- Wu Jingzi
Wu Jingzi (zh-tswp|t=吳敬梓|s=吴敬梓|p=Wú Jìngzǐ|w=Wu Ching-tse, 1701—
December 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 toNanjing , 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.cite journal | author=Ellen Widmer| title=Review of Literati Identity and Its Fictional Representations in Late Imperial China| journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies| year=1999| volume=59| issue=1| url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0073-0548%28199906%2959%3A1%3C290%3ALIAIFR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O| pages=290–300| doi=10.2307/2652696]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 .Notes
References
*Encyclopædia Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, article- "Wu Ching-tzu"
* He, Manzi, [http://203.72.198.245/web/Content.asp?ID=65043&Query=1 "Rulin Waishi" ("The Scholars")] . "Encyclopedia of China ", 1st ed.
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