Genius immigrants

Wu Cheng'en (1500- 1582) was born in Shanyang County, Huai 'an (now Chuzhou District, Huai 'an City, Jiangsu Province). Ming dynasty novelist.

Wu Cheng'en was born in a family where a small official was reduced to a small businessman. His father, Wu Rui, is optimistic and open-minded, pursuing the philosophy of happiness. He was made a loyal minister, hoping that he could study as an official, inherit the kindness of the emperor and be a loyal minister in history. When Wu Cheng'en was a child, he was eager to learn and read and recite quickly. He is good at painting, calligraphy, lyrics and Go, and he also likes to collect Fa Tie's famous paintings. As a teenager, he was famous in his hometown for his outstanding literary talent and was appreciated by people. He thought he was "as good as picking up a mustard tuber" in the imperial examination. The Records of Huai 'an Prefecture recorded that he was "quick and wise, rich in books, and wrote for poetry." In addition to being eager to learn, he also likes to search for anecdotes and read books such as immortals, ghosts, foxes and monkeys. For example, unofficial history's novels like Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and Miscellanies of Youyang have developed a hobby of seeking novelty in this colorful mythical world, and this hobby is increasing with age. This had a great influence on his creation of The Journey to the West. After the age of 30, the anecdotes he searched have been "hidden in his chest" and he has a creative plan. At the age of 50, I wrote the first ten chapters of The Journey to the West, which was interrupted for many years for some reason. It was not until he resigned in his later years and returned to his hometown that he finally finished The Journey to the West's creation which lasted for seven years.

Wu Cheng'en, who entered his youth, is a wild and arrogant young man. Low social status, poverty and hardship made this great genius wild and uninhibited, which attracted a flood of laughter. Gone are the days when he was praised by others.

When Wu Cheng'en was about twenty years old, she married a girl from her hometown named Ye. After marriage, she had deep feelings. Although Wu Cheng'en was bohemian, she was virtuous and faithful to her wife.

In the ten years of Jiajing, Wu Cheng'en achieved excellent results in the annual examination and scientific research, obtained the qualification of Jinshi, and went to Nanjing to take the provincial examination with friends. However, his talent is not as good as that of his companions. He, a well-known gifted scholar in a village, is notorious in Sun Shan.

The following spring, his father passed away with regret. Wu Cheng'en accepted the lesson of his first failure and studied hard for the next three years, but he still failed in the exam in the autumn of Jiajing 13th year. Wu Cheng'en felt ashamed and resentful, and fell ill this winter. The defeat of two provincial examinations, coupled with the death of his father, was a heavy blow to Wu Cheng'en. In his view, it is not only unreasonable to fail the jury in the exam, but also a shame for parents and grandparents. However, he didn't think that he didn't have the ability to pass the exam, but he was just unlucky. He believes that "fame and fortune have their own lives, and it is stupid to have them?"

Wu Cheng'en lived a different life, upright and upright. The reason why he is so talented and tried and tested is probably related to his unwillingness to please Shangguan against his will. He hates corrupt officialdom, doesn't want to go against his heart, and holds a negative attitude towards the dark reality. He wrote in the poem "Jiro's Song of Seeking Mountains": "The disaster of human beings is not for apes and cranes, but for insects. Sitting in the song room with the five ghosts, I didn't see the four murderers in court. Ye Fu was very grateful, but he felt sorry for his kindness. Wear an evil knife on your chest. You can't hate it. Saving the moon and the bow of the sun, is there no hero in the world? Who can make some contribution to Lin Feng for me and make it last for ten thousand years? " It is believed that the reason for the "civil disaster" and the ugliness of social reality is that the rulers are not good at employing people and let the bad guys like "Five Ghosts" and "Four Fierces" take power. He wanted to "make a fortune" and "be king" to turn Gan Kun around, but he was short of talents and ambitious, so he could only sigh generously when the wind came.

The hardships of life have brought Wu Cheng'en no less pressure than the failure of scientific research. After his father died, he needed to manage all the expenses at home, but he was unable to support his family, let alone the means to support it. The source of family life, in addition to getting back six dou of rice from the university every month, can only eat the legacy left by my father.

Wu Cheng'en, who had tasted the ups and downs of social life, began to think more clearly and deeply about the problems of social life, and used his own poems to fight against unreasonable society.

