Yanxiayishi

Yanxiayishi, written in Chinese as 煙霞逸士, is the pseudonym attached to Qiao Lian Zhu (巧聯珠), an early Qing-dynasty Chinese novel in the caizi jiaren tradition. Library and catalog records connect the name with editions of the book dating to the early 18th century, and modern public-domain listings also preserve the author credit under this pen name.

Very little can be confirmed about the person behind the pseudonym. Some modern references say Yanxiayishi may have been an alias for the writer Liu Zhang, born in 1667, but that identification is disputed, so it is safest to describe the author as uncertain rather than settled.

For readers, that mystery is part of the appeal: Yanxiayishi stands as one of those literary bylines that survive mainly through the work itself. Even with the biographical record so thin, the name remains linked to a novel that continued to be copied, cataloged, and read long after its first publication.