Writers › Writer / Poet
Kang Jinzhi
Early Yuan playwright from Dizhou, author of Li Kui Carries Thorns, a Water Margin play in which Li Kui wrongly accuses Song Jiang and then begs forgiveness
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Kang Jinzhi was an early Yuan zaju playwright; Zhong Sicheng's *Register of Ghosts* (*Lugui bu*) records only that he came from Dizhou and wrote two plays, both centred on Li Kui of the Water Margin band. The surviving one, *Li Kui Carries Thorns* (*Li Kui fu jing*), has two ruffians, Song Gang and Lu Zhien, pass themselves off as Song Jiang and Lu Zhishen and carry off Mantangjiao, daughter of the old wine-seller Wang Lin. Li Kui believes the story, storms the Hall of Loyalty, chops down the apricot-yellow banner and wagers his head against Song Jiang's. When the truth comes out he goes to Song Jiang with a bundle of thorns on his back to beg pardon, then redeems himself by capturing the impostors. The other play, *Black Whirlwind Mends His Ways*, is lost. Nothing else is known of his life, and the Ming editor Zang Maoxun included *Li Kui Carries Thorns* in his *Yuanqu xuan* anthology.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; zaju playwright of the early Yuan