Zheng Guangzu

Also known as Zi Dehui

Zheng Guangzu, courtesy name Dehui, came from Xiangling in Pingyang (modern Xiangfen, Shanxi). According to Zhong Sicheng's Register of Ghosts (Lugui bu), he became a clerk in the Hangzhou circuit administration, was upright and kept to himself, and after his death was cremated at the Lingzhi Temple by West Lake. The Register lists eighteen of his zaju plays; survivors include The Disembodied Soul of Qiannu, Wang Can Climbs the Tower and The Clever Maid, though a few attributions are questioned. Qiannu reworks a Tang tale of a girl whose spirit leaves her body to follow the scholar Wang Wenju. The Register says his fame reached the women's quarters and actors called him old master Zheng. Zhou Deqing's preface to Rhymes of the Central Plain (Zhongyuan yinyun) named Guan, Zheng, Bai and Ma together, and he has since been counted with Guan Hanqing, Bai Pu and Ma Zhiyuan as the four masters of Yuan drama.