Wu Cheng'en Journey to the West

Wu Cheng'en once wrote a strange novel Yu Zhi Ding. In the preface of this book, he said that although his novels and fairy tales are written about immortals and ghosts, they are actually centered on "human beings", in order to pin his political ideals on evil forces and make readers "afraid", either doing nothing or making fun of strange things. He wrote about The Journey to the West for the same purpose. The Journey to the West wrote in forty-five times that when the Monkey King arranged clouds, thunder and rain for the god of nature, he specially ordered Lei Tianjun to say, "Lao Deng will take care of that corrupt official, that unfilial son, and kill more people for public!" What the Monkey King hates most is "corrupt officials", which is completely consistent with Wu Cheng'en's special hatred of corrupt officials in many poems. In the mythical world of Journey to the West, there are human shadows everywhere: the sacred heavenly palace is resplendent on the surface, but the supreme jade emperor is ignorant and very fatuous, and the heaven is like a dynasty on earth; The underworld is strict, officials protect each other, take bribes and bend the law, and innocent people have grievances, just like the yamen on the ground; Demons and ghosts kill and eat people, love money and lust, dominate one side with spells, and do evil, which is simply the embodiment of human bully bureaucrats. The Journey to the West also wrote about some secular countries, where the rulers were mostly "poor in civil and military skills, and the monarchs didn't follow the rules", which is also a portrayal of the crimes of the Ming court. Wu Cheng'en's Monkey King is full of hatred and magical power, which pushes all monsters who call themselves fierce and crazy under its golden hoop, loses their former prestige, dies or gives in easily, which embodies Wu Cheng'en's strong desire to sweep away social ugliness and ugly forces, and is also the essence of democracy in Journey to the West.

Wu Cheng'en, who was poor all his life, made every effort to complete the famous The Journey to the West at home and abroad, and passed away in the ten years of Wanli.

The appearance of The Journey to the West opened up a new category of ghost novels. The clever combination of well-meaning satire and bitter satire with serious criticism in the book directly affects the development of satirical novels. The Journey to the West is the peak of romanticism in ancient novels and a masterpiece of romanticism in the history of world literature. Encyclopedia americana thinks it is "a mythical novel with rich contents and brilliant ideas", while The French Encyclopedia says: "The description of the whole story is full of humor and wit, which gives readers strong interest." Since19th century, it has been translated into more than ten languages, including Japanese, English, French, German and Russian.

Westward Journey Suspense

Was The Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng'en? This is a historical unsolved case for hundreds of years. In the 1920s, Hu Shi and Lu Xun demonstrated from the scholars of Qing Dynasty that The Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng'en, a middle-aged tribute student of Jiajing in Huai 'an. But judging from the various versions of Journey to the West that can be seen at present, none of them was written by Wu Cheng'en. Recently, Beijing Library Publishing House published a book "Talking about Wu Cheng'en-Revealing the Author's Problem of The Journey to the West", suggesting that the author of The Journey to the West was not Wu Cheng'en, but Li Chunfang, the "Prime Minister of Qing Dynasty" of Ming Jiajing.

The idea of textual research is to start with the word "Jiao" in Huayang Teachers College at the beginning of A Journey to the West in Shidetang, compare the changes and development of the stories of adding, deleting and modifying the Biography of Explaining Hubei by Yang Zhi, The Journey to the West and Zhu, demonstrate the writing process of the novel, straighten out the publishing order of these three versions, and combine the thoughts of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism embodied in them.

Wu Cheng'en wrote a poem "To the Foothills of Sok Li", and the stone in the foothills is Li Chunfang's name. Li, a native of Xinghua, Jiangsu Province, was the number one scholar in Jiajing period. He was promoted to Zaifu because of his excellent writing of Qing Ci. When I was a child, I studied in Huayang Cave, Jiangsu, so I was nicknamed "Master Huayang Cave". He was appointed as the Yongle ceremony of the general school. There is a poem by The Journey to the West in the ninety-fifth chapter: "Colorful fragrance, a barren mountain suddenly smells fragrant;" The rainbow flows through the Qinghai River for thousands of years, and electricity travels around Changchun to the west to travel to the Tang Dynasty. Flowers and trees are elegant, and wild flowers are moist and fragrant. Ancient elders left behind relics, and now I am glad that Mingjun lost the Jubao Hall. Mr. Shen found that the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh sentences of this poem implied "the old friend stayed behind", and the frontispiece "Huayang Dong Tian Teachers College" meant "making up a journey to the west".

