The author of Journey to the West was the Ming Dynasty novelist Wu Chengen. He created this mythical novel and published it as the complete Journey to the West. However, there were also some people who thought that Journey to the West might not be Wu Chengen's work because there were some magical elements in Journey to the West that were similar to ancient Chinese legends and myths. Therefore, some scholars believed that it might be the work of other authors, such as the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai, the late Yuan and early Ming novelist Shi Naian, etc. However, these views were not widely accepted.