Writers › Cultural Persona
Liu Lanzhi
Heroine of Southeast Fly the Peacocks, sent home by her mother-in-law and pressed to remarry, who drowns herself in a clear pool.
In lantern light and drifting smoke, a row of painted theatrical masks stands on a wooden rail beneath a glowing paper dragon lantern and hanging red lanterns; a folding screen painted with a river, a bridge and hills stands at the right, with a bronze burner and small lamps on the floor.
Also known as Lady Liu, wife of Jiao Zhongqing · Lanzhi
- Roles
- Cultural Persona
Liu Lanzhi is the cultural persona at the heart of the narrative poem Southeast Fly the Peacocks. The preface calls her only Lady Liu, wife of Jiao Zhongqing, and the poem calls her Lanzhi; later readers joined the two as Liu Lanzhi. The poem tells how, though diligent at the loom, she is sent home by her mother-in-law, pressed by her brother to marry a magistrate's son, and, true to her vow with Jiao Zhongqing, drowns herself. She is absent from the histories. This entry registers a cultural persona, not a historically verified individual.
Life and times
Dates Set by the poem's preface in the Jian'an era of the late Han; first preserved in the Liang-dynasty Yutai xinyong