Hu Shi and Lu Xun claimed that Wu Cheng'en was the author of The Journey to the West on the basis of The Records of Huai 'an Prefecture, which will be published tomorrow. The record records that Wu Cheng'en is The Journey to the West, but it doesn't explain why such a book was published. Xianfeng reprinted Huai 'an County Records in Qing Dynasty, and deleted this article.

At the end of 1983, Mr. Zhang pointed out in the article "Is Journey to the West Written by Wu Cheng'en" that during the more than 300 years from the advent of The Journey to the West to the 1920s, all kinds of publications were either edited by Zhu, or only edited by Huayang without the author's name, or written by Qiu Chuji, and none of them recognized Wu Cheng'en's copyright. Hu Shi also said in the preface of The Journey to the West in 192 1 that this work was "written by an unknown novelist after the middle of Ming Dynasty". Later, Mr. Lu Xun argued that Wu Cheng'en said that Hu Shi got the materials copied by Lu Xun, and Textual Research on Journey to the West also held this opinion. But a closer look at their textual research is based on two indirect materials and only one direct material.

Indirect materials 1: Wu Yumou (1698- 1773) Yang Shan Shi Lu Volume 4:

The Old Records of the Apocalypse (referring to the Records of the Apocalypse in Huai 'an), and Mr. Lie (referring to Wu Cheng'en) is the person in charge of the Garden of Modern Literature. It is said that "the nature is sensitive and wise, and there are many writings, and there are poems and essays, and several kinds of miscellaneous notes are famous." I didn't know why I was waiting for a book, but I read Huai Xian Wen Mu written by Mr. The Journey to the West. Textual research on The Journey to the West's old name "Certificate" shows that it conforms to the purpose at that time, and Yuan Yu Taoist Garden is orderly, and that this book was written by a real person in Qiu Changchun at the beginning of other countries. And the county ambition refers to the hand of a gentleman. When the apocalypse comes, Mr. Wang is not far away, and his words will be true. Written at the beginning of Changchun, Italy, Mr. Zhi is a popular romance, such as The Three Kingdoms, written by Chen Shou, and the romance is called Luo Guanzhong. There are many dialects in my hometown in the book, and there is no doubt that there are people who go abroad. Or cloud: There is After Journey to the West, written by Mr. Sheyang.

The Journey to the West has been published for nearly 200 years, and the only basis for judging is the publication of official records in Huai 'an tomorrow. His right to speak is actually similar to ours.

Indirect material 2: Ruan Kuisheng (1727- 1789) Tea Guest Talk Volume 21:

According to old books, Sheyang is said to be sensitive, wise, poetic and playful, and has written several miscellaneous notes. I'm sorry I didn't notice the title of Miscellaneous Notes, but the book Huaixian Wenmu contains Sheyang's Popular Romance of Journey to the West. It is the beginning of the popularity of this book next season, and people in the alley are happy to talk about it, but this is unheard of. ..... Ming county annals, written by Sheyang, Sheyang didn't go far to cultivate the annals. How can he make a name for himself with the novels of secular yuan people? Or Changchun has this record at the beginning, and Sheyang is therefore romantic, extremely illusory and changeable; For example, the left ones include National Records and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Look at dialect slang again. They are all spoken in the street with rural accent in Huaishang. Women and children in the street understand it, and some don't read it at all, so it is undoubtedly from the hands of people in Huaishang.

The only basis for judgment here is still the disclosure records of Huai 'an Prefecture. According to Mr. Lu Xun's analysis, Ruan Kuisheng was actually written according to Volume 4 of Wu Yu's Yang Shanzhi, because it followed the saying that the book mistook "Xing Shan" for "Xing Shan" in Huai 'an Prefecture. Both Wu and Ruan mentioned Huaishang dialect in their books, but both affirmed that Wu Cheng'en's works were circumstantial evidence after The Journey to the West's novels. However, there has been a great debate in academic circles about dialects in novels. Huang Taihong's Postscript to the Journey to the West in the early Qing Dynasty proves that there are many Jinling dialects in the book. In Qing Dynasty, Wu Cheng'en was also listed as the author by Ding Yan's Preface to the Stone Pavilion and Jiao Xun Drama. However, they are either based on the records of Huai 'an Prefecture or the Tea Party, which means that there is only one basis for granting copyright to Wu Cheng'en.

