Wu Chengen?[wú chéng ēn]

Wu Chengen (1500-1582), whose courtesy name was Ruzhong and also known as Sheyangshanren. A native of Shanyang County, Huai'an Prefecture (now Huai'an District, Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province). His ancestral home is Anqing, Anhui Province. An outstanding novelist of the Ming Dynasty in China, he is the author of "Journey to the West", one of the four classic Chinese classics. Wu Chengen was rich in creations throughout his life, but due to his poverty and childlessness, many of his works were lost. It is recorded that the collection of novels about ghosts and ghosts, "Yuding Ji", has been lost. Sun Qiudu, Wu Chengen's nephew, collected his remaining manuscripts and found only "eleven in a thousand", including one volume of poetry and three volumes of prose. Later generations compiled his poems and essays into "Mr. Sheyang's Manuscripts".

Chinese name

Wu Chengen

Foreign name

Wu Chengen

Alias

Wu Ruzhong, a native of Sheyangshan, Wu family in Gaodian

Nationality

Chinese

Ethnicity

Han

Place of birth

Huaian, Jiangsu

Date of birth

1500 (Year of Gengshen)

Date of death

1582 Year

Occupation

Writer

Belief

Buddhism

Main Achievements

Creation One of the four famous works, "Journey to the West", a collection of strange novels, "Yuding Ji"

Representative works

"Journey to the West", "Collection of Sheyang", "Preface to Spring and Autumn Biographies"

Ancestral Place

Gaodian, Yutan Township, Songyang County, Anqing, Anhui

Contents

1 Biographies

2 Creative Background of Personal Works Journey to the West Content and Impact of Journey to the West

3 Character Evaluation

4 Introduction to Family History and Historical Materials Introduction to the Wu Family

5 Anecdotes and Allusions Restoration of Wu Chengen’s Tomb Suspense of Wu Chengen’s Works

6 related films and TV shows

1 character life editing

Still photos of the six-year-old version of Wu Chengen (5 photos)

The Thirteenth Year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty (1500) Wu Cheng'en was born in Shanyang County, Huai'an Prefecture, into a family that was reduced from an academic officer to a businessman. His family was poor. His father Wu Rui had an optimistic and broad-minded personality and pursued the Changle philosophy. He named him Cheng'en, with the courtesy name Ruzhong. I hope he can study and become an official, inherit the emperor's favor, benefit the people, and become a loyal minister who will leave a name in history.

Wu Chengen has been smart since he was a child, and he likes to read unofficial histories and novels about strange things. "I love the biographies of Tang people such as Niu Qizhang and Duan Ke. They are good at describing things and situations, and I want to write a book about them every time." At a young age, he was famous in Huaihe for his literary works." He was highly appreciated by the officials, celebrities and gentry. "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicle" records that he was "sensitive and intelligent, and he was well versed in writing and writing poems."

In the eighth year of Jiajing (1529), Wu Chengen went to Longxi Academy founded by Ge Mu, the prefect of Huai'an, and was appreciated by Ge Mu.

In the 29th year of Jiajing (1550), Wu Chengen was about 50 years old before he was able to make up for one year old Gongsheng student. He went to Beijing to wait for an official position, but was not selected.

In the thirty-fifth year of Jiajing (1556), because his mother's hometown was poor, he became the magistrate of Changxing County, Zhejiang Province. He often drank heavily with his friend Zhu Yuefan, focusing on poetry and wine, and was with Shen, the champion of Jiajing. Kun, the poet Xu Zhongxing has contacts.

In the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing (1558), he was finally falsely accused and "returned". In his later years, he made a living by selling literature. He went to Hangzhou when he was about sixty-seven and lived for about 82 years. In his later years, his family was wealthy and he returned home.

2 personal works editors

Main article: Journey to the West

Creative background

Wu Chengen was diligent and studious when he was a child. 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 calligraphy 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".

In addition to being diligent and studious, he also loves to read books about gods, ghosts, lemurs, and monkey spirits. Novels or unofficial histories such as "Hundred Monsters" and "Youyang Zazu" and other colorful mythological worlds have subtly developed a hobby of searching for strange things and hunting monsters. As the age increases, this hobby has some It continued unabated, which had a major 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 stopped for many years for some reasons. 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", which lasted 7 years. .

His frustration in officialdom and difficulties in life deepened his understanding of the feudal imperial examination system and the dark social reality, prompting him to use the form of fantasy novels to express his inner dissatisfaction and resentment. He said to himself: "Although the title of my book is Zhiguai, it does not cover ghosts. It actually records the changes in the human world and provides some warning." Wu Cheng'en also wrote a short story collection "Yu Ding Zhi", but it has been lost. , only one self-preface can be seen. There has been controversy in academic circles as to whether the author of "Journey to the West" is Wu Chengen. Some scholars believe that the author of "Journey to the West" is not Wu Chengen, but Li Chunfang, the "Qingci Prime Minister" of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty.

Wu Chengen's outstanding novel "Journey to the West" is based on Master Xuanzang's experience of going to Tianzhu to study Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty. On the basis of it, it was sorted out, conceived and finally written. The work expresses the author's dissatisfaction with reality and his desire to change reality with the help of mythical characters, reflecting the author's political ideal of establishing a kingly way of governing the country with "kings, virtuous gods, and gods." The novel uses the eighty-one difficulties that Tang Monk and his disciples experienced on the way to learn Buddhist scriptures to reflect various situations in the real world. The novel has bold imagination and novel conception. It uses the trinity of human, god and beast to create characters, creating immortal artistic images such as Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie. The whole book is tightly organized, complex but not chaotic. The language is lively and vivid, mixed with dialects and slang, and is full of life. The theme dilutes the original religious color of the story, greatly enriches the realistic content of the work, and has a democratic tendency and the characteristics of the times. The work is satirical and humorous. It presents a unique style that is different from previous Buddhist scripture stories.

The emergence of "Journey to the West" opened up a new category of long chapter novels about gods and demons. The book's clever combination of good-natured ridicule, bitter satire and serious criticism directly influenced satirical novels. development. "Journey to the West" is the peak of romanticism in ancient novels. In the history of world literature, it is also a masterpiece of romanticism. The "American Encyclopedia" considers it "a mythical novel with rich content and brilliant ideas", and the "French Encyclopedia" says: "The descriptions of the stories in the book are full of humor and fun, giving readers strong interest." From Since the 19th century, it has been translated into more than ten languages ??including Japanese, English, French, German, Russian, and became popular in the world.

Most of Wu Chengen's poems and essays are scattered and lost, but there are 4 volumes of "Mr. Sheyang's Manuscripts" compiled by later generations. The first chapter of "Journey to the West" written by Wu Cheng'en, "The Monkey King is Born", was selected into the 21st lesson of the second semester of the fifth grade Chinese language published by the People's Education Press. "Three Beats of White-Bone Demons" was selected as the eighth lesson for sixth graders in the Jiangsu Education Edition. In addition, "Huaguo Mountain Supports the Monkey King" was selected into the 31st lesson of the second semester of the sixth grade Chinese language published by the Shanghai Education Press. "Sun Wukong Beats the Bone Demon with a Stick" was also selected into the 32nd lesson of the second semester of the sixth grade Chinese language published by the Shanghai Education Press. Selected text "The Monkey King is Born" for fifth grade People's Education Press, Volume 2, Lesson 21. "The Lesser Sage Conquers the Great Sage" is selected from the seventh grade volume of the Literary Education Edition, Lesson 26.