Who is the author of The Journey to the West?

The Journey to the West is one of the ancient "Four Great Classical Novels" in China. Many people think that its author is Wu Cheng'en, a native of Huai 'an, Jiangsu Province in the middle of Ming Dynasty. However, judging from the various versions of The Journey to the West in Ming and Qing Dynasties that can be seen at present, none of them is named "Wu Cheng'en". The Journey to the West's Ming and Qing editions were written by either Zhu Dingju or Qiu Chuji. Some don't even have the author's name, but only the critic "Master Huayang Cave" or the critic such as "Li Zhi" and so on. In 1930s, Lu Xun affirmed in A Brief History of Chinese Novels that The Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng'en. Almost at the same time, Hu Shi published a long article "Textual Research on Journey to the West" in the sixth issue of Reading Magazine 1923, pointing out that "the author of Journey to the West is now a great writer who indulges in wild poetry and wine and recovers his humor", and this great writer is Wu Cheng'en, and The Chronicle of Wu Cheng'en has been preliminarily drafted. So, who is the author of The Journey to the West? How can its copyright belong to "Wu Cheng'en"? It seems that further research is needed to solve these puzzles.

Who is the prototype of the Monkey King?

The Journey to the West, a famous mythical novel that came out in the Ming Dynasty, is now a household name. Among them, the question of "origin" and "nationality", that is, the prototype of the Monkey King, a heroic romantic artistic image, has always been discussed endlessly. As early as the 1920s, it was discovered that Hanuman, a clever, flying, brave and helpful monkey in the ancient Indian narrative poem Ramayana, was probably the prototype of the Monkey King. However, some people think that in the ancient myth of China, which was widely circulated in ancient times, there is a record that Yu's son Qi was "a man born of heaven and earth splitting stones". It seems that "the Monkey King" is based on Qi. So, who is the prototype of the Monkey King? This requires further textual research.