Wu Jingzi

Wu Jingzi
Traditional Chinese	吳敬梓
Simplified Chinese	吴敬梓
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wú Jìngzǐ

Wu Jingzi (simplified Chinese: 吴敬梓; traditional Chinese: 吳敬梓; pinyin: Wú Jìngzǐ; Wade–Giles: Wu Ching-tse, 1701—January 11, 1754) was a Chinese scholar and writer who was born in the city now known as Chuzhou, Anhui and who died in Yangzhou, Jiangsu.

Biography

Wu was born into a well-to-do family, his father Wu Linqi (吳霖起) was a Qing official, but met no success himself. He attempted the Jinshi examination, but placed only at the county level. Poverty stricken by the age of thirty-two, he moved to Nanjing, where he met and acquainted himself with many government officials.

Wu's family may have had ties to the famous philosophers Yan Yuan (颜元) and Li Gong (李塨). The philosophers emphasized the importance of ritual in Neo-Confucianism and may have influenced Wu's novel.

While in Nanjing, in 1740, he started his famous novel Rulin Waishi. There is a museum in his honor located in his hometown of Quanjiao county, now Chuzhou.

References

• Encyclopædia Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, article- "Wu Ching-tzu"
• He, Manzi, "Rulin Waishi" ("The Scholars"). Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed.
• Paul S. Ropp, Dissent in Early Modern China: Ju-Lin Wai-Shih and Ch'ing Social Criticism (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1981).