author
Yiqing Liu
403–444
A prince of the Liu Song dynasty, he is best known for shaping one of the liveliest books in classical Chinese literature: a collection of sharp, memorable stories about scholars, eccentrics, and courtly life. His work preserves the wit and personality of an earlier age in scenes that still feel surprisingly modern.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in 403 and living until 444, Liu Yiqing was a Chinese writer, compiler, and royal prince during the Liu Song dynasty. He is remembered less for political power than for his literary taste and for gathering learned men around him, helping turn historical anecdotes into enduring literature.
His best-known work is Shishuo Xinyu (A New Account of the Tales of the World), a collection of brief character sketches and anecdotes about notable figures from the late Han, Wei, and Jin periods. Readers have valued it for centuries not just as a source of historical detail, but for its concise, vivid style and its fascination with personality, conversation, and cultivated life.
Liu Yiqing is also traditionally linked with You Ming Lu, a collection of supernatural tales. Together, these works helped preserve both the social world of early medieval China and the storytelling habits that gave that world its charm.