Editing Wu Cheng'en (section)

===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"/>