Wu Chengen (about 1500-about 1582), courtesy name Ruzhong and nickname Sheyangshan, was a native of Shanyang County, Huai'an Prefecture (now Huai'an, Jiangsu Province).
Wu Chengen was born into a family of low-level officials who became small businessmen. His father Wu Rui had an optimistic and open-minded personality and pursued the philosophy of Changle. He named him Chengen with the courtesy name Ruzhong, which means that he hoped that he could study. Be an official, inherit the emperor's grace, benefit the people, and be a loyal minister who will leave a name in history. Wu Chengen was diligent and studious when he was a child. He could read ten lines at a glance and recite what he saw. 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 Unabated. This had a significant influence on his creation of "Journey to the West". After the age of 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 he interrupted it for many years. 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".
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 is wild and unruly, he is well behaved and loyal to his wife.
In the tenth year of Jiajing's reign, Wu Chengen obtained excellent results in the provincial school age examination and scientific examination, qualified as a member of the imperial examination, and 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 talent was not recognized and his ambition was 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.
He was once appointed to the "Yongle Dadian" of the main school. There is a poem in the 95th chapter of "Journey to the West": "The sky is full of colorful auspicious mist and fragrance, and a barren mountain is suddenly auspicious; the rainbow flows for thousands of years, clearing the rivers and seas, and electricity surrounds Saiyu Tang in Changchun. The grace of the grass and trees adds beauty, and the wild flowers bloom There is lingering fragrance. The elders have left traces in ancient times, and now I am happy that the Ming Lord has descended into the treasure hall." Mr. Shen found that the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh sentences of this poem imply "the traces left by the old man Li Chunfang" and the title "Huayang". Dongtianzhuxiao" refers to "the compilation of "Journey to the West".
The basis for Hu Shi and Lu Xun's assertion that Wu Chengen was the author of "Journey to the West" is the "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicle" written by Tomorrow Qijian, which records that Wu Chengen wrote "Journey to the West", but does not explain what kind of book it is. In the Qing Dynasty, Xianfeng reprinted the "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicle" and deleted this article.
At the end of 1983, Mr. Zhang Peiheng pointed out in "Whether the 100-chapter version of "Journey to the West" was written by Wu Cheng'en" that in the more than 300 years from the publication of "Journey to the West" to the 1920s, various The publication may be signed as edited by Zhu Dingchen, or only signed as Huayang Dongtianzhu without the author's name, or written by Qiu Chuji. None of the publications acknowledges Wu Chengen's copyright. Hu Shi's 1921 "Preface to Journey to the West" also said that this work "was written by an unknown novelist after the middle of the Ming Dynasty." Later, Mr. Lu Xun strongly advocated that Wu Chengen said that Hu Shi had obtained the materials copied by Lu Xun to him, and he also held this opinion in "A Textual Research on "Journey to the West"". However, a closer look at their research shows that there are two indirect materials and only one direct material.
Indirect material 1: Wu Yuqi (1698-1773) "Shanyang Zhiyi" Volume 4:
Tianqi's old "Zhi" (referring to Tianqi's "Huai'an Prefecture") Mr. Lie ( Referring to Wu Cheng'en) as the head of the modern literary field, he said: "Sensitive and intelligent, he has a wide range of books, he is the author of poems and essays, he is also good at humor, and he has written several kinds of miscellaneous notes, which made him famous for a while." I didn't know why the miscellaneous notes were such a book at first. I also read "Huaixian Wenmu", which recorded "Journey to the West" as written by Mr. According to the examination of "Journey to the West", it was originally called the Book of Zhengdao, which is said to be in line with the main purpose of Jindan, and the Taoist Garden of Yuan Dynasty was in order. It is said that this book was written by Qiu Changchun, a real person in the early period of his country; and the county annals said that it was written by Mr. Chu. When the apocalypse comes, the teacher is not far away, and his words must have a basis. It means that this record was written in the early spring of Changchun, and Mr. Zhi wrote a popular romance about it, such as Chen Shou in the "Three Kingdoms" version, and Luo Guanzhong in "The Romance". There are many dialects of my hometown in the book, and there is no doubt that they were written by Huai people. Or it is said: There is "Journey to the West" written by Mr. Sheyang.