Direct materials: Records of Huai 'an Prefecture, Volume 19, Records of Arts and Literature, and Records of Huai 'an County;

Wu Cheng'en: Sheyang Collection, four volumes; Preface to Chunqiu Zhuan; Journey to the west.

According to this material, Mr. Zhang demonstrated from both positive and negative aspects.

Front:

The Records of Huai 'an Prefecture did not explain the number of volumes or revolutions of Wu Cheng'en and The Journey to the West, nor did it explain the nature of the article. There are often two works with the same name in history. For example, in the early Qing Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, there was a collection of Dongjiang banknotes, and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was a novel called "The Legend of Ruyi Jun" ... An Guo, who was about 20 years older than Wu Cheng'en, also wrote The Journey to the West, but it was just a travel note. So it can't be concluded that The Journey to the West in Wu Cheng'en is Journey to the West.

Tail:

Huang Yuji, a famous bibliophile in the early Qing Dynasty, recorded the following geographical categories in Volume 8 of Qian Qingtang Bibliography:

Tang Hezheng's Journey to the South has three volumes, Wu Cheng'en and The Journey to the West have one volume, and Shen's Travel Notes of Siming Mountain.

At that time, it was more than half a century since the first edition of The Journey to the West Wanli 20th year (1592). It is a well-known book, but in Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West, Hwang Yuxi clearly classified The Journey to the West as a geographical category, indicating that the book is just a general travel note, just like the travel notes written by Wu Cheng'en's contemporaries, such as Journey to the East and Journey to the South.

Experts believe that there are always different opinions about the author of The Journey to the West, and most of them deny that it was written by Wu Cheng'en. Others think that The Journey to the West's author was suggested to be Li Chunfang in the past. It is not convincing enough to imply Li Chunfang by a poem in The Journey to the West. This can only be a family opinion. To truly solve the historical mystery of The Journey to the West's author, we need to further explore more first-hand information.

Wu Cheng'en is good at painting and calligraphy. However, the imperial examination was unfavorable, and it was not until middle age that he entered the tribute. At the age of 60, he became Changxing County Cheng, but left home because of disagreement with the chief executive. Later, he hired Jing Wang Fu Ji Shan.

★ Textual research on Wu Cheng'en's family background

The Journey to the West author Wu Cheng'en (1506— 1582) was born in Huai 'an in the middle of Ming Dynasty. Huai 'an was once called Sheyang County in the Han Dynasty, and there was a lake in the southeast of the county called Sheyang Lake, so Wu Cheng'en took Sheyang as his name and often called himself Sheyang lay man. Later generations also called him "Sheyang Mountain Man", probably not his own name. Huai 'an is located in the south of Huaihe River, which was Huaiyin County in Qin and Han Dynasties. The Tang Dynasty was Chuzhou, which was once renamed Huaiyin County, so when he signed his name, there was often the word "Huaiyin" in front. This is the common ethos of literati in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Little is known about Wu Cheng'en's family background at present. Because there is too little information, so far, the only information available is the epitaph of Xian Fubin. Now, based on this epitaph and other materials, I make the following speculation.

Wu was born in Lianshui and later moved to Huai 'an. When did you move to Huai 'an? He didn't say it himself. I guess it should be no later than early next year. There are two reasons:

First, in terms of time, it should be before the early Ming Dynasty. Xian Fubin's Epitaph says:

In the past, people in Lianshui were not as good as when they moved to Yangshan. Poor and lonely, I lost my genealogy, so I can't elaborate on it for more than three generations. Great-grandfather taboo tripod; Ancestor taboo inscriptions, Yuyao commandments; Chastity, benevolence and religion are taboo in imperial examinations.

The great grandfather, grandfather and emperor mentioned here are all based on the identity of Wu Cheng'en's father Wu Rui. The so-called "more than III" refers to these III's, excluding Wu Cheng'en and his son. If you count them together, it's V .. These five generations of Wu Cheng'en all know it. From his father's great-grandfather Wu Ding, he is "unable to elaborate". Wu Cheng'en was born at the beginning of16th century, more than 30 years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. According to the usual saying, 3 0 years is a lifetime, and it happened in the early Ming Dynasty from Wu Cheng'en to the last four generations 12 0 years. The meaning of "more than three generations can't be detailed" obviously means that Wu Ding is not the ancestor who moved to Huai, but moved to Huai in a previous life, two or even several generations, just because there is no genealogy, which Wu Cheng'en can't explain clearly. Therefore, Wu Qianhuai was not the night of the early Ming Dynasty.

