But this statement was questioned in the Qing Dynasty. The Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng'en, first a scholar in Qing Dynasty, then Ruan Kuisheng and Ding Yan responded. Qian Daxin said in the Postscript of Changchun Real Journey to the West: "The two volumes of Changchun Real Journey to the West described by disciple Li Zhichang are recorded in the customs of Daoli in the western regions. The world's fresh biography begins with copying Taoist scriptures. Folk novels in the village include The Romance of Tang Sanzang's Journey to the West written by the Ming Dynasty. Xiaoshan Mao is considered to be the hand of Qiu Chuji according to the Record of Dropping out of Farming. What Xi Yan Shu said is true. " Later, Ji Yun also found that Qiu Chuji's The Journey to the West theory was not credible, and thought that The Journey to the West was undoubtedly relied on by the Ming people. Later, Jiao Xun, Wang Peixun and other Qing scholars discussed this.
According to the above materials and the Apocalypse Record of Huai 'an Mansion, Lu Xun affirmed "Wu Cheng'en Theory" in A Brief History of Chinese Novels and Historical Changes of China Novels. "People in Journey to the West thought it was done by Qiu Changchun, a Taoist priest in the Yuan Dynasty, but it wasn't. Qiu Changchun himself also has three other volumes of The Journey to the West, which are Ji Xing's, and there is another one in Taoist Collection: But because of the same title, people mistakenly think it is one kind. People who carved The Journey to the West in the early Qing Dynasty took Yu Ji's Preface to Changchun's Journey to the West as the first topic, which made people believe that The Journey to the West was written by Qiu Changchun. -In fact, the author of Journey to the West is Wu Cheng'en, a native of Yangshan, Jiangsu. " Hu Shi also holds this view in The Journey to the West's textual research. After the affirmation of two masters, "Wu Cheng'en Theory" became the final conclusion of the 20th century.
In fact, in the 20th century, people questioned the "Wu Cheng'en Theory" from time to time and put forward new theories. The representative ones are Yu Pingbo's Refuting the Postscript and Interpretation of Vacuum Baojuan, Ota's Miscellaneous Examination of Journey to the West, and Zhang's Whether the Hundred Books of Journey to the West were Written by Wu Cheng'en. Later, the textual research on The Journey to the West's author aroused the interest of many people, including Huang Yongnian, Zhang, Zhang, Shen Chengqing and Li Angang. And put forward more than six viewpoints: saying, saying, the whole truth, Zhu Guanhuo, Zhu Mumu and Fan Shan. These statements are mostly speculation, and there is no convincing evidence. There are some doubts about Wu Cheng'en's theory, such as "Journey to the West is not necessarily the novel The Journey to the West, but another book, because Huang Yuxi in the early Qing Dynasty listed it in the category of geography, and this book is probably not a novel" and so on.
Li Chunfang said: Hu Shi and Lu Xun once demonstrated that The Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng'en, a native of Huai 'an. In recent years, Shen Chengqing's book On Wu Cheng'en —— The Secret of the Author of Journey to the West, published by Beijing Library Press, puts forward that The Journey to the West was Li Chunfang, the "Prime Minister of Qing Ci" in Ming Dynasty.
Li Chunfang, a native of Xinghua County, Yangzhou Prefecture in Ming Dynasty, was the top scholar in Jiajing period. Because he is good at writing "Qing Ci", he was promoted to Zaifu. When I was a child, I studied in Huayang Cave, Jiangsu Province, so I was also called "Master Huayang Cave". There is a poem by The Journey to the West in the ninety-fifth chapter: "The sky is full of fragrance, and a barren mountain suddenly smells fragrant;" The rainbow flows through the Qinghai River and the Sea for thousands of years, and electricity travels around Changchun and the Tang Dynasty. Flowers and trees are elegant, and wild flowers are moist and fragrant. Ancient elders left behind relics, and now I am glad that Mingjun lost the Jubao Hall. "Mr. Shen found that the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh sentences of this poem all implied the meaning of" the old man left a mark ",which was consistent with Huayang Dong Tian Teachers College.
Hu Shi and Lu Xun claimed that Wu Cheng'en was the author of The Journey to the West according to the book "Revelation of Huai 'an Mansion" to be published tomorrow. Wu Cheng'en wrote West Lake and Ten Gardens.
Shen Chengqing, the former librarian of the Library of China Academy of Sciences, didn't understand The Journey to the West's chapters 93, 94 and 95, hoping that Wensheng would give meaning to Spring in Li Fang and The Old Man in Li Chunfang. (Li Chunfang "wrote" in Yi 'antang Collection, but "corrected" in Journey to the West)