1500 (13th year of Ming Hongzhi), Wu Cheng'en was born in Shanyang County, Huai 'an, and entered a family where a scholar was reduced to a businessman. His father, Wu Rui, is optimistic and open-minded, pursuing the philosophy of happiness. He was named Cheng En, which means that he hopes to be an official, be grateful to the emperor and be a loyal minister in history.
Wu Cheng'en was smart since he was a child, and he liked to read wild stories and strange novels. "He loves the biographies written by Niu Zhang Qi, Duan Kegu and other Tang people. He is good at writing things and wants to write a book about them." "He is old and famous in Huai", which is quite appreciated by officials, celebrities and squires. Zhu thinks that he can "read all the books in the world" and "divide it into two by the history of the scrolls hidden at home".
From 65438 to 0529 (the eighth year of Jiajing), Wu Cheng'en went to the Longxi Academy founded by Ge Mu, the magistrate of Huai 'an, and was appreciated by Ge Mu.
1550 (the 29th year of Jiajing), Wu Cheng'en was admitted as a one-year-old tribute student at the age of 44. He went to Beijing to wait for an official position, but he was not selected.
155 1 year (the 30th year of Jiajing), Wu Cheng'en took over as the magistrate of Xinye County. Moral deeds such as building courts, respecting classics, increasing Confucianism, praising chastity, and building water conservancy projects.
1553 (thirty-two years of Jiajing) traveled around Xinhua (Gumeishan) in Hunan, selling articles and writing books for a living.
1556 (thirty-five years of Jiajing), because my mother's hometown was poor, she went to Changxing, Zhejiang Province to be a county magistrate, often drinking with her good friend Zhu Hao, enjoying poetry and wine, and having contacts with Xu Zhonghang, a scholar and poet of Jiajing.
Wu Cheng'en likes reading unofficial history and fantastic books. "He loves biographies of Zhang Qi and Duan Kegu in the Tang Dynasty, and is good at writing things and feelings. Write a book about them every time ",and" famous for their age ",which is quite appreciated by the government, celebrities and squires. "Huai 'an Fu Zhi" contains his "quick and wise, but rich. "I like to read books such as ghosts and lemurs, such as novels such as Hundred Strange Records, Youyang Miscellanies or unofficial history.
Extended data:
Changxing county chengwu chengen
In the forty-five years of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, Wu Cheng'en was sixty-three. He and Gui Youguang, a famous scholar at that time, were appointed by the imperial court almost at the same time. Gui Youguang was appointed as Changxing county magistrate, and Wu Cheng'en was appointed as Changxing county magistrate. This autumn, Wu Cheng'en bid farewell to his mother and wife, carried The Journey to the West's manuscript on his back and took a trip to Hangzhou.
One is that I don't have enough money, and the other is that I miss the scenery of the West Lake, so I have been living in a mysterious temple at the foot of Wu Shan. In the second year, that is, the first year of Qin Long, I was lucky enough to write a Brief Introduction to History for Zhejiang Military Affairs Magistrate, and ended my visit. In the middle of the first month, I was officially instructed to leave Hangzhou for Changxing.
Magistrate of a county, the official residence of seven products, is the length of a county; Bapin lived in Xiancheng, assisted the magistrate, and managed the collection of grain and horse taxes. After Wu Cheng'en took office, the book was full of cases, which urgently needed his review and handling; But every year, taxes and food are not collected, and county officials are very angry. Wu Cheng'en didn't bury himself in official documents, but went up to Taihu Lake and down to Tiaoxi River, and made folk visits among the people to understand the situation and show sympathy for the people.
It turns out that the grain requisition in Changxing is the same as that in Huzhou, and the system of "Li Chang" and "Jia Chang" is implemented, with 100 households as one Li and 10 households as one Jia. When paying the grain tax, Li Chang and Chang are responsible for supervising the collection, which is a hard work, and most of them are filled out by large households with plenty of fields and grain. However, through private visits, Wu Cheng'en found out the cause and effect of not receiving taxes and food in recent years, mainly because of the cunning big family.
In Li Jiazhuang, Taihu Bay, there is a big family named Li Tian. He has hundreds of acres of fertile land, but he is engaged in "separation" in the Monkey King. He divided the family into two parts, allowing relatives and friends to nominally share some family business. When collecting grain, run away if you can, and collect less if you can. He also colluded with the chief executive to push two poor households to the position of director and director, let them be beaten and punished, and their wives were sold.
Wu Cheng'en, aware of these situations, was determined to get rid of the disadvantages together with Gui Youguang, and promulgated the Notice on Editing and Revision of Changxing County, implementing the system of viceroy and viceroy, stipulating that the positions of viceroy and viceroy should be held by households of large farmers, forcing large farmers to take the lead in collecting grain.
When Li Tian and others learned that this notice was aimed at a large family, they colluded and adopted a "soft attack" method, taking a large number of silks, satins, cloth and gold and distributing them to the homes of Gui Youguang and Wu Cheng'en. Where will Gui Youguang and Wu Cheng'en accept it? Instead, scold them to their faces. When the big family saw that the "soft attack" hit a wall, they gathered a group of local ruffians and hooligans and beat up the tax collectors.
Wu Cheng'en was so angry that he arrested Li Tian and put him in prison. Li Tian has an uncle who is an official in Zhejiang tea garden. He sent several people to suggest the release of Wu Cheng'en, but Wu Cheng'en, with the support of Gui Youguang, ignored him. This only dealt a blow to the arrogance of large and well-off households, who had to collect grain according to the fields. Changxing county successfully completed the grain harvest task of that year.
In addition, Wu Cheng'en, together with Gui Youguang, vindicated the people, reduced the sentences of criminals, released more than 30 offenders at one time, and reduced the sentences of those wrongly sentenced to death. At that time, Changxing people praised Gui Youguang and Wu Cheng'en.
Test data source: Baidu Encyclopedia-Wu Cheng'en