Wu Cheng'en

Wu Cheng'en was born around 1500 in Lianshui, in Jiangsu province, China, during the Ming dynasty, and later lived in Huai'an. His father, Wu Rui, worked as an artisan because the family was poor but loved literature, and his son grew up enjoying classic books and popular stories. Wu took the imperial examinations several times, hoping to become an official, but never passed. Only in middle age did he enter the imperial university in Nanjing, and he later held posts in Beijing and Changxing. Disliking official work, he resigned and probably spent his last years writing in his hometown. He remained poor all his life. Journey to the West, a long tale of a pilgrimage full of magic and adventure, known in Arthur Waley's English abridgment as Monkey, was published anonymously in 1592, after his death, and is one of the great classic Chinese novels. Unusually for a serious writer of the time, its author wrote in the everyday language rather than classical Chinese. Scholars in the early twentieth century, including Hu Shih, identified Wu as the likely author.

Wu Cheng'en is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia