Li Yu (Chinese: 李漁; pinyin: Lǐ Yú, given