In the autumn of the sixth year of Qin Long in the Ming Dynasty (1572), Li Shizhen resigned as a judge of the Imperial Palace and returned to his hometown to write Compendium of Materia Medica. Wang Jing gave a banquet for him, and Wu Cheng'en, who is 18 years older than Li Shizhen, was also present.

Seeing that Wu Cheng'en was weak, Li Shizhen presented 32 kinds of medicinal materials with 70% aged grain wine, which has the effects of strengthening tendons and bones, resisting wind and promoting blood circulation, strengthening kidney and protecting liver, nourishing yin and strengthening yang, benefiting qi and strengthening brain, calming the heart and sleeping, and prolonging life. He also prepared this wine for Wu Cheng'en. Therefore, they became good friends.

Because The Journey to the West and Compendium of Materia Medica were written by the authors in their later years, they often climbed mountains together and discussed problems with each other, so Wu Cheng'en learned a lot of medical knowledge from Li Shizhen. In addition, most ancient scholars also studied medicine. The communication between literature and medicine made Wu Cheng'en incorporate many medical elements in the process of creating The Journey to the West.

Wu Cheng'en:

Wu Cheng'en (about 1500- 1582) was born in He Xia, Shanyang County, Huai 'an Prefecture, South Zhili (now Huai 'an, Jiangsu Province), and his ancestral home is Anton. Ming dynasty writers.

Since childhood, Wu Cheng'en has been reading extensively in Minhui, especially fond of fairy tales. Good at painting and calligraphy, versatile. He was repeatedly defeated in the imperial examination, and was promoted to a tribute student during Jiajing period. In the 28th year of Jiajing (1549), he moved to Nanjing to make a living by selling documents.

In the thirty-ninth year of Jiajing (1560), he served as a county official in Changxing, Zhejiang Province, and soon resigned and returned. Because of his difficult career, he never wanted to be an official in his later years, wrote a book behind closed doors and died at home.