The Journey to the West author Wu Cheng'en is from Huai 'an, Jiangsu. How did he go to Loufan, Taiyuan, Shanxi to write Journey to the West? Zhang Xianping told the reporter of Shanxi Youth Daily that for Shanxi, the lost Ming Dynasty temple clock was written 70 or 80 years before The Journey to the West, which proves that there was a legend of westward journey here before The Journey to the West wrote it. We infer that it is possible that Shanxi people went to the south to pass on these legends. Perhaps Wu Cheng'en traveled in Shanxi, and another said that The Journey to the West was not necessarily written by Wu Cheng'en. The Journey to the West had the legend of the Monkey King Loufan in The Journey to the West 70 or 80 years ago. However, some academic experts in China have different opinions on whether The Journey to the West's author is Wu Cheng'en.

Professor Feng Qiaoying, who has been to Loufan Guo Hua, said, "I have been to Longhe Mountain. There are ancient Sanjiao Temple, Liang Qing Temple and Monkey King Temple on the mountain. There are stone tablets in the Ming Dynasty. During the 600 years from recorded The Journey to the West to The Journey to the West, from Dunhuang frescoes to Song Dynasty zaju, there were the Monkey King's theories. So Huai 'an doesn't necessarily mean the Monkey King. It can be said that its legend has a long history, and Wu Cheng'en may have got the legend from various channels. After processing, it is not necessarily his original. Loufan's local folk activities, local customs, monkey temple, sun monkey and other buildings can explain that this is one of the sources of the story. "