in historical facts.

I refer to Arthur Waley’s famous translation and abridgment of the novel Journey to the West, purportedly written by Wu Cheng’en in sixteenth-century China.

The story has the underlying theme of a quest—the protagonist Monkey, born from a stone egg, an impetuous, impatient, self-centered creature, occasionally violent but ultimately good-hearted, seeks knowledge and eternal life. His exploits get him in trouble with the Jade Emperor who imprisons him beneath a mountain for five hundred thousand years. He is released by the monk Tripitaka when he promises to accompany him to India to bring the Buddhist scriptures back to China. Adventures ensue with monsters, dragons, and ghosts. They pick up companions along the way until they eventually succeed and become enlightened.

It is a magical, humorous story with a refreshingly non-western sensibility. It is comprised of Chinese folk tales with added political satire. It also has an almost cartoon-like quality.… show more.

Of China’s four classic novels—The Romance of Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, The Dream of the Red Chamber, and The Journey to the West—it’s the tale of the monkey king and his friends that stands out most for me.

I might struggle to name the rebels in The Water Margin, and I found Bao Yu’s moping in The Dream of the Red Chamber cloying when I read it as a student. But despite being a monkey, Sun Wukong’s behavior makes him both the simplest and the most human character in any of the books.

But behind that simplicity lies a narrative complexity. Patterns repeat throughout the 100 chapters at regular intervals, reflecting storytelling traditions but also suggesting Buddhist themes of reincarnation and perseverance that lie at the heart of the tale. No wonder it’s a book I keep coming back to.

This series of exciting short detective stories is set in Imperial China. Judge Dee is a kind of Chinese Sherlock Holmes who ingeniously solves a variety of crimes and mysteries.

Although the story is based over one thousand years ago, from my own experience, the description of a Tang magistrate’s workings also gives a clue as to how China is still governed at the local level.

In the west, China is often perceived as a recent entrant onto the world stage.

The sweeping historical perspective of this book quickly disavows any such notion. Horesh presents evidence of the significant circulation of Chinese coins across Eurasia under the Tang dynasty (618-907). This subsequently expanded to include India and Sri Lanka and even reached East Africa under the voyages of Zheng He (1371-1453). Horesh cleverly weaves the evolving situation in China over the centuries with that of the rest of the world and so the reader ends up with much more than just a Chinese-based history.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway, however, is that a global role for China's currency in the modern era would be no more than a return to the position it occupied in past epochs.

Van Gulik is a giant in the field of historical mysteries, having penned the better part of 20 novels about his favorite protagonist “Judge Dee.” Set in ancient China, the stories typically involve political intrigue, moral quandaries, and settings so evocative it is easy to just close your eyes and see yourself in a pavilion overlooking a swan-filled lake or in a lady’s bed-chamber, a scholar’s library, or an artist’s studio. These novels are mood pieces as well as whodunnits, and the immersive experiences the author offers lead me to recommend not only this title but any and all in the series. Heaven for someone like me who loves what China used to be.

This is one of those books that entranced me and my students. By the last pages, we were holding our breath to see what would happen. It is full of magical realism but based on a real artist from history.

This is a lovely stand-alone book, but it is also a great introduction and inspiration for brush painting. It’s especially fun to try painting with bamboo brushes after seeing the ones depicted in the beautiful watercolor illustrations of this story.