Writers › Writer / Poet
Gao Ming
Late Yuan southern-drama playwright whose Story of the Lute was hailed as the ancestor of southern drama.
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 Zi Zecheng · Hao Caigen Daoren · Master Dongjia
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Gao Ming, courtesy name Zecheng, from Rui'an in Wenzhou, passed the jinshi examination in 1345 and held provincial posts in Chuzhou and the Jiangzhe branch secretariat. In retirement near Ningbo at the end of the Yuan he reworked a popular tale into The Story of the Lute (Pipa Ji), about Cai Bojie and his faithful wife Zhao Wuniang. Its tight structure and refined lyrics earned it the title 'ancestor of southern drama'.
Life and times
Dates c. 1305 CE–c. 1370 CE