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Hong Sheng

Born

Hangzhou, China

Genre

Theatre, Classics

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Hong Sheng (zh), one of the period's most famous playwrights and poets, was born in 1645 in a shack outside Hangzhou City in the Qing Dynasty. He graduated from the Imperial Academy in 1668 and then returned home the following year. At the age of 18, he began to write Incense Pavilion (Chinese: 沉香庭) which was later renamed and known as Dance Seduction (Chinese: 霓裳舞). Finally, the old drama of Dance Seduction was successfully rewritten as The Palace of Eternal Life after being revised several times when he was 27, which became a masterpiece afterwards and was widely played. In the year of 1704, on his way back from Nanjing to Hangzhou, Hong Sheng accidentally fell into the river when drinking wine on a boat and died by drowning in Wuzhen.

Equ Hong Sheng (zh), one of the period's most famous playwrights and poets, was born in 1645 in a shack outside Hangzhou City in the Qing Dynasty. He graduated from the Imperial Academy in 1668 and then returned home the following year. At the age of 18, he began to write Incense Pavilion (Chinese: 沉香庭) which was later renamed and known as Dance Seduction (Chinese: 霓裳舞). Finally, the old drama of Dance Seduction was successfully rewritten as The Palace of Eternal Life after being revised several times when he was 27, which became a masterpiece afterwards and was widely played. In the year of 1704, on his way back from Nanjing to Hangzhou, Hong Sheng accidentally fell into the river when drinking wine on a boat and died by drowning in Wuzhen.

Equated with Kong Shangren as an influential Qing Dynasty playwright, Hong historicized a traditional love theme and examined how love and politics become entwined.

Hong Sheng lived at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, shortly after the Manchu conquest and the downfall of the Ming dynasty. He belonged to the old established literary class. His wife was a musician and a woman of extensive literary education, and was the granddaughter of a prime minister under the Ming Dynasty. His own attitude toward the conquerors was less than cordial. His chief play contains political overtones that were interpreted as disloyal to the Manchu regime, with the result that he was expelled from the Imperial Academy and a large number of his associates were dismissed from their government posts. he left the court in an impoverished condition, returning to his home in the south.

The ruling classes of Qing Dynasty carried out policies in which evoked strong opposition to intellectuals. Hong Sheng was also highly disappointed with the imperial court. Despite the play's veiled references to the turbulent early Qing period, the Kangzi Emperor highly praised The Palace of Eternal Life when it was performed in Beijing in 1689. However Hong was later imprisoned for attending a performance of it during a period of national mourning, but the play remained extremely popular. ...more

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Hong Sheng’s books

Average rating: 3.79 · 19 ratings · 8 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	Palace of Eternal Youth - Echo of Classics (Chinese and English Edition) by Hong Sheng, Gladys Yang, Yang Xianyi 3.74 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 1688 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Palace of Eternal Youth, Volume 1 by Hong Sheng, Gladys Yang liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Hong Sheng’s Followers

Hong Sheng

Combine EditionsHong Sheng’s books

Combine Editions
Hong Sheng’s books