Writers › Writer / Poet
Li Ruzhen
Qing novelist and phonologist whose Flowers in the Mirror uses fantastic overseas lands for satire.
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 Songshi · Hao Songshi Daoren
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Li Ruzhen, courtesy name Songshi, from Daxing in Zhili, lived as a young man with his brother in Haizhou, Jiangsu, studied under Ling Tingkan, and became an expert phonologist, writing the Li Shi Yinjian. His official career was modest, including a post as assistant county magistrate in Henan. In later life he completed the 100-chapter novel Flowers in the Mirror, which uses Tang Ao's voyages through strange overseas lands to satirize society and champion women's learning; the phrase 'a hundred flowers bloom together' comes from its episode of Empress Wu commanding all flowers to blossom.
Life and times
Dates c. 1763 CE–c. 1830 CE