Writers › Writer / Poet
Gao Cheng
Northern Song compiler of the Shiwu jiyuan, a reference work on the origins of things whose note on shadow figures in Renzong's reign is a staple of shadow-play history.
Mural of the cultural record “Shadow Puppet Theatre”, which this person is tied to.
Gao Cheng was a Northern Song writer, said by some to be from Kaifeng, whose dates are unknown; the Southern Song bibliographer Chen Zhensun placed him in the Yuanfeng era. His Shiwu jiyuan, in ten chapters and fifty-five sections covering about 1,765 items, traces the origins of institutions, objects, festivals, games and entertainments. Its entry on shadow plays first retells how a magician conjured the shade of Lady Li for Emperor Wu of Han, then states that in Renzong's reign storytellers of the Three Kingdoms inspired others to cut shadow figures showing the wars of Wei, Wu and Shu, one of the most cited texts on the origins of shadow theatre.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the Yuanfeng era (1078-1085)