Brief introduction of Wu Chengen:
Wu Chengen (1506-1582), courtesy name Ruzhong, nicknamed Sheyang, was a Ming Dynasty litterateur and a native of Huai'an, and the author of the novel "Journey to the West". When he was young, Wu Cheng'en liked to listen to stories about the Huaihe River Water God and the Great Sage. After middle age, he began to combine the stories of Tang Monk's Journey to the West with Tang legends, Buddhist and Taoist classics, folk stories, and Huai'an local anecdotes. )", he wrote hundreds of chapters of the novel "Journey to the West". As soon as this book came out, it was hailed as one of the "Four Great Classics" and became a treasure in the world's literary world. Wu Chengen is good at painting and calligraphy and is versatile.
Wu Chengen was diligent and studious when he was a child. He is good at painting and calligraphy. He likes to write lyrics and music. He is also proficient in Go. He also likes to collect calligraphy and painting stickers of famous people. When he was a boy, he became famous in his hometown for his outstanding literary talent. He was appreciated by people, who thought that he passed the imperial examination, "like picking up a piece of mustard". "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicles" records that he is "sensitive and intelligent, and he is well-versed in books, and he is the author of poems and essays." In addition to being eager to learn, he especially likes to search for strange things and hunt monsters, and he likes to watch gods, ghosts, lemurs, monsters, and monkey spirits. books. Novels and unofficial histories such as "The Record of Hundreds of Strangers" and "Youyang Zazu", as well as these colorful mythological worlds, have subconsciously developed a hobby of searching for strange things. As we grow older, this hobby It continued unabated, which had a major influence on his creation of "Journey to the West". After he turned 30, he had already "filled his chest" with the anecdotes he was searching for, and he had plans to create. When he was about 50 years old, he wrote the first dozen chapters of "Journey to the West", but then stopped for many years for some reasons. It was not until he resigned and returned to his hometown in his later years that he was able to finally complete the creation of "Journey to the West", which lasted 7 years.
Wu Chengen, who entered his youth, was a wild and uninhibited young man who was arrogant and arrogant. The low social status, poverty and hardship made this great talent unruly, which attracted a lot of laughter, and the days of being praised by others are gone forever.
When Wu Chengen was about 20 years old, he married a girl named Ye from his hometown, and they had a deep relationship after the marriage. Although Wu Chengen was wild and unruly, he was well behaved and loyal to his wife.
In the tenth year of the Jiajing reign, Wu Chengen achieved excellent results in the provincial school age examination and the scientific examination, and was qualified as a member of the imperial examination. He went to Nanjing with his friends to take the provincial examination. However, his talents were not as good as those of his companions, and he, a talented man who was well-known in the countryside, unexpectedly lost his reputation.
The next spring, his father passed away with regret. Accepting the lesson of his first failure, Wu Chengen devoted himself to studying Shi Wen in the next three years, but still failed to pass the examination in the autumn of the 13th year of Jiajing. Wu Cheng'en was filled with shame and resentment. This winter, he actually fell ill. The failure of two provincial examinations, coupled with the death of his father, had a heavy impact on Wu Chengen. In his opinion, if you fail to pass the exam, you will not only have no reason to pay, but you will also be a disgrace to your parents and ancestors. But he didn't think that he didn't pass the exam because he had no ability, but just because of bad luck. He believed that "fame and wealth have their own destiny. If you have to get it, is it crazy?"
Wu Chengen was unconventional and upright throughout his life. The reason why he is so talented but fails to succeed in many trials is probably related to his unwillingness to make remarks against his will to please his superiors. He hates the corrupt officialdom, is unwilling to go against his heart, and has a negative attitude towards the dark reality. He wrote in the poem "Erlang Searching the Mountains Picture Song": "The disasters of the people are found in the clothes, not for apes and cranes, but for sandworms. I sit and watch the five ghosts in the Song Dynasty, but I don't see Yu Ting punishing the four evil ones. The wild man is pregnant. I'm so grateful. I feel sorry for the evil in my chest. I want to save the moon but I can't help the sun. Is there no hero in the world? Who can protect me forever? "Qing Ning Gong." believes that the reason for the formation of "civilian disasters" and the ugliness of social reality is that the rulers use people poorly and let bad people like the "Five Ghosts" and "Four Evils" take charge. He wanted to "bring Linfeng", practice the "kingly way", and turn things around, but his talents were not recognized and his ambitions were not fulfilled. He could only be generous and sigh in the face of the wind.
The pressure brought by the difficult life on Wu Chengen was no less than the failure of the scientific examination. After his father passed away, he needed to take care of all the family's expenses, but he did not have the ability to support the family, let alone the means to support the family. The family's source of income, apart from receiving six buckets of rice from the school every month, they can only live on the inheritance left by their father.
Wu Chengen, who had tasted the ups and downs of social life, began to think more clearly and deeply about the problems of social life, and used his poems to fight against the unreasonable society.
Historical background of the writing of Journey to the West:
Monk Tang’s quest for Buddhist scriptures is a real thing in history. About 1,300 years ago, in the first year of Zhenguan (627) of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzang, a young monk who was only 25 years old, led a disciple to leave Chang'an, the capital, and went to Tianzhu (India) to study alone. After setting off from Chang'an, he passed through Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. When we passed through Gaochang Kingdom, the residents there highly praised Buddhism. The king was very happy to see that they were monks from the Tang Dynasty. He was willing to make them the protectors of the country, plus a hundred taels of gold and a thousand horses. The disciples were shaken and finally stayed in Gaochang State, while Xuanzang sneaked out and fled westward. Unexpectedly, he was intercepted by Gaochangguo soldiers. Unexpectedly, they came to escort Xuanzang to the west to obtain Buddhist scriptures. The soldier gave Xuanzang a white horse and some documents. Xuanzang was so grateful that he bowed a few times in the direction of the palace and then rode west. Xuanzang went through many hardships and dangers and finally reached India. He studied there for more than two years and served as a keynote speaker at a large-scale debate on Buddhist scriptures, where he received praise. In the 19th year of Zhenguan (645), Xuanzang returned to Chang'an and brought back 657 Buddhist scriptures. His journey to the West for Buddhist scriptures lasted for nineteen years and covered tens of thousands of miles. It was a legendary Long March that caused a sensation. Later, Xuanzang's oral account of his journey to the West was compiled into twelve volumes of "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" by his disciple Bianji. But this book mainly tells the history, geography and transportation of the countries seen on the road, without any stories. When his disciples Huili and Yan Cong wrote the "Biography of Master Tripitaka of the Great Ci'en Temple of the Tang Dynasty", it added a lot of mythological color to Xuanzang's experience. From then on, the story of Tang Monk's Buddhist scriptures began to be widely circulated among the people. The Southern Song Dynasty has "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty Searching for Buddhist Scriptures", the Jin Dynasty version has "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty", "Peach Club", etc., and the Yuan Dynasty dramas include Wu Changling's "The Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty Searching for Buddhist Scriptures from the West", and the unknown person's "The Great Sage Erlang Suo Qi", etc., all of which are The creation of "Journey to the West" laid the foundation. Wu Cheng'en also completed this great literary masterpiece that the Chinese nation is proud of after painstaking recreation based on folk legends, scripts, and operas.