Wang Shaotang

Also known as Born Wang Dezhuang · Also named Wang Xihe

Wang Shaotang, born Wang Dezhuang in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, came from a family of storytellers: his uncle Wang Jinzhang and his father Wang Yutang both told the Water Margin. He began training under his father at seven, first performed at nine, and turned professional at twelve with the Wu Song cycle; by about twenty he ranked among the leading Yangzhou storytellers. He brought the four ten-episode cycles on Wu Song, Song Jiang, Shi Xiu and Lu Junyi to maturity in a style praised as sweet, sticky, sharp and spicy, creating the Wang school. A popular saying ran: for opera hear Mei Lanfang, for storytelling hear Wang Shaotang. His dictated texts of Wu Song and Song Jiang were published in the 1950s. He died in 1968 (1969 by one account).