The Journey to the West, volume 3, comprises the third twenty-five chapters of Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsüan-tsang (596-664), one of China's most illustrious religious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disciples in quest of Buddhist scriptures. For nearly a thousand years, his exploits were celebrated and embellished in various accounts, culminating in the hundred-chapter Journey to the West, which combines religious allegory with romance, fantasy, humor, and satire.

Anthony C. Yu is Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities; chairman and professor in the department of East Asian languages and civilizations; professor in the Committee on Social Thought; and professor of English language and literature, and comparative literature in the Divinty School at the University of Chicago.