| Antecedents | Glen Dudbridge, The “Hsi-yuchi”: A Study of Antecedents to the Sixteenth-Century Chinese Novel (Cambridge, 1970) |
| Bodde | Derk Bodde, Festivals in Classical China (Princeton and Hong Kong, 1975) |
| BPZ | Baopuzi  , Neipian and Waipian. SBBY |
| BSOAS | Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |
| Campany | Robert Ford Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s “Traditions of Divine Transcendents” (Berkeley, 2002) |
| CATCL | The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair (New York, 1994) |
| CHC | The Cambridge History of China, eds. Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (15 vols. in multiple book-length parts. Cambridge and New York, 1978–2009) |
| CHCL | The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair (New York, 2001) |
| CJ | Anthony C. Yu, Comparative Journeys: Essays on Literature and Religion East and West (New York, 2008) |
| CLEAR | Chinese Literature: Essays Articles Reviews |
| CQ | China Quarterly |
| DH | Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden, 2000) |
| DHBWJ | Dunhuang bianwenji  , ed. Wang Zhongmin   (2 vols., Beijing, 1957) |
| DJDCD | Daojiao da cidian  , ed. Li Shuhuan  (Taipei, 1981) |
| DJWHCD | Daojiao wenhua cidian  , ed. Zhang Zhizhe   (Shanghai, 1994) |
| DZ | Zhengtong Daozang  (36 vols. Reprinted by Wenwu, 1988). Second set of numbers in JW citations refers to volume and page number. |
| ET | The Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio (2 vols., London and New York, 2008) |
| FSZ | Da Tang Da Ci’ensi Sanzang fashi zhuan   , comp. Huili  and Yancong  . T 50, #2053. Text cited is that printed in SZZSHB. |
| 1592 | Xinke chuxiang guanban dazi Xiyouji   , ed. Huayang dongtian zhuren  . Fasc. rpr. of Jinling Shidetang edition (1592) in Guben xiaoshuo jicheng  , vols. 499–502 (Shanghai, 1990) |
| FXDCD | Foxue da cidian  , comp. and ed., Ding Fubao   (fasc. rpr. of 1922 ed. Beijing, 1988) |
| HFTWJ | Liu Ts’un-yan [Cunren]  , Hefengtang wenji   (3 vols., Shanghai, 1991) |
| HJAS | Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |
| HR | History of Religions |
| Herrmann | Albert Hermann, An Historical Atlas of China, new ed. (Chicago, 1966) |
| Hu Shi (1923) | Hu Shi  , “Xiyouji kaozheng  ,” in Hu Shi wencun  (4 vols., Hong Kong, 1962), 2: 354–99 |
| Hucker | Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford, 1985) |
| IC | The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. and comp. William H. Nienhauser Jr. (Bloomington, IN, 1986) |
| Isobe | Isobe Akira  , Saiyūki keiseishi no kenkyū   (Tokyo, 1993) |
| j | juan  |
| JA | Journal asiatique |
| JAOS | Journal of the American Oriental Society |
| JAS | Journal of Asian Studies |
| JCR | Journal of Chinese Religions |
| JMDJCD | Jianming Daojiao cidian  , comp. and ed., Huang Haide et al.,  (Chengdu, 1991) |
| JW | The Journey to the West (Refers only to the four-volume translation of Xiyouji by Anthony C. Yu published by the University of Chicago Press, 1977–1983, of which the present volume is the third of four in a complete revised edition.) |
| Lévy | André Lévy, trad., Wu Cheng’en, La Pérégrination vers l’Ouest, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (2 vols., Paris, 1991) |
| Li | Li Angang Piping Xiyouji  (2 vols., Beijing, 2004) |
| Little | Stephen Little with Shawn Eichman, Daoism and the Arts of China (Art Institute of Chicago, in association with University of California Press, 2000) |
| LSYYJK | Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan  |
| LWJ | “Xiyouji” yanjiu lunwenji  (Beijing, 1957) |
| MDHYCH | Gu Zhichuan  , Mingdai Hanyu cihui yanjiu   (Kaifeng, Henan, 2000) |
