MUZIChinese Matrix
Writers › Writer / Poet
Qing parallel-prose writer and chancellor of the Imperial Academy whose New Year verses trace the yangge dance to the Southern Song lantern-festival Cuntianle.
Also known as Wu Xilin · Zi Shengzheng · Hao Guren
Wu Xiqi, also written Wu Xilin, styled Shengzheng and known as Guren, came from Qiantang in Zhejiang. A jinshi of 1775, he served as a Hanlin compiler, became chancellor of the Imperial Academy in 1798, and later retired to care for his parents, lecturing at the Anding and Leyi academies in Yangzhou. A master of parallel prose counted among the eight great Qing writers of the form, he left the Youzhengweizhai collection. His New Year verses state that yangge is the Cuntianle of the Southern Song lantern-festival dance troupes, with players dressed as monks, young gentlemen, flower-drum girls, farmers, fisherwomen and peddlers threading the lantern streets, a passage often cited for the origins of yangge. He died in Yangzhou in 1818.
QingWu Xiqi, styled Guren, a man of Qiantang, was known for filial devotion. He passed the jinshi in 1775, was made a compiler, rose step by step to chancellor of the Imperial Academy, and later asked to go home to care for his aging parents, then lectured at the Anding and Leyi academies in Yangzhou.
Wu Xiqi was skilled in verse and prose written on command and also in song lyrics. The Zhejiang school of poetry had Zhu Yizun and Zha Shenxing before him, followed by Hang Shijun and Li E; after those two died, Wu Xiqi was put forward and the literary world took him as its standard. He wrote the Zhengshan Fang Ji.