Zhang Chao

Zhang Chao
Born	1650 She County, Anhui, China
Pen name	San Zai Dao Ren (三再道人) Shanlai (山来) Xinzhai (心斋)
Occupation	litterateur, novelist, poet, engraving calligrapher
Nationality	Chinese
Period	Qing dynasty
Notable works	You Meng Ying, Yu Chu Xin Zhi

Zhang Chao (simplified Chinese: 张潮; traditional Chinese: 張潮; pinyin: Zhāng Cháo) was a Chinese litterateur and fiction writer from Anhui Province, China. He was born in 1650 during the Qing dynasty. Zhang had extensive knowledge in the field of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. He liked chess, calligraphy and painting and was good at various kinds of poetry. He was also interested in flowers, birds, fishes and insects. His works are rich in imagination and associated with the features of the Qing dynasty. Quiet Dream Shadows and Yu Chu Xin Zhi are the representative works. There are some other works too, such as Hua Ying Ci 花影词 ( Poems of Flower Shadows), Xi Nang Cun Jin 奚囊寸锦, and Yin Zhong Ba Xian Ling 饮中八仙令.

Zhang Chao was born in 1650 in She County, Anhui. One year before he was born, his father Zhang Xikong (张习孔) became a jinshi and went to work in Shandong as an educational inspector. After only a few months, Zhang Xikong's mother died and he resigned his position to go home as a merchant. Zhang Chao grew up in a wealthy family and his education was very strict. Under his father's influence, Zhang Chao studied diligently from his childhood. He devoted himself to the imperial examination for some time and he started to write eightlegged essay when he was 13 years old. Between the ages of 12 and 26, he failed the imperial examinations four times, in 1663, 1666, 1669 and 1672 during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. He worked as a bureaucrat in the early Kangxi era, but his rank was low and he became disillusioned.

Disappointed with his career, he traveled many places and lived in Rugao and Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China for long periods. From 1675, he lived in Yangzhou and made engraving. He made a lot of friends who were famous scholars or litterateurs at that time. Such as Yu Huai (余怀), Kong Shangren (孔尚任), Mei Wending (梅文鼎), Shitao (石涛). When he finished Quiet Dream Shadows (幽梦影), there were almost 100 friends who made comments about his book.

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