Wu Cheng'en (about 1500- 1583, once said about 1506- 1580), whose real name is Ruzhong, was a writer from Sheyang Mountain and a native of He Xia, Shanyang County, Huai 'an City, Jiangsu Province. Originally from Anton (now Lianshui County, Huai 'an City, Jiangsu Province).
Since childhood, Wu Cheng'en has been reading extensively in Minhui, especially fond of fairy tales. Good at painting and calligraphy, versatile. He was repeatedly defeated in the imperial examination, and was promoted to a tribute student during Jiajing period. In the 28th year of Jiajing (1549), he moved to Nanjing to make a living by selling documents. In the thirty-ninth year of Jiajing (1560), he served as a county official in Changxing, Zhejiang Province, and soon resigned and returned. Because of his difficult career, he never wanted to be an official in his later years and wrote books behind closed doors.
Modern scholars believe that Wu Cheng'en is the last person to complete China's classic The Journey to the West.
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Wu Cheng'en's main achievement is the completion of the The Journey to the West. Due to the frustration of officialdom and the hardships of life, Wu Cheng'en deepened his understanding of the feudal imperial examination system and the reality of dark society, prompting Wu Cheng'en to express his inner dissatisfaction and resentment in the form of strange novels. Wu Cheng'en said to himself, "Although my title is intellectual monster, I don't know about ghosts, but I actually remember the variation of human beings, and I have a lesson."
The Journey to the West is a wonderful book that reflects the social reality of the Ming Dynasty through artistic processing with the historical event of "Tang Priest's Learning from the Scriptures" as the background. The book mainly describes the story of the Monkey King who made a scene in the Heavenly Palace after his birth and met Tang Priest, Pig Bajie, Friar Sand and Bai. He went west to learn from the scriptures, went through difficulties and obstacles, and turned the devil down. After eighty-one difficulties, he finally arrived in the Western Heaven to see the Tathagata, and finally the Five Saints died.
The artistic features of Journey to the West can be summarized in two words: one is illusory, the other is interesting; It's not ordinary fantasy, it's fantasy, it's not ordinary fun, it's strange fun. Through bold and rich artistic imagination and fascinating stories, the novel creates a magical and gorgeous mythical world. The Journey to the West's artistic imagination is peculiar, rich and bold, which is rare in ancient and modern novels.
The Monkey King's world is close to the fairyland of fairy tales, which is very interesting, and in this world, there are all kinds of strange and interesting monsters, which are really strange and colorful. Romantic fantasy originated from real life reflects the world and human feelings in the description of fantasy.
The characters, plots, scenes, even magic weapons and weapons of Journey to the West are full of imagination, but they are all condensed with real life experiences, which can reveal the breath of life in fantasy and reflect human feelings for readers to understand and accept.
The Journey to the West is a classic of China's ghost novels, and is called the four classical novels of China together with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and Dream of Red Mansions. As soon as this book came out, it was hailed as one of the "four wonderful books", which was widely circulated among the people and various versions emerged one after another. There were 6 editions in Ming Dynasty, 7 editions and manuscripts in Qing Dynasty, and 13 lost editions in ancient books.
Besides The Journey to the West, Wu Cheng'en also wrote a collection of short stories with Zhi Ding. This is a short story with warning, but it has been lost, and only a preface can be seen.