The Water Margin, one of China's four classical novels, is a novel about peasant uprising. In the twenty-second year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (1594), Luo Guanzhong compiled a version of Shuangfeng Tangben in Yuxiang, Fujian Province, and in the forty-second year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (16 14), Yuan published The Legend of Loyalty and Justice with the signature of "Shi Naian Collection and Luo Guanzhong Compilation".
The Journey to the West, which was circulated in the Ming Dynasty, has no signature in various versions. In The Journey to the West, the king of Qing Dynasty suggested that The Journey to the West was written by Qiu Chuji in Southern Song Dynasty. After this view was put forward, most scholars in Qing Dynasty agreed with it. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Ji Yun and others began to doubt this theory, thinking that The Journey to the West described the customs and habits of the Ming Dynasty in many places, and Qiu Chuji was a person at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (a dynasty before the Ming Dynasty); In addition, Huai 'an dialect is used in many places in The Journey to the West, while Qiu Chuji has lived in North China all his life and never lived in Huai 'an. There are also Taoist priests and literati in Ming and Qing Dynasties who think that The Journey to the West is the book of Taoist alchemy.
Wu Yujin, a native of Qing Dynasty, believed that The Journey to the West was made by Wu Cheng'en. But there was no response for a long time. Ruan Kuisheng, a well-known fellow writer, also admitted that it was written by Wu Cheng'en in Hakka teahouse.
During the period of the Republic of China, Lu Xun, Hu Shi and others presumed that the author of The Journey to the West was Huai 'an Chengen according to the records of Huai 'an House in the Apocalypse of the Ming Dynasty and the theories of predecessors. In the late Republic of China, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after 1980, the research on The Journey to the West's authors has gradually become a hot spot. Some scholars still question Wu Cheng'en's authorship. The reason is that writing Journey to the West has never been mentioned in Wu Cheng'en's poems or friends' words. Secondly, Wu Cheng'en wrote down the fact of The Journey to the West in the Records of Huai 'an Prefecture, which did not indicate that it was romance or official history, but in general, romance and official history were not recorded in local chronicles; Thirdly, The Journey to the West in Wu Cheng'en was classified as a geographical category in the Bibliography of Qianqingtang written by Huang Yuji, a bibliophile in Qing Dynasty. So some people suggest that The Journey to the West was written by Qiu Chuji, or by his disciples.
There are also a few mathematicians who believe that The Journey to the West was written by Li Chunfang, the "Prime Minister of Qing Ci" in the Ming Dynasty. However, due to the scarcity and far-fetched arguments, most scholars do not agree with this statement. On the other hand, the argument that Wu Cheng'en is the author of The Journey to the West seems to be more and more convincing. Mainly: First, Wu Cheng'en's personal situation fully conforms to the characteristics of the creators of Journey to the West. Second, it gives a more reasonable and practical explanation to all kinds of questions. Thirdly, the most convincing is the dialect study in The Journey to the West's text. After 1980, there was a breakthrough in this field, which almost irrefutably proved that Wu Cheng'en was the author of The Journey to the West. For related research, please refer to Liu Xiuye's works and Yan Jingchang's Poetic Rhyme and Author of Journey to the West. Therefore, it is generally believed that religion prevailed in the Ming Dynasty, and the biographies, legends and other religious legends and folk stories about Xuanzang's Journey to the West in the Tang Dynasty were widely circulated in the society. It is in this social and cultural background that Wu Cheng'en created the novel The Journey to the West that we see today based on the above biographies, legends and stories.
After Wu Cheng'en's re-conception, organization and compilation, compared with previous biographies, legends, stories and comments, the novel The Journey to the West is not only richer in content, more complete and rigorous in plot, vivid and full in characters, more colorful in imagination and simple in language. More importantly, the novel The Journey to the West has reached an unprecedented height in ideological realm and artistic realm. Can be described as a master.
A Dream of Red Mansions is the first of China's four classical novels, and it is a novel written by Cao Xueqin in Qing Dynasty. It is also called The Story of the Stone and Jinyuyuan. This book is divided into two editions: 120 Cheng Ben and 80 Fat Ben.
The first 80 chapters of the new version of A Dream of Red Mansions are collected according to the fat version, and the last 40 chapters are collected according to the process version, with the signature "Cao Xueqin, anonymous continuation, Cheng Weiyuan, finishing". The author of the last 40 chapters is still controversial.