| Monkey | Monkey: Folk Novel of China by Wu Ch’eng-en, trans. Arthur Waley (London, 1943) |
| Ōta | Ōta Tatsuo  , Saiyūki no kenkyū  (Tokyo, 1984) |
| Plaks | Andrew H. Plaks, The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel (Princeton, 1987) |
| Porkert | Manfred Porkert, The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine: Systems of Correspondence (Cambridge, MA, 1974) |
| QSC | Quan Songci  , ed. Tang Guizhang  (5 vols., 1965; rpr. Tainan, 1975) |
| QTS | Quan Tangshi  (12 vols., 1966; rpr. Tainan, 1974) |
| Saiyūki | Saiyūki  , trans. Ōta Tatsuo  and Torii Hisayasu  . Chūgoku koten bungaku taikei   , 31–32 (2 vols., Tokyo, 1971) |
| SBBY | Sibu beiyao  |
| SBCK | Sibu congkan  |
| SCC | Joseph Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China (7 vols. in 27 book-length parts. Cambridge, 1954) |
| Schafer | Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1977) |
| SCTH | Sancai tuhui  (1609 edition) |
| Soothill | A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, comp. William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodus (rpr. 1934 ed. by London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. Taipei, 1970) |
| SSJZS | Shisanjing zhushu  (2 vols., Beijing, 1977) |
| SZZSHB | Tang Xuanzang Sanzang zhuanshi huibian   , ed. Master Guangzhong  (Taipei, 1988) |
| T | Taishō shinshū dai-zōkyō  , eds. Takakusu Junijirō  and Watanabe Kaikyoku  (85 vols., Tokyo, 1934) |
| TC | The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the “Daozang”, eds. Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen (3 vols., Chicago, 2004) |
| TP | T’oung Pao |
| TPGJ | Taiping guangji  , comp. and ed. Li Fang  (5 vols., rpr. Tainan, 1975) |
| TPYL | Taiping yulan  comp. and ed. Li Fang (4 vols., Beijing, 1960) |
| Unschuld | Paul U. Unschuld, trans. and annotated, Nan-Ching: The Classic of Difficult Issues (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1986) |
| Veith | Ilza Veith, trans., The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, new ed. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1972) |
| WCESWJ | Wu Cheng’en shiwenji  , ed. Liu Xiuye  (Shanghai, 1958). |
| XMGZ | Xingming guizhi  , authorship attributed to an advanced student of one Yin Zhenren  , in Zangwai Daoshu  (36 vols., Chengdu, 1992–1994), 9: 506–95. For JW, I also consult a modern critical edition published in Taipei, 2005, with a comprehensive and learned set of annotations by Fu Fengying   . The citation from this particular edition will be denominated as XMGZ-Taipei. |
| XYJ | Wu Cheng’en  , Xiyouji  (Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1954). Abbreviation refers only to this edition. |
| XYJCD | Xiyouji cidian  , comp. and ed. Zeng Shangyan  (Zhengzhou, Henan, 1994) |
| XYJTY | Zheng Mingli  , Xiyouji tanyuan  (2 vols., 1982; rpr. Taipei, 2003) |
| XYJYJZL | Xiyouji yanjiu zhiliao  , ed. Liu Yinbo   (Shanghai, 1982) |
| XYJZLHB | “Xiyouji” zhiliao huibian  (Zhongzhou, Henan, 1983) |
| YYZZ | Youyang zazu  (SBCK edition) |
| ZYZ | Zhongyao zhi  (4 vols., Beijing, 1959–1961). |
| Yang | Yang Fengshi  , Zhongguo zhengtong Daojiao da cidian  (2 vols., Taipei, 1989–1992) |
| Yü | Chün-fang Yü, Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteśvara (New York, 2001) |
| ZHDJDCD | Zhonghua Daojiao da cidian  , ed. Hu Fuchen  et al. (Beijing, 1995) |
| Zhou | Zhou Wei  , Zhongguo bingqishi gao  (Beijing, 1957) |
Citations from all Standard Histories, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Kaiming edition of Ershiwushi 
(9 vols., 1934; rpr. Taipei, 1959). Citations of text with traditional or simplified characters follow format of publications consulted.