Wu Cheng'en likes studying in Minhui since he was a child. He is smart and well-read. When he was young, he wrote famous works in the countryside. The Records of Huai 'an Prefecture recorded that he was "quick and wise, rich in books, and wrote for poetry." I hoped to enter the imperial examination in my early years, but the scientific examination was unfavorable. I didn't make up for the "year-old tribute student" until after middle age. Later, I lived in Nanjing and subsidized my family by selling goods for a long time. In his later years, he returned to his hometown, indulged in poetry and wine, and was poor and sick.
Since childhood, Wu Cheng'en likes reading wild stories and is familiar with ancient myths and folklore. The frustration of the imperial examination hall and the hardships of life deepened his understanding of the feudal imperial examination system and the dark social reality, which prompted him to express his inner dissatisfaction and resentment in the form of strange novels. He 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 the peak of romanticism in ancient novels and a masterpiece of romanticism in the history of world literature. Encyclopedia americana thinks it is "a mythical novel with rich contents and brilliant ideas", while The French Encyclopedia says: "The description of the whole story is full of humor and wit, which gives readers strong interest." Since19th century, it has been translated into more than ten languages, including Japanese, English, French, German and Russian.
Wu Cheng'en wrote many poems, essays and words in his life, and most of them died after his death. The Sheyang Survival Draft compiled by later generations consists of four volumes, including poetry 1 volume, prose 3 volumes and 38 short poems at the end of the volume.