Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun长春真人西游记

Also known as

Journey to the West (Li Zhichang)

Author / transmission

Li Zhichang

Period

Yuan · Li Zhichang (1193–1256) recorded Qiu Chuji's journey west of 1220–1224 in answer to the summons of Chinggis Khan; completed around 1228.

Canon division

Zhengyi Section

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Zhengyi Section

Category

Immortal Biographies

Fascicles

2 juan

Synopsis

The Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun is the record kept by Li Zhichang, a disciple of Qiu Chuji, of his master's journey in answer to the summons of Chinggis Khan — from Laizhou in Shandong by way of Yanjing, the Mongolian steppe, the Altai Mountains and Samarkand to the snow-mountain camp in the Hindu Kush, where he had audience with Chinggis Khan, and of his return to Yanjing. The first juan records the mountains and rivers, the climate, customs and products of the route, together with the poems he composed; the second records his three discourses on the Dao with Chinggis Khan ("reverence for Heaven and love of the people as the foundation," "purity of mind and fewness of desires as the essential"), his return east and his charge over Daoist affairs throughout the realm, with Chinggis Khan's edict appended. The work is a first-hand source for the study of thirteenth-century Central Asian geography, early Mongol history and the flourishing of Quanzhen Daoism, and is a celebrated work both in the history of Daoism and in the history of contact between China and the West. The Qing scholar Qian Daxin discovered it in the Daoist Canon and commended it; it was later translated into English by Arthur Waley and translated with annotations by Emil Bretschneider.

Key Ideas

• Qiu Chuji's journey west for audience with Chinggis Khan
• The admonition to cease killing and to revere Heaven and love the people
• A first-hand record of Central Asian geography and customs
• The beginning of the favour shown to Quanzhen Daoism by the Yuan court

Structure

Two juan: the first the journey and the poems, the second the discourses on the Dao, the return east and the appended imperial edict.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Wang Guowei, Annotated Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun
• Dang Baohai (annotated translation), Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun (Hebei People's Publishing House, 2001)
• Collated and annotated edition by Shang Yanbin and others

Commentaries

• Wang Guowei, Annotated Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun

Translations

• Arthur Waley, The Travels of an Alchemist (1931)
• English translation by Emil Bretschneider (1888)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun
• Wikisource: Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun

Related scriptures

Related figures