Journey to the West was published on 1592. It was carved by a bookstore in Nanjing called Jinling Shidetang. At that time, there was no Wu Cheng'en's name, only a man named Chen mentioned it in Preface. This preface is important information, but Chen Yuan only left his name, life is unknown. The foreword said that The Journey to the West was bought by the bookstore owner, without leaving the author's name, but I heard that he came from Wang Fu, which may be written by Wang Ye or Wang Fu!

Therefore, some people think that Chen is the author, because in feudal society, novels are dirty, and the author may be afraid that others will know his real situation, so he will say that it is someone else's to confuse the line of sight. However, Chen was too vague about the situation and did not verify it. No one knows whether this person really exists or a pseudonym invented by the author of The Journey to the West to cover up his identity.

Later, it was speculated that The Journey to the West was written by Changchun real person Qiu Chuji, but this statement was quickly denied, because Qiu Chuji was actually written by Changchun real person The Journey to the West, telling the story that Qiu Chuji led his disciples to the Western Regions at the call of Genghis Khan. This statement only appears because the names of these two books are similar!

It was not until the 1920s that Mr. Lu Xun first proposed that the author of The Journey to the West was Wu Cheng'en, a middle-aged tribute student of Huai 'an Jiajing. It is based on the records of Huai 'an Prefecture in the Apocalypse of the Ming Dynasty. There is a simple record of "Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West" in Tongzhi, but it doesn't say what The Journey to the West is or what he said. Mr. Lu Xun's views have been supported by many famous scholars. Since then, various versions of The Journey to the West have been gradually signed by the author as Wu Cheng'en, known as "Wu Cheng'en Theory"!

After entering the 2 1 century, Beijing librarian Shen Chengqing verified that The Journey to the West was not written by Wu Cheng'en, but by Li Chunfang, the prime minister of Jiajing period in Ming Dynasty. Li Chunfang studied in Huayang Cave, Jiangsu Province when he was young, so he was called "Master Huayang Cave". Moreover, the teacher's morality hall is in the ninety-fifth journey to the west. There is such a poem that the old Li Man Spring Party left a trace, referring to the master Huayang Cave cited in the frontispiece Xue Ji, so there was The Journey to the West edited by Li Chunfang. In fact, it was suggested a long time ago that Li Chunfang was the author of The Journey to the West, but there was no evidence, so it ran aground.

At the same time, Shen Chengqing also suggested that Wu Cheng'en's works were actually called the West Lake, which was later circulated as The Journey to the West.

As soon as Shen Chengqing's point of view came out, there was a heated debate about the mystery of The Journey to the West's author in academic circles. Some people think that it is not convincing enough to identify the author only by a poem in The Journey to the West.

It is still controversial whether The Journey to the West's author is Wu Cheng'en first mentioned by Lu Xun or Li Chunfang mentioned by Shen Chengqing. To truly solve the mystery of The Journey to the West's author, more historical research, scientific argumentation and proof materials may be needed.