Wu Cheng'en was born in a family that was reduced from a junior official to a small businessman. His father, Wu Rui, was optimistic and broad-minded, so he was named Cheng En, whose name was Ruzhong. I hope he can study as an official and be a loyal minister in history. When Wu Cheng'en was a child, he was eager to learn and read and recite quickly. He is good at painting, calligraphy, lyrics and Go, and he also likes to collect Fa Tie's famous paintings.
Wu Cheng'en was encouraged and helped by Li Chunfang, a famous official. He used to be Jingfu Jishan, an idle post with the same level as Xiancheng. During this period, he was actively influenced by folk literature and was particularly interesting. He befriended Chen, a Huai official, and the Collection of Flowers and Plants compiled by Chen was of great significance to his The Journey to the West creation.
Wu Cheng'en's main achievements
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 dark social reality, so he used strange novels to express his inner dissatisfaction and resentment.
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 above contents refer to Baidu Encyclopedia-Wu Cheng'en.