Writers › Writer / Poet
Yuan Hongdao
Leader of the Gong'an School and Master of Late Ming Expressive Prose
Mural guide
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.
Also known as Yuan Zhonglang · Zhonglang · Shigong · Gong'an San Yuan Zhi Yi
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Preeminent Late Ming essayist and founder of the Gong'an School of literature advocating spontaneous individual expression ('Xingling') against archaic imitation.
Life and times
- 1568Born
Ming - 1610Died
Works
Literature · Prose4- Record of a Tour to ManjingMingYuan Hongdao's late Ming sketch of an early spring outing to Manjing outside Beijing
- Record of an Evening Tour on Six Bridges Awaiting the MoonMingYuan Hongdao's West Lake vignette: spring blossoms, haze and moonlight at the Six Bridges
- Letter in Reply to Li YuanshanMingYuan Hongdao's short letter: fresh writing comes from one's own heart, not from set forms
- Biography of Xu WenchangMingYuan Hongdao's portrait of Xu Wei: brilliant, proud, mad and unrecognised in his time
- Literature · Sayings4
- Free of Fixed Forms and FormulasMingLine from Yuan Hongdao's preface to his brother's poems: true feeling, no set forms
- Expressing One's Own True Spirit: The Gong'an School CreedMingFamous line from Yuan Hongdao's preface to his brother's poems: write from your own spirit
- Green Mist and Red Haze over West Lake's Su CausewayMingAphorism from Yuan Hongdao's Six Bridges record: willow green and peach red over West Lake
- A Swan Let Out of Its Cage: Yuan Hongdao at ManjingMingAphorism from Yuan Hongdao's Manjing trip: free as a swan let out of its cage
Family tree
- Direct kin
