Acknowledgments, Revised Edition

At this point of closure for some six years of sustained labor, I must repeat my thanks to the Mellon Foundation not merely for the award of an Emeriti Fellowship, but also for the wisdom to extend without cost the period of its tenure. The generous allowance of time enabled me to carry out all the necessary steps in research and rewriting. To be able to attempt a complete overhaul of a major publication after almost three decades is a privilege granted only to a small number of workers in the academy, and I acknowledge such boon with wonder and humility. I’d be foolish, however, to think that I’ve managed to get every phrase and sentence right, for translation that is a calculated—and often, compromised—exchange of linguistic signs brooks no state of final perfection. I can only try for a second time to share more of what I have learned from a text that has stayed with me all my life.

The engagement and completion of so large and complex a project is not possible without the resourceful assistance from the staff of our Information Technology Services, the University of Chicago. To the several persons on daily duty by phone and to Bill Geraci, Office Technology Coordinator at the Divinity School, I am pleased to express my profound gratitude. Similarly, I must thank once more Dr. Yuan Zhou, Curator of our East Asian Collections at Regenstein Library, and his able staff for their unflagging help. The Center for East Asian Studies has also been liberal in dispensing aid to even retired faculty for their ongoing scholastic needs.

In January 2011, I was fortunate to have been able to go to the Centre for Studies of Daoist Culture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, to try out some of the ideas and issues I discussed in both the introduction and the extensive annotations of this translation at a public lecture and a few colloquia. The stimulation provided by faculty and student colleagues and by Daoist clergy was unforgettable, as was the gracious hospitality bestowed by Professor Lai Chi Tim, Chair of the University’s Department of Cultural and Religious Studies and Director of the Centre, and by the community of Fung Ying Seen Koon (Pengying Daoist Abbey in Fanling, Hong Kong).

Finally, but for the unfailing and indulgent support of my wife Priscilla, dearest companion of nearly half a century, there would have been no revised edition of The Journey to the West.

April 2011