Mr. Jin Yong's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" made Qiu Chuji, the head of the Quanzhen School, a household name, people know that he is a martial arts master who cherishes his family and country, and he is also a Taoist patriarch with fairy wind and good eyebrows, but I don't know that he can write novels in addition to drawing talismans and copying scriptures, and he still writes "Journey to the West", one of the four famous novels, but we have always known that the author of "Journey to the West" is Wu Chengen, what is going on?
In 1663, Wang Xiangxu checked and engraved the "New Engraved Hologram Ancient Book of Journey to the West". In this book, Wang Xiangxu chose a "Journey to the West Original Preface" by the Yuan Dynasty writer Yu Ji (later identified as a forgery), in which the author claimed that the author of this book was Qiu Chuji, the first generation of the Quanzhen Sect, and at the same time attached two articles in the book, "The Biography of Qiu Changchun Zhenjun" and "Xuanzang's Strategies for Studying the Scriptures". The book quickly became popular with its comprehensive preface, vivid characters, and rich and fascinating plots. It is highly respected by famous writers and historians in history, making this version one of the more important versions of "Journey to the West".
So throughout the Qing Dynasty starting from Kangxi, almost everyone thought that the author of "Journey to the West" was Qiu Chuji.
However, there are also many people who have expressed doubts, and the university scholar Ji Xiaolan said that Qiu Daochang was a person from the late Song Dynasty, but in this version of "Journey to the West", there were official positions such as the Soldiers and Horses Division and the Master of Ceremonies that only existed in the Ming Dynasty, which obviously did not match the author's era. Although Qiu Daochang is excellent in Taoist immortal skills, it is impossible for him to travel from the late Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty to give the characters in "Journey to the West" an official position in the Ming Dynasty.
So the second question arises: since Qiu Chuji is unlikely to be the author of the book, who agrees that Wu Chengen is the author of "Journey to the West"?
Until the Republic of China, people generally believed that Qiu Chuji was the real author of "Journey to the West", although Ji Xiaolan questioned the author's inconsistency in age, but no one could say a convincing author to fill in the blanks.
During the New Culture Movement, Hu Shi clarified a point of view: Wu Chengen is the real author of "Journey to the West". This argument is still adopted by many publishing houses today, and Wu Chengen's name is printed on the cover of each new edition of "Journey to the West".
Hu Shi said that he had read the words "Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West" in the "Huai'an Mansion Chronicles", so he showed it to Lu Xun, and Lu Xun immediately continued to verify it with Hu Shi, and finally found the same record in the "Qianqingtang Bibliography" by Huang Yuji, a scholar at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Huang Yuji once participated in the compilation of the "History of the Ming Dynasty", and later returned to his hometown due to his mother's funeral, during which he sorted out the "Qianqingtang Bibliography". Huang Yuji is the main compiler of the "History of the Ming Dynasty", of course it is impossible for such a famous person to lie, so Hu Shi and Lu Xun immediately wrote an article to announce the news, and since then, one of the four famous works we are familiar with, the interesting "Journey to the West" began to be surnamed Wu.
But this assertion has also been questioned by many scholars, including those in Japan and the United Kingdom. Since the 80s of the last century, a large number of modern Chinese literature experts led by the domestic scholar Zhang Peiheng and the American oriental historian Du Qiaode have questioned the authenticity of Wu Chengen's copyright. From Wu Chengen's education, background, beliefs, family education origins, and life experience, it is impossible for him to write such a strange book with considerable attainments in Buddhism, Taoism, and even Confucianism.
To this day, in our generally accepted education system, the author of "Journey to the West" is still the person named Wu Chengen, because no one can say a more convincing author, just like before May Fourth, no one dared to carry a "Journey to the West" except Qiu Chuji. Then the next question comes naturally:
Why didn't the author of "Journey to the West" mark his name before his work?
Throughout the hundreds of years since the birth of "Journey to the West", there have been no less than 20 authors who have been verified by experts and scholars, most of whom have long been famous, and they have blended with the original works regardless of knowledge, experience, and era.
The most widely circulated and influential version of "Journey to the West" that we see now comes from the famous engraved family Shidetang, the full name is "Journey to the West (Edition) of the New Engraved Big-character Official Board", and other popular and well-known versions in the world are in addition to the above-mentioned "New Engraved Hologram Ancient Book of Journey to the West", as well as Yang Zhihe's version of "Journey to the West" and Zhu Dingchen's version of "Tang Sanzang's Journey to the West". But no matter which version it is, without exception the author is not indicated. For example, in the Shidetang version of "Journey to the West", only the words "Huayang Dongtian Master School" are marked on the cover: the master of the cave is just proofreading and correcting, and the original author is not mentioned at all, and even who the master of the cave is.
No matter who completes such a great work, he must not lose the opportunity to leave his name in history, but why not leave his name, why is this?
In fact, looking back at the history of China, the literary prison has lasted for thousands of years, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties when "Journey to the West" was written, and the persecution of literati and scholars was almost to the point of inexplicable prevention. During the Kangxi period, the famous "Nanshan Collection Case", because of the "Nanshan Collection", the scholar Dai Mingshi was executed by Ling Chi, and the men of the Dai family over 16 years old were immediately beheaded, and even Wang Hao and Fang Bao, who wrote the preface to the "Nanshan Collection", were also beheaded, and the three clans of Fang Zhengyu and others who published the "Nanshan Collection" were assigned to the army, because more than 300 people were implicated in a book; Hanlin Xu Jun because of a moment of negligence to write "Your Majesty" mistakenly as "under the fox", and then was dismissed as a people, someone found out in Xu Jun's poetry collection that "Qingfeng is illiterate, what is the matter with turning the book", "Mingyue has affection and cares for me, Qingfeng has no intention of leaving no one", so Emperor Yongzheng was sentenced to slander the current dynasty and the old dynasty.
Because of a poem or a typo, many literati did not dare to write books, but they did not vomit unpleasantly, so Pu Songling, who wrote ghost stories to hide the deep meaning, spit out his anger with the mouth of ghosts and gods. But "Journey to the West", which slapped the face of Buddhism and spit out Taoist saliva, even scolded Confucianism thoroughly, and also implied disappointment and dissatisfaction with the real society everywhere.
So, as of today, the author of "Journey to the West", an immortal work that has been handed down to the world, is only unknown to anyone.