Second, there were frequent wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, especially in Huai 'an, where indigenous deaths were scattered and the population dropped sharply. According to Huang Lizhou's Biography of Huai 'an Yang Shijie, as well as Cao Pi's Jin Chengxin in Huai 'an and Yang Qingzhi's Memories of Spring Night, "whoever survives in the early Ming Dynasty stops at seven". "Huai people" probably refers to the residents in the city, and "Qijia" may refer to seven surnames. It is said that these seven surnames are "Xu (Ji), Li, Zhang pian, Mianhe Wang, Wang, Nanmenpan (Yu)" and so on. In addition, some people say that Wu is one of the seven surnames, but that refers to Wu Jie and later advised by Jinshi, and has nothing to do with Wu Cheng'en. Wu Cheng'en's ancestors were not Yuan adherents in Huai 'an, but moved from Lianshui at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu implemented the immigration policy in view of the scarcity of residents in Jiangbei. Most of the immigrants who come here are from Jiangnan, mostly rich children or officers. Today, many Huai 'an people have been handed down from generation to generation, and their hometown is Suzhou in the south of the Yangtze River or somewhere else. Wu Cheng'en's home is north-south, which naturally does not belong to this trend. It should be the migration of bankrupt farmers in the late yuan dynasty and early Ming dynasty.

What occupation did Wu Cheng'en engage in after his ancestors moved to Huai River? It is not mentioned in Xian Fubin's epitaph. At that time, some people transferred to Huai 'an were recruited into An Wei, Dahewei and Kuanhewei hospitals in Huai 'an. Have a plenty of business, engaged in commercial activities; There are also some people who were settled by their ancestors in Huaishang as officials; Some people are engaged in medicine, such as Pan Jia and Lu Jia. There are still many people who practice Confucianism, eat by reading and being an official, and so on. Wu Cheng'en's family is not a soldier, nor a descendant of a big official, nor is it like Confucianism from the beginning. According to Xian Fubin's Epitaph, Wu Cheng'en's family produced two generations of scholars: great-grandfather Wu Ming taught in Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province, and grandfather Zhen Wu taught in Renhe County, Zhejiang Province (now Hangzhou City) (volume 9 of Shanyang County Records of Tongzhi and volume 102 of Hangzhou Prefecture Records of Guangxu are all instructions). Discipline and discipline are cold officials with low salaries. Being far away from home, their wives and children often can't get together. When Wu Cheng'en's father Wu Rui was four years old, his mother Liang Shi took him to Renhe to reunite with his family. A few months after the reunion, something unfortunate happened: my father, Wu Cheng'en's grandfather, Wu died of illness. Liang had no choice but to take the four-year-old orphan back to Huai 'an. Because two generations of his family are running "poor Confucianism", they have no savings and no other income, so their family is getting poorer and poorer. Because he is poor and has no relatives and friends to help him, Wu Rui can't go to school when he grows up. He started studying sociology several years later than other children. Because there is no money to give Melissa Zhou a gift, Melissa Zhou doesn't teach Wu Rui very much. However, Wu Rui is very clever. He listened carefully to what Mr. Wang told others. He actually studied all the classes, and he did well. Wu Rui's cleverness touched Mr. She Xue, won his praise and recommended him to continue studying in rural schools. But it didn't work out because of the difficulties of the Wu family. Mrs. Liang said bitterly, "Wu finished writing in the second year. If so, I am very helpless! " First, Mrs. Liang cried, then Wu Rui also cried, and both mother and son began to cry. We don't know what we did after dropping out of school, but when he was twenty, he married the daughter of the Xu family, a small businessman, and became a family. Buddhists have been selling lace, thread and other small commodities for a living for generations, so Wu Shuo inherited the family business and became a small businessman sitting in a shop. From this record, we can see some family background of Wu. The so-called "Xiuwen II" probably refers to debt-ridden great-grandfather Wu Ming and grandfather Zhen Wu. Further pondering this sentence, it seems that Wu's Confucianism is only two generations, and his predecessors are not scholars. Wu Zushang is neither a Confucian scholar, nor a military commander, nor an official. Besides, they are either engaged in agriculture or business. Comparing the two, I think it may be more like running a small business when his family first moved to Huai. There are two reasons.

