Wu Cheng'en

[3] 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.

[3] 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.

[3][5] 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.

"[4] 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.

[1] Wu's poetry focused on the expression of emotions, and for this reason his work has been compared to that of Li Bai,[9] 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).

[1] 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 (禹鼎志) he wrote, "My book does not just deal with the supernatural; it deals with the foibles of men too.