author
jin shi 1715 Xiuxing Li
A Qing-era Chinese novelist remembered for Dream Incarnation, he wrote in the lively vernacular style that made scholar-and-beauty romances widely popular. Surviving records suggest he was also a successful examination scholar from Shandong.
1 Audiobook
夢中緣
by jin shi 1715 Xiuxing Li
About the author
Li Xiuxing was a Chinese writer from Yangxin in Shandong during the Qing dynasty. Reference listings consistently identify him as a jinshi of 1715, meaning he passed the highest level of the imperial examinations, and they connect him with the novel Meng Zhong Yuan (Dream Incarnation, also known as Dream of Five Beauties).
Modern catalog and reference sources agree that Dream Incarnation is a vernacular long-form romance novel from the Yongzheng–Qianlong period. Chinese reference summaries also give his style name as Ziqian and credit him with other scholarly works, suggesting he moved between elite literary culture and popular fiction.
Very little biographical detail seems to be easily confirmed online beyond those basics, but that makes his surviving novel all the more interesting: it offers a glimpse of Qing readers' taste for talent, love, fate, and elegant storytelling.