First, the Wu Cheng'en family has no real estate income. Some people say that after Wu moved to the Huaihe River, he once lived in an irrigation canal and engaged in agricultural production. Based on the fact that Wu Cheng'en was buried here after his death, they called it "Fairy Dragon". This evidence is insufficient. "Dragon" means cemetery, and "dragon head" means ancestral grave, which doesn't mean how much land his family has there. People in the city can't be buried in the city when they are dead. Burying in the country is inevitable. It is normal to buy a piece of land in the country as a cemetery. Of course, the Wu family bought this property from the beginning, so there is no need to buy it again. But I don't think it's possible. The Wu family moved from Lianshui. If he had been a landlord and a rich man, he wouldn't have given up his original land and left his home to land again. If he is a bankrupt farmer, he has no money to buy land in Huai 'an countryside. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, people migrated from Jiangnan to Jiangbei because Jiangbei was vast and sparsely populated. The purpose of mobilizing wealthy Jiangnan people to reclaim land in Jiangbei was to develop Jiangbei. At that time, it was driven away by administrative means, and there is still a saying that "Hongwu drove away" among Huai' an farmers. The economic situation of Lianshui in the early Ming Dynasty will not be better than that of Huai 'an, and the Wu family has never been "driven away" because of their money.

On the other hand, if the Wu family had a certain property, after the death of Zhen Wu, an Oracle, the Wu family would not be so poor. Wu Cheng'en's father couldn't afford to go to school, and he didn't go to school for several years. Went to social studies, had no money to give gifts to her husband, and was discriminated against; Finally, I dropped out of school. According to my guess, his family has no real estate at all, and his ancestors were not farmers at all after they moved to Huaihe River.

Second, I think the Wu family lived under the river after they came to Huai. At that time, the river was under the Huaihe River (then also called the Yellow River). After the Yellow River captured the Huaihe River, the lower reaches of the Huaihe River in this area were also the lower reaches of the Yellow River. ), the canal is in the west, and the river is between the two rivers, which is a commercial port. At that time, there were many businessmen and people from all over the world, and most of them lived here. These people gradually joined the Yang Shan nationality. After his family moved to the Huaihe River, they settled down under the river in the market where every family did business. Therefore, it is natural for him to engage in some small businesses to make a living. Judging from the surrounding environment under the river, it is true: Datong Lane, Nailhu Lane, Zhang Fen Lane and Appraisal Street surround his home. The residents in these alleys basically run the businesses listed in the name of the alley. When their business was in surplus and their living conditions improved, they made some progress in the direction of being an official, and made some achievements, resulting in two generations of academic palaces (although Zhen Wu was born in Gong Sheng, he may have to pay a little money, but this just proves that his family has both scholars and a small surplus in economy). At this time, his family abandoned the business that was not commensurate with the status of an official (although it was a dirty little official), and the source of life depended entirely on the meager salary of learning. If this road goes wrong, there will be trouble. Sure enough, Zhen Wu is dead and has no official salary. The life of the whole family is in an imminent crisis, and even Wu Shuo is difficult to go to school. If it were a bureaucratic landlord family, such problems would not arise. It is conceivable that the Wu family has no real estate and lives a hard life. At this time, forced by life, the scholarly children of the "second generation of Xiuwen" dropped out of school, got a shop and started a small business, and suddenly returned to the status of a small businessman. For the Wu family, it is natural and unobtrusive for future generations to pick up the occupations that their ancestors operated and get familiar with them.

Wu Cheng'en described his family's situation as "poor and lonely". "Poverty and loneliness" is the main feature of his family background. The so-called "poverty" mainly refers to economic difficulties. As I said before, his family is really not rich, and sometimes it is quite difficult. In addition, it may also mean that fate is not very good. For generations, twists and turns have been underdeveloped, and it is unlucky to be an official and make a fortune. I have been a junior official for two generations. Instead of rising, I returned to my original position and got into trouble. The so-called "loneliness" probably means that the population is not prosperous, and several generations are single-handedly, and the population is weak and small. The Wu family is in trouble and no one supports him. Wu Cheng'en's father was blackmailed by the government and petty officials, and no one was fair to him. All these clearly show how "poor and lonely" his family is. There is no one in the family who can make a lot of money as his political or economic backer. I'm afraid there are very few brothers and uncles in his family, and there is no record of other people in his family yet. There are indications that his family may be passed down from generation to generation.

