Liu Yiqing
403–444
Biography
Liu Yiqing (劉義慶, 403–444) was a prince and writer of the Liu Song dynasty, which ruled southern China from 420 to 479. He was a nephew of the dynasty's founder, Emperor Wu, and was born in Pengcheng, in what is now Xuzhou in Jiangsu. He inherited the title of Prince of Linchuan and combined the duties of a member of the imperial house with a reputation as a man of letters.
He is chiefly remembered for Shishuo Xinyu (世說新語), a collection of brief anecdotes about scholars, officials and recluses of the Eastern Han and Jin periods, roughly the second to the fourth centuries. Chinese sources say he gathered his guests and retainers to write it. The book holds more than a thousand short entries, arranged under thirty-six headings by subject. He is also credited with Youming Lu (幽明錄), a collection of tales of the strange and supernatural.
Shishuo Xinyu is one of his books on this site, under its Chinese title. It is a classic of early medieval Chinese prose. Its sketches are clear, sharp and often witty, and they have been read and imitated for centuries. Historians also draw on its portraits of Eastern Han and Jin figures, so the book serves both as literature and as a window onto the society it describes.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
世説新語
by 劉義慶
Liu Yiqing's collection of brief anecdotes and sayings of the scholars and statesmen of the Han and Jin courts, sorted under thirty-six headings from virtue and speech to eccentricity and slander. The wit of the Wei-Jin gentry made it a model of elegant prose.
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.