Qu You (, 1341–1427),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Zongji (宗吉) and self-nicknamed Cunzhai (存齋, "Reading Studio of Existence"), was a Chinese novelist who lived in the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

, and whose works inspired a new genre fantasy works with political subtext of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. Born in Qiantang (錢塘, now

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

), Qu You was famous as an adolescent poet. He became a teacher-official (教諭) in Lin'an (臨安), then promoted to be the Head of Secretary (長史) of the Zhou (周) Kingdom. But at the height of his career, he became implicated in a dispute between the

Hongwu Emperor The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398. As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...

and

Zhu Su Zhu Su (; 8 October 1361 – 2 September 1425), the Prince of Wu (吳王, created 1370), later the Prince of Zhou (周王), was a prince of the Ming dynasty. He was the fifth son of the Hongwu Emperor and Empress Ma. He was assigned to Kaifeng ...

and was jailed in 1408. After his release in 1425, he worked as a

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...

in the household of Lord of Ying State (英國公). He was reinstated as an official, but he resigned shortly, never returning to the world of politics again, in action. His works, though entertaining, have undertone that expresses concerns and discontent that he had with politics of the Ming Empire.

Works

*''Records by the Trimmed Lamp'' (剪燈錄, ''Jiandeng Lu''): 40 volumes *'' New Stories to Trim the Lamp By'' (剪燈新話, ''Jiandeng Xinhua''): 4 volumes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qu, You 1341 births 1427 deaths Ming dynasty novelists Yuan dynasty people Writers from Hangzhou Chinese male novelists 15th-century Chinese novelists