Wu Cheng'en's kinship has nothing to show off. Ancestral relatives, Wu Cheng'en didn't speak, probably praise is not enough. Grandma Liang's family is not clear. She is probably from Huai 'an. At that time, Liang's family in Huai 'an didn't show off, and his great-uncle knew nothing about it. Neither my ancestors nor my aunt recorded it, so it is impossible to talk about it. The first mother, Xu, is the daughter of a businessman, and the biological mother, Zhang, knows nothing about anyone. I haven't even seen a word about my uncle's house and my aunt's house, or there is no aunt at all. The situation of Wu Cheng'en's relatives above the level of parents is simply a mystery.

Some people like to praise two relatives of Wu Cheng'en's own generation: one is the brother-in-law Shen family, and the other is the brother-in-law Ye family. They are descendants of Shen Yi and Ye Qi respectively. Shen Yi and Ye Qi were the ministers of the southern and northern governments in Jingtai and Hongzhi years respectively, and they were both important figures in Huai 'an. But Wu Cheng'en's brother-in-law and wife are probably just the two ethnic groups, not the direct descendants of the two ministers. But in the end, it is still a relationship between relatives and friends, and it has something to do with it. Now let's look at these two relatives.

Let's talk about my brother-in-law Shenyang first. "Epitaph of Xianfubin" says: "Mrs. Xu gave birth to a daughter and became a woman, suitable for Shenshan County." So Wu Cheng'en's brother-in-law is called Shen Shan. How do you know that Shen Shan and Shen Yi belong to his family? This is reflected in the epitaph written by Wu Cheng'en's grandson Du Qiu, the son of Shen Shan's daughter, for his parents. The epitaph says. "When it comes to Huai County, the most popular thing is that the family of Shangshu is also the first; My mother is a man, and I know her granddaughter. " This epitaph says that the grandmother is "Mrs Wu" and "Sheyang Wu Gong, mother uncle". Therefore, her mother Shen Shi is Wu Cheng'en's niece and Wu Chengjia's daughter, "Mrs. Wu". Therefore, Wu Cheng'en's brother-in-law Shen Shan was immediately called "the home of the first minister of Shen Gong". At that time, Shen Yi was the only Shangshu in Huai 'an, so Shen Shan was a member of Shen Yi. In addition, Du Qiu's middle cousin is clearly recorded in Shen Yi's genealogy, while Shen Shi's genealogy also records Du Qiu as an important relative. These are all confirmations.

According to Pingyagong's Epitaph, Shen Shi "was the first family in Donglu, and the founding fathers moved away from the soldiers, so he returned. Inheritors are distinguished by subjects, and the first taboo person is the minister of Nanjing Household Department of Leigong, and there are imperial merits between orthodox religions. Those who are taboo, officials and ministers all give things, and they are promoted to Taibu Temple and Shao Qing to speak in Taiwan. They are tired of the right-wing officials in Sichuan, and they are responsible for the birth of the people ... Yin Lun Heyi, the branch name is re-elected, and the number of Huai people in China is huge, which means that the first bend is Shen. " This is indeed a distinguished family. But there is no Shen Shan's name in this Shen Shi genealogy, and there is no record of marrying Wu. According to the relationship with Shen Shi family, Shenshan should be Shen. Shen was either the spectral name of Shen Shan, which was later renamed. This is based on the following points: First, Du Qiu wrote "Epitaph of Ping Yagong": "Shen Fu is the former residence of Huai trees, and my mother gave it to Gong Ren, and Ping Yagong has an elegant cousin relationship." Pingya's public name is Shen Pu, the word husband. His nickname is Pingya and his Changshan is three years old.

Second, Shen Qian's "Shanglinyuan Supervision Bureau Chengpi County Government Jun Lu" says: "Qiu Gong Zhen Gang (Du Qiu Zi Zhen Gang), his ancestors are in the table." Shen Qian's ancestor was Shen Pu.

Third, Shen Peikuan's "Fu Xing Jun Shu" said: "When Zeng Wangfu saw his back, Wang's father had been married for 12 years, leaving him alone with his cousin Zhen Gang Qiu Gong." Shen Peikuan's great-grandfather is still Shen Pu.