Editing Wu Cheng'en (section)

==Literary work==
===''Journey to the West''===
[[File:Evl53201b pic.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A page from the earliest-known edition of ''Journey to the West'', in [[woodblock print]], 16th century]]
Wu's likely authorship of ''[[Journey to the West]]'' is his main claim to fame. The novel was published anonymously in 1592, and Wu did not refer to the work in any of his other writings.<ref name="intro"/> Wu is thought to have published the work in anonymity, as was usual at the time, because of the ill repute of fiction as vulgar literature. There was a trend in Chinese literary circles to imitate the classical literature of the [[Qin dynasty|Qin]], [[Han dynasty|Han]], and [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] dynasties, written in [[Classical Chinese]].<ref name="shi"/> However, late in life, Wu went against this trend by writing the novel, ''Journey to the West'', in the vernacular tongue. For over three centuries most of China remained unaware of its authorship, although the people of his hometown attributed the novel to him early on.<ref name="intro"/>

However, in the early 20th century, [[Hu Shih]] and his students conducted textual analysis and research into [[Qing dynasty]] records and suggested Wu as the author.<ref name="shi"/> In his Introduction to Arthur Waley's abridgment, ''[[Monkey (novel)|Monkey]]'', Dr. Hu, then ambassador to the United States, reported that a 1625 gazetteer, a form of local history, from Wu's hometown claimed Wu as the author.<ref name="intro"/><ref>天启《淮安府志》，明淮安知府宋祖舜修，东河船政同知方尚祖等纂，初刻于天启六年（1606）。全书24卷首1卷

卷16人物2《近代文苑》吴承恩性敏而多慧，博极群书，为诗文下笔立成，清雅流丽，有秦少游之风。复善谐剧，所著杂记几种，名震一时。数奇，竟以明经授县贰，未久，耻折腰，遂拂袖而归。放浪诗酒，卒。有文集存于家。丘少司徒汇而刻之。

卷19《艺文志一·淮贤文目》吴承恩：《射阳集》四册，□卷；《春秋列传序》《西游记》。</ref>  The ''Dictionary of Ming Biography'' comments that "the identity of the author of the novel is thus still open to question," and that Wu "probably would have remained in oblivion had it not been for this probably erroneous ascription."{{sfnb|Liu|1976| p= 1483}}

Brown University China literature scholar David Lattimore said: "The Ambassador's confidence was quite unjustified. What the gazetteer says is that Wu wrote something called ''The Journey to the West.'' It mentions nothing about a novel. The work in question could have been any version of our story, or something else entirely."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/06/books/the-complete-monkey.html|title=The Complete 'Monkey'|first=David|last=Lattimore|work=The New York Times |date=March 6, 1983|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref>  Translator [[W.J.F. Jenner|W. J. F. Jenner]] points out that although Wu had knowledge of Chinese bureaucracy and politics, the novel itself doesn't include any political details that "a fairly well-read commoner could not have known."<ref name="jenner">Jenner, W.J.F. (1984). "Translator's Afterword." in trans. W.J.F. Jenner, ''Journey to the West'', volume 4.  Seventh Edition.</ref>  Furthermore, it is unknown how much of the novel was  ''created'', and how much was simply compiled and edited, since much of the legend behind ''Journey to the West'' already existed in folk tales.<ref name="jenner"/>

[[Anthony C. Yu]], in his introduction to his complete translation, states that the identity of the author, as with so many other major works of Chinese fiction, "remains unclear" but that Wu remains "the most likely" author.<ref>Anthony C. Yu, translated and edited, ''The Journey to the West'' Volume I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), p. 16, 21.</ref>

===Other works===
In addition to ''Journey to the West'', Wu wrote numerous poems and stories (including the novel ''A Record of the Tripods of Emperor Yu'' 禹鼎记, which includes a preface by Wu), although most have been lost.  Some of his work survives because, after his death, a family member gathered as many manuscripts as he could find and compiled them into four volumes, entitled ''Remaining Manuscripts of Mr. Sheyang'' 射阳先生存稿.<ref name="shi" />  Some of his poetry was included in contemporary anthologies such as ''A Digest of Ming Poetry'' and ''A Record of Ming Poetry''.<ref name="shi"/>

Both his poetry and his prose have been described as "stubborn" and critical of society's corruption, and in one of his few surviving poems Wu describes himself as having a "defiant spirit".<ref name="shi"/>  Wu's poetry focused on the expression of emotions, and for this reason his work has been compared to that of [[Li Bai]],<ref name="renditions">{{cite web|url=http://www.renditions.org/renditions/authors/wuce.html|title=www.renditions.org : Wu Cheng'en|access-date=18 February 2008|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409235153/http://www.renditions.org/renditions/authors/wuce.html|archive-date=9 April 2008}}</ref>  although even the poems that he published with his name attached still were not quite modeled on the classical styles (although they were not as "vulgar" as ''Journey to the West'').<ref name="shi"/>  In addition to using his writing to critique society, Wu also took pride in the worldly nature of his work, as opposed to the more fantastic writings of some contemporaries; in the preface to ''A Record of the Tripods of Emperor Yu'' ({{lang|zh-Hans|禹鼎志}}) he wrote, "My book does not just deal with the supernatural; it deals with the foibles of men too."<ref name="shi"/>