Li Yu (playwright)


Li Yu, also known as Li Liweng, was a Chinese playwright, novelist and publisher.

Life

Born in 1611 in Rugao, in today's Jiangsu province, Li came from a literati family and grew up during the final decades of the Ming dynasty. Following his father's death in 1629, he moved to his ancestral home in Lanxi, Zhejiang, where he continued preparing for the civil service examinations. He passed the county-level of the imperial examination, but he couldn't advance to the provincial level before the political turmoil caused by the transition to the Qing. In 1644, Li fled to the mountains to avoid the war associated with the collapse of the Ming Dynasty. After the conflict passed, he returned to Lanxi in 1646 and then relocated to Hangzhou in 1652, an urban center known for its commercial theater and publishing industries, where he pursued a career as an author, producer, and playwright.

Writings

Within about a decade of living in Hangzhou, Li achieved commercial success as a writer in erotic literature, establishing himself as a distinctive figure in early Qing literature. The collections he published during this time period, including some of his well known short stories like Silent Operas, Priceless Gems, and Twelve Towers, explored the topics of love and gender roles. He also wrote plays such as Errors Caused by the Kite and The Fragrant Companion, which were performed by his troupe on the Chinese Kun opera stage. In his fiction and drama, he frequently used irony and narrative inversion to examine social convention, as seen in stories like in House of Gathered Refinements, which is about same-sex love, and in The Carnal Prayer Mat, which uses irony and eroticism to critique hypocrisy in Confucian ideals.
In 1662, Li moved to Nanjing, which was a commercial center known for its book trade and printing. This was around the same time he began expanding his themes beyond fictional narrative to include art, history, and everyday life. He published essays like A Brief History of the Old and New, New Aid for Governance, and Discussions of the Past. His essays during this time period spanned topics from gastronomy, governance, leisure, and architecture. For example in one of his most influential collections, Leisure Notes'', he expressed his belief that having new, aesthetic enjoyment in everyday life is essential to personal cultivation. Scholars have noted that throughout his wide range of themes, Li maintained a consistent style, using humor to observe human behavior and the conditions of everyday living.
Li was critical of gambling, describing dice as innocent objects transformed into devils in the hands of gamblers.

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