Wu Cheng'en

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Lore & Background

Wu Cheng'en's authorship of *Journey to the West* is traditionally ascribed to him, but the question is complicated by the fact that much of the novel's material originated from folk tales. Anthony C. Yu, writing in 2012, warned that 'this vexing dispute over the novel's authorship, similar to that on the priority of its textual versions, see-sawed back and forth for nearly a century without resolution.' Hu Shih, literary scholar and former Chancellor of Peking University, wrote in 1942 that the novel was thought to have been written and published anonymously by Wu Cheng'en. He reasoned that the people of Wu's hometown attributed it to him early on, and kept records to that effect as early as 1625; thus, claimed Hu, *Journey to the West* was one of the earliest Chinese novels for which the authorship is officially documented. More recent scholarship casts doubts on this attribution. Brown University Chinese literature scholar David Lattimore stated in 1983: 'The Ambassador's confidence was quite unjustified. What the gazetteer says is that Wu wrote something called *The Journey to the West*. It mentions nothing about a novel. The work in question could have been any version of our story, or something else entirely.' Translator W. J. F. Jenner pointed out that although Wu had knowledge of Chinese bureaucracy and politics, the novel itself does not include any political details that 'a fairly well-read commoner could not have known.' Regardless of the origins and authorship, *Journey to the West* has become the authoritative version of these folk stories, and while the cumulative authorship of the text is acknowledged, Wu is generally accepted as the author of the 1592 printed version widely considered canonical.

Reader's Guide

Wu Cheng'en's significance rests primarily on his association with *Journey to the West*, a foundational work of Chinese literature. The modern 100-chapter form of the novel dates from the 16th century. Embellished stories based on Xuanzang's journey to India had circulated in China through oral storytelling for centuries. They appeared in book form as early as the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). The Yongle Encyclopedia, completed in 1408, contains excerpts of a version of the story written in colloquial Chinese. The earliest surviving edition of *Journey to the West* was published in 1592 in Nanjing. Two earlier editions were published between 1522 and 1566, but no copies of them survive. One interpretive tradition views *Journey to the West* as the outcome of a writing game which was popular among Chinese literati. The overall plot was 'already a part of Chinese folk and literary tradition in the form of folk stories with informal language,' a poetic novelette, and a six-part drama play series, which was transcribed and written down, before the current version was written. Fragments of an earlier text, *Journey to the West as Storytelling*, are recorded in other texts. The narrative threads from this earlier text which survive are the wager between the Dragon King of the Jing River and fortune teller Yuan Shoucheng and the contest between the pilgrims and the three Taoist demons in Cart Slow Kingdom. Wu is generally accepted as the author of the 1592 printed version widely considered canonical.

Did You Know?

• The earliest surviving edition of *Journey to the West* was published in 1592 in Nanjing.
• Two earlier editions were published between 1522 and 1566, but no copies of them survive.
• The Yongle Encyclopedia, completed in 1408, contains excerpts of a version of the story written in colloquial Chinese.
• The novel has been described as arguably the most popular literary work in East Asia.
• The novel was widely known in English-speaking countries through Arthur Waley's 1942 abridged translation *Monkey*.