Wu Xiqi

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.