Mao Zonggang

Mao Zonggang (simplified Chinese: 毛宗岗; traditional Chinese: 毛宗崗; pinyin: Máo Zōnggāng 1632－1709; courtesy name Xushi 序始; art name Zian 子庵), and his father, Mao Lun simplified Chinese: 毛纶; traditional Chinese: 毛綸; pinyin: Máo Lún courtesy name Shengshan 聲山) were Qing dynasty editors and commentators who influenced the conception of the Chinese novel.

The father and son are best known for editing and providing commentaries on the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. They are often grouped with Zhang Zhupo and Jin Shengtan as commentator/editors whose dufa (讀法 lit. "way to read") interpreted novels using a vocabulary and critical standards which up to then had been limited to poetry and painting. This innovation raised the status of fiction for Chinese readers and made the writing of fiction into a respectable activity for educated people.

The Maos' substantially revised text, first published in 1679 (1680 in the western calendar), was so successful that it drove earlier versions from the market and for nearly three centuries was the only one which most Chinese readers knew. Their commentaries, or dufa (how to read), explained the moral and historical issues in the novel. These dufa not only shaped reader reactions but also helped to establish fiction as acceptable to serious readers rather than frivolous or even illicit.

Although their edition of Three Kingdoms was published under and is known by Mao Zonggang's name, scholars assume that Mao Lun was primarily responsible. Little is known of Mao Lun, though it is understood that he went blind as he entered middle age and relied on his son as his secretary. Mao Lun experienced the Manchu conquest of the lower Yangzi valley in the 1640s and saw friends executed for being loyal to the Ming. Scholars have long debated whether his viewpoint was that of a loyalist who supported Southern Ming remnants, in which case his sympathies might lie with the loyalist group in Three Kingdoms.

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