Kong Shangren (; 1648 – 1718) was a

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 ...

dramatist and poet best known for his '' chuanqi'' play ''

The Peach Blossom Fan ''The Peach Blossom Fan'' () is a musical play and historical drama in 44 scenes that was completed in 1699 by the early Qing dynasty playwright Kong Shangren after more than 10 years of effort. The play depicts the drama that resulted in ...

''"Frommer's China", Simon Foster et al., 2010, p. 383, about the last days of the Ming dynasty. 孔尚任墓

Born in

Qufu Qufu ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Shandong province, East China. It is located about south of the provincial capital Jinan and northeast of the prefectural seat at Jining. Qufu has an area of 815 square kilometers, and a total population of ...

, Kong was a 64th-generation descendant of

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

. He guided the

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...

when he visited Qufu. ''The Peach Blossom Fan'' tells the story of the love story between the scholar Hou Fangyu and the courtesan

Li Xiangjun Li Xiangjun (; 1624–1654) was a courtesan, singer, and musician during the Ming dynasty. Her life was dramatised in the play ''The Peach Blossom Fan''. Biography Li is referred to as Li Ji () or Li Xiang () in contemporary sources. To demons ...

, against the dramatic backdrop of the short history of the

Southern Ming The Southern Ming (), also known as the Later Ming (), officially the Great Ming (), was an imperial dynasty of China and a series of rump states of the Ming dynasty that came into existence following the Jiashen Incident of 1644. Shun force ...

. It remains a favourite of the Kun opera (

kunqu Kunqu (), also known as Kunju (), K'un-ch'ü, Kun opera or Kunqu Opera, is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. Kunqu is one of the oldest traditional operas of the Han nationality, and is also a treasure of Chinese traditional cult ...

) stage. Kong Shangren is known as the author of a curious poem dedicated to the eyeglasses, a Western innovation brought to

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

by the Portuguese. Spence, ''

The Search for Modern China ''The Search for Modern China'' is a 1990 non-fiction book by Jonathan Spence, published by Century Hutchinson and W. W. Norton & Company. It covers the period 1600 to 1989. According to Spence, the goal was to explain how Modern China was creat ...

'', 64–65.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kong, Shangren 1648 births 1718 deaths Qing dynasty poets People from Qufu Poets from Shandong Descendants of Confucius Writers from Jining 18th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights 17th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights

References

Further reading

External links