Wu family tree, Wu Cheng'en ancestral home of Anton, which is now Lianshui County, Huai 'an City. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, Wu moved to Huai 'an River and had been in Wu Cheng'en for five generations. Great-grandfather Wu Ding is a civilian, and great-grandfather Wu Ming once taught Confucianism in Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province.
My grandfather, Zhen Wu, was imperial academy, who practiced Confucianism in Renhe County, Zhejiang Province (now Hangzhou). His father married the Xu family when he was an adult, and the Xu family only gave birth to a daughter named Wu Chengjia.
He married Zhang, a member of his family, and gave birth to Wu Cheng'en. When Wu Cheng'en was young, he married his great granddaughter Ye, gave birth to a son, named him, and died unfortunately.
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Wu Cheng'en grew up smart and read widely. He especially likes reading some novels by unofficial history and Zhi Guai, and also imitates some plots in the book and writes several similar books. Therefore, he is quite famous in Huai 'an.
In the eighth year of Jiajing (1529), Wu Cheng'en was appreciated by Ge Mu, then the magistrate of Huai 'an, and entered Longxi Academy run by Ge Mu. Zhu, a celebrity at that time, thought that Wu Cheng'en could read books all over the world.
So he gave half of his books to Wu Cheng'en, which greatly broadened Wu Cheng'en's horizons. Wu Cheng'en is famous for his talent. He can write poetry. His writing is elegant and fluent. He has the charm of Qin Shaoyou, a famous person in the Song Dynasty. He is also good at calligraphy, painting and Go.
Originally, everyone thought that he would soon be admitted to the Imperial Examination High School, but Wu Cheng'en repeatedly hit a wall in the imperial examination room and failed many times, failing in Sun Shan. However, Wu Cheng'en's interest in mystery novels has not diminished.
Looking for anecdotes everywhere to enrich his knowledge laid a solid foundation for his later writing. In the 29th year of Jiajing (1550), Wu Cheng'en, who was nearly 50 years old, made up a year's tribute and worked in the capital.
However, Wu Cheng'en was born in a poor family and didn't have the money to get through the joints, so he was not selected. Six years later, with the help of his good friend and then senior cabinet minister, he became Cheng of Changxing County, Zhejiang Province.
During his time as an official, Wu Cheng'en often drank with friends, expressed affection between poetry and wine, and interacted with local celebrities. But soon, because Wu Cheng'en was falsely accused and saw the darkness of officialdom, he resigned and went to live in Nanjing.
At that time, Wu Cheng'en's officialdom fell, his family was poor, and he was depressed, so he decided to write a wonderful book to express his depression and dissatisfaction.
At that time, according to the fact that Xuanzang, a monk of the Tang Dynasty, went to India alone to study Buddhist teachings, the story of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty and the great master Keats Sanzang was widely circulated among the people.
In order to publicize Xuanzang's achievements, the description of Xuanzang has some mythical colors, and based on this, the images of Erlang God, Monkey Walker and Friar Sand are derived. Wu Cheng'en decided to sort out and enrich these contents and write a novel by Xuanzang.
It took Wu Cheng'en eight years to write The Journey to the West, China's first novel about ghosts and gods, with more than 600,000 words in chapter 100, and created classic images such as the Monkey King and Pig Bajie.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Wu Cheng'en