According to Wen Wei Po, Shen Chengqing was born in 19 19. Graduated from the Department of Library Science in Peking University, and worked as a western language cataloger in the Library of China Academy of Sciences. He was interested in studying The Journey to the West, but failed to do so for various reasons. After 1980s, Mr. Shen consulted all kinds of materials of ancient and modern The Journey to the West editions, and he had a strong desire to study The Journey to the West's authors. After the 1990s, Mr. Shen spent another five years studying The Journey to the West as an official. Mr. Shen died in May last year.
Mr. Shen's textual research idea is: starting with the word "Huayang Master" at the beginning of The Journey to the West of Shidetang, comparing the story changes, additions, deletions, changes and developments of Biography of Hubei by Yang Zhi The Journey to the West and Zhu, demonstrating the writing process of the novel, rationalizing the publishing order of the three versions, and organically combining the thoughts of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism embodied in them. Mr. Shen consulted a large number of documents, used his professional knowledge in bibliography, edition, history and local chronicles, carefully combed and verified that The Journey to the West had nothing to do with Wu Cheng'en. The real author should be Li Chunfang, the "Prime Minister of Qing Ci" in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty.
Mr. Shen pointed out that Wu Cheng'en had a poem "To the Foot of the Mountain", and the stone at the foot of the mountain was named. Li, a native of Xinghua, Jiangsu Province, was the number one scholar in Jiajing period. He was promoted to Zaifu because of his excellent writing of Qing Ci. When I was a child, I studied in Huayang Cave, Jiangsu, so I was nicknamed "Master Huayang Cave". He was appointed as the Yongle ceremony of the general school. There is a poem by The Journey to the West in the ninety-fifth chapter: "Colorful fragrance, a barren mountain suddenly smells fragrant;" The rainbow flows through the Qinghai River for thousands of years, and electricity travels around Changchun to the west to travel to 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 implied "the old friend stayed behind", and the frontispiece "Huayang Dong Tian Teachers College" meant "making up a journey to the west".
Hu Shi and Lu Xun claimed that Wu Cheng'en was the author of The Journey to the West on the basis of The Records of Huai 'an Prefecture, which will be published tomorrow. The record records that Wu Cheng'en is The Journey to the West, but it doesn't explain why such a book was published. Xianfeng reprinted Huai 'an County Records in Qing Dynasty, and deleted this article.
According to Mr. Shen's textual research, Wu Cheng'en wrote the West Lake, and The Journey to the West should be the mistake of the West Lake.
Experts believe that there are always different opinions about the author of The Journey to the West, and most of them deny that it was written by Wu Cheng'en. According to the information he has, Mr. Shen further proves that he is the real author of The Journey to the West. Others think that The Journey to the West's author was suggested to be Li Chunfang in the past. Mr. Shen only hinted from a poem in The Journey to the West, which is unconvincing. This can only be a family opinion. To truly solve the historical mystery of The Journey to the West's author, we need to further explore more first-hand information.