Wu Jingzi
Wu Jingzi (Wu Ching-tzu) (1701—January 11, 1754) was a Chinese novelist during the Qing dynasty. He was born in the city now known as Quanjiao, Anhui and who died in Yangzhou, Jiangsu. He was the author of The Scholars, often seen as the foremost Chinese satiric novel.
Also recorded as Wenmulaoren · Wenmu · Minxuan · Wenmushanfang
Wu Jingzi
猫猫的日记本 · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1701. · Quanjiao County.
- Died
- 1754. · Yangzhou Fu.
- Nationality
- Qing dynasty.
- Occupation
- writer and poet.
- Fields
- chapter novel and satire.
- Known for
- The Scholars.
- Languages
- Chinese.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 118808001 · wikidata · Q699365 · wikipedia · Wu Jingzi
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Biography
Biography
Wu was born into a well-to-do family. His father Wu Linqi (吳霖起) was a Qing official, but Wu Jingzi himself met with no success. He obtained the xiucai degree in 1720, but when people in Anhui criticized him for wasting his family fortune, he moved to Nanjing. Poverty-stricken by the age of thirty-two, he met and acquainted himself with many government officials but renounced ambition and did not attempt the exams. One report had it that he could not afford to buy fuel, and when the nights were cold, he and his friends would walk together outside the city walls, chatting and composing poetry, a tactic they called 暖足 ("warming our feet"). Wu's family may have had ties to the famous philosophers Yan Yuan and Li Gong (李塨). The philosophers emphasized the importance of ritual in Neo-Confucianism and may have influenced Wu's novel. While in Nanjing, in 1740, he started his famous novel The Scholars. There is a museum in his honor located in his hometown of Quanjiao county, now Chuzhou.
Documentary record
Wu Jingzi (1701 – 1754) was a writer. The birth of Wu Jingzi is recorded in 1701, and the death in 1754.
胡适文集《吴敬梓年谱》
Hamham
Wu Jingzi Memorial Hall in Quanjiao County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, China.
Zhou Guanhuai
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1701
Wu Jingzi born at Quanjiao County.
1754
Wu Jingzi died at Yangzhou Fu.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Quanjiao County.
Birth place
Yangzhou Fu.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q699365: Wu Jingzi
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Wu Jingzi”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 118808001, Wu, Jingzi.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Wu Jingzi, revision 1355415949 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Ellen Widmer. Review of Literati Identity and Its Fictional Representations in Late Imperial China. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 59, No. 1. 59. 1. 290–300. 1999. 10.2307/2652696.
References
Citations
References
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scholarly publication
The thought of Wu Jingzi (1701-1754) as seen in the "Ru-lin wai-shi" = Cong "Ru lin wai shi" fen xi Wu Jingzi (yi qi ling yi zhi yi qi wu si) de si xiangCrossref registry
Institutional witnessauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 118808001, Wu, Jingzi.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Wu BinAuthor
- Wu ChengAuthor
- Wu Cheng'enAuthor
- Wu HanAuthor
- Wu LiAuthor
- Wu MingyiAuthor
- Wu RenbiAuthor
- Wu SansiAuthor
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