Saturday, September 20, 2008

Wu Cheng'en

Wu Cheng'en , courtesy name Ruzhong , was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty. He was born in . He studied in ancient Nanjing University for more than 10 years.

His most famous novel is ''Journey to the West'', in which, among other fantastic adventures the monk encounters the Flaming Mountains. The novel has been enjoyed by many generations of Chinese and is the most popular Chinese classic folk novel. A popular translation of the novel is by Arthur Waley and entitled . However, it has been condensed from the original three volume text to a single volume and is not suitable for study. It is, nonetheless. an excellent introduction to this monumental work and makes the uncondensed version easier to follow.

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

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