Li Ruzhen, formerly romanized as Li Ju-chen (; c. 1763 - 1830),

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 Theob ...

Songshi (松石),

art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. The ...

Songshi Daoren (松石道人), was a Chinese novelist and phonologist 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-spea ...

. A native of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, he was the author of the novel ''Jing Hua Yuan'' (鏡花緣), or ''

Flowers in the Mirror ''Flowers in the Mirror'' (), also translated as ''The Marriage of Flowers in the Mirror'', or ''Romance of the Flowers in the Mirror'', is a fantasy novel written by Li Ruzhen (Li Ju-chen), completed in the year of 1827 during the Qing dynasty. ...

''. He also wrote ''Lishi Yinjian'' (李氏音鑑), a work of Chinese phonology, and complied ''Shou Zi Pu'' (受子譜), a valuable

kifu A board game record is a game record for a board game. ''Kifu'' (棋譜) is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese peo ...

of Go. ''

'' (completed in 1827) is a novel of fantasy and erudition in 100 chapters.Keith McMahon ''Misers, Shrews, and Polygamists: Sexuality and Male-Female ...'', 1995. Page 284 "Chaste and Unchaste Heroines in Jin Yun Qiao and Jinghua Yuan" In the first half of the novel, the protagonist, like

Gulliver Gulliver may refer to: __NOTOC__ Arts and entertainment * Lemuel Gulliver, the protagonist of Jonathan Swift's novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' *the title character of ''Brian Gulliver's Travels'', a satirical BBC radio series *Gary Gulliver, the t ...

, travels to strange lands, reminiscent of what are mentioned in ''

Shan Hai Jing The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shan Hai Jing'', formerly romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed sinc ...

''. The second half of the novel is a display of Li's erudition, and reads more like an encyclopedia than a novel. The ''Lishi Yinjian'', in the line of the

rime table A rime table or rhyme table () is a Chinese phonological model, tabulating the syllables of the series of rime dictionaries beginning with the ''Qieyun'' (601) by their onsets, rhyme groups, tones and other properties. The method gave a significa ...

tradition, comprises syllable charts which are both innovative and confusing. Like Li's novel, it is a work of erudition, quoting from more than 400 works. It is valuable for its recording of the phonological system of the then-Beijing dialect. From a young age he had a rebellious nature. He strongly disagreed with the fixed style of composition (

eight-legged essay The eight-legged essay () was a style of essay in imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The eight-legged essay was needed for those candidates in these civil service tests to show their merits for government service, ...

) that people were required to learn in order to pass the examination needed to obtain a higher rank. Therefore, after obtaining the degree of ''

xiucai The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

'' (licentiate, the lowest in the examination hierarchy), he became a low-ranking officer, which was not considered respectable. However, his position did not mean that he was idle; he was a polymath, with expertise in astrology, medicine, mathematics, music, rhetoric, poetry, calligraphy and painting. His knowledge in all these subjects is amply reflected in ''Flowers in the Mirror'', sometimes even to the hindrance of the plot.

References

*He Jiuying 何九盈 (1995). ''Zhongguo gudai yuyanxue shi'' (中囯古代语言学史 "A history of ancient Chinese linguistics"). Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe. *Zhu Meishu 朱眉叔 (1992). ''Li Ruzhen yu'' Jing hua yuan (李汝珍與鏡花緣 "Li Ruzhen and ''Flowers in the Mirror''"). Shenyang: Liaoning jiaoyu chubanshe. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Ruzhen 1763 births 1830 deaths Qing dynasty novelists Chinese fantasy writers Writers from Beijing 19th-century Chinese novelists