Journey to the West (Li Tianfei Annotated Edition)
Published by Zhonghua Book Company in 2014, this scholarly edition of Journey to the West features the systematic annotations of Li Tianfei, based upon the Shidetang text.
The Li Tianfei annotated edition of Journey to the West is one of the core titles in Zhonghua Book Company's "Annotated Series of Chinese Classical Novels." First published in October 2014, the work spans two volumes totaling 1,283 pages, ISBN 9787101104523. The annotator, Li Tianfei, holds a Master's degree in Classical Philology from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University and has long specialized in Ming and Qing dynasty chapter-style novels and Taoist classics. The base text for this edition is the earliest extant complete carved edition—the 1592 "Newly Carved Illustrated Official Block Large-Character Journey to the West" from the Shide Hall in Jinling during the twentieth year of the Wanli era of the Ming dynasty. It was cross-referenced with six other late-Ming editions and various Qing dynasty critical editions by Wang, Chen, and Zhang. Regarding the annotations, Li significantly expanded upon the foundation laid by Huang Suqiu (the 1955 People's Literature Publishing House edition), focusing specifically on three dimensions: first, the interpretation of Taoist inner alchemy terminology and Quanzhen school thought; second, the textual evidence for Ming dynasty official systems, geography, opera, and vernacular vocabulary; and third, the collation of source texts such as Poetic Tales of Tang Sanzang's Pilgrimage, Journey to the West Zaju, and surviving fragments of the Yongle Encyclopedia. This edition is regarded by scholars as the most academically valuable modern popular annotated version of Journey to the West since the People's Literature edition, and it is highly acclaimed by researchers and advanced readers.