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, wrote a book behind closed doors and died at home.
Modern scholars generally believe that Wu Cheng'en is the last finisher of The Journey to the West, one of China's four classical masterpieces.