Writers › Writer / Poet
Liang Chenyu
Kunshan dramatist trained in Wei Liangfu's new Kun tune who, with Washing Silk, first carried it from recital onto the stage
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 Bolong · Hao Shaobai · Hao Chouchi Waishi
Liang Chenyu, courtesy name Bolong, styled Shaobai and Chouchi Waishi, came from Kunshan in Suzhou prefecture. He entered the Imperial Academy by purchase of tribute-student status but never held office, preferring a roving, chivalrous life, and for a time served on the staff of the supreme commander Hu Zongxian; after Hu was imprisoned he left Zhejiang, and early in the Longqing reign he lived in Nanjing, where he formed a poetry society with Mo Shilong and others. Having studied the new tune of Wei Liangfu's circle, he wrote the chuanqi play Washing Silk (Huansha ji) for it, retelling the wars of Wu and Yue through Fan Li and Xi Shi. Until then the Kun tune had mostly been sung in recital; the play put it on the stage and spread it widely. He also wrote the zaju Hongxian nü, the song collection Jiangdong baizhu and the poems Yuanyou gao.
Life and times
Dates c. 1519 – c. 1592 CE (dates disputed)