Writers › Writer / Poet
Miao Gen
Qing man of letters from Renhe, Zhejiang, long a secretary in Guangzhou, author of Wenzhang Youxi and the named hero of the Cantonese narrative song Lament of Autumn.
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 Jianshan · Lianxianzi · Miao Lianxian
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Miao Gen, courtesy name Jianshan and literary name Lianxianzi, widely known as Miao Lianxian, was born in Renhe (modern Hangzhou), Zhejiang, in 1766. In the Jiaqing reign he moved to Guangdong and for more than twenty years served as a secretary in Guangzhou prefecture, often writing and exchanging verse on the flower boats of the Pearl River. His books include Wenzhang Youxi, which also circulated in Vietnam, and Mengbi Shenghua. The Cantonese narrative song Lament of Autumn has Miao Lianxian and the courtesan Mai Qiujuan as its lovers; an old account holds it to be his own story, but most modern scholars assign it to Ye Ruibo of Nanhai. The year of his death is disputed.
Life and times
Dates Born 1766; death disputed, by one account 1835