A Mission to Heaven

1913, first English edition of the Chinese classic novel A Journey to the West, translated by Timothy Richard

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

First edition. Hardback with printed titling to the spine and upper board. 23 × 15cm, 362pp, viii (index), 3pp ad.

Not signed as such but an embossed stamp to the ffep shows this copy comes from the library of actor, comedian and author, Michael Bentine.

A Mission to Heaven (1913) was the first English version of Journey to the West, a 16th century Chinese novel by Ch'iu Ch'ang Ch'un (Timothy Richard's translation), also known as Wu Cheng'en, a novelist and poet of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), which relates the adventures of a Tang Dynasty priest Sanzang and his three disciples, Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand, as they travel west in search of Buddhist Sutra. Richard's translation condenses the book to 362 pages, whereas the original was much longer. Illustrated with line drawings.

Timothy Richard (1845–1919) was a Welsh Baptist missionary to China who influenced the modernisation of China and the rise of the Chinese Republic. In 1869 the Baptist Missionary Society sent him to China where he laboured, with infrequent furloughs, from 1870 to 1915, first in Chafoo, then in Shantung and Shansi, and finally in Shanghai, when, in 1891, he was appointed secretary of the Christian Literature Society of China. He resigned in 1915, and died in London, 17 April 1919.

Condition

Fair condition only. While the text is complete, the inner binding is fragile, and the boards are bumped to the corners. The first few and last few pages are detached, and all pages are tanned throughout. However, this rare first edition is readable with gentle handling.