It has been nearly two hundred years since Wu Yujie published "Journey to the West", and the only basis for his judgment is "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicles" written by Ming Qi. His right to speak is actually about the same as ours.
Indirect material 2: Ruan Kuisheng (1727-1789) "Cha Yu Ke Hua" Volume 21:
According to the old "Zhi", it is said that Sheyang is sensitive and intelligent, which is a poem The writing is complete and full of humor, and there are several kinds of miscellaneous notes. Unfortunately, the title of the miscellaneous notes is not noted, but "Huaixian Wenmu" contains the popular romance "Journey to the West" written by Sheyang. This book became popular at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and people in the alleys loved to talk about it, but it had never been heard of before. ...According to Ming County Chronicles, it is said to have been written by Sheyang, and Sheyang went to cultivate his ambitions not far away. How can he be listed in the popular Yuan Dynasty novels? Perhaps there was this record at the beginning of Changchun, and the story of Sheyang was based on the story, which is a very bizarre and miraculous view of the world; just like the "Zuo Shi" has the "Zhi of the Nations", and the "Three Kingdoms" has the "Yanyi". Judging from the dialects and slangs in them, they are all spoken in the streets of Huaishang, and women and children in the alleys and markets can all understand them. However, people from other places do not always read them the same way, so there is no doubt that they were written by the Huai people.
The only basis for judgment here is Tianqi's "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicles". According to Mr. Lu Xun's analysis, Ruan Kuisheng actually wrote it based on the fourth volume of Wu Yu?'s "Shanyang Chronicles" because it followed that book The "Fushan Comedy" in "Huai'an Prefecture" was mistakenly written as "Fushan Comedy". Both Wu and Ruan mentioned the Huaishang dialect in the book, but they both confirmed that Wu Chengen's work was circumstantial evidence after the novel "Journey to the West". However, there has been a big debate in the academic circles about the dialect issue in the novel. In the early Qing Dynasty, Huang Taihong's "Journey to the West Zhengdao Book Postscript" already stated: "There are many Jinling dialects in the chapter." In the Qing Dynasty, others who claimed Wu Chengen as the author include Ding Yan's "The Continuation of Shiting Chronicles" and Jiao Xun's "The Story of Drama". However, they either relied on "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicles" or "Cha Yu Ke Hua", which means that they will There is actually only one basis for awarding the copyright to Wu Chengen.
Direct materials: Tianqi's "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicles" Volume 19 "Art and Literature Chronicles" 1 "Huai Xian Literature Catalog":
Wu Cheng'en: "Sheyang Collection" in four oral volumes; "Preface to the Spring and Autumn Biographies"; "Journey to the West".
Based on this piece of material, Mr. Zhang Peiheng made arguments from both positive and negative aspects.
Front:
"Huai'an Prefecture" does not indicate the number of volumes or chapters of Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West", nor does it indicate the nature of the chapter. In history, there are often two works with the same name. For example, in the early Qing Dynasty, Shen Qian and Tang Sunhua each had a "Dongjiang Collection", and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a novel called "The Story of Ruyijun". Anguo, who is about twenty years older than Wu Chengen, also wrote "Journey to the West", but it was a travelogue. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West" is the 100-chapter version of "Journey to the West".
Reverse side:
The geography category of Volume 8 of the "Qianqingtang Bibliography" of the famous bibliophile Huang Yuji in the early Qing Dynasty has the following description:
Tang Hezheng's "Southern China" Three volumes of "Journey to the West" by Wu Cheng'en and one volume of "Journey to the Siming Mountains" by Shen Mingchen
It was more than half a century since "Journey to the West" was first published in the 20th year of Wanli (1592). It is already a well-known book, but Huang Yuji clearly classified Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West" into the geography category, which shows that the book is only a travel note in a general sense, just like Wu Chengen's contemporaries wrote "Journey to the East" and "Journey to the East". It's the same as travel notes like "Journey to the South".
Experts believe that there have been various opinions about the author of "Journey to the West", and most of them deny that it was written by Wu Cheng'en. Some people also believe that Li Chunfang was the author of "Journey to the West" in the past. It is not convincing enough to imply that Li Chunfang is based on a poem in "Journey to the West". This can only be the opinion of one family. To truly unravel the historical mystery of the author of "Journey to the West", we need to further unearth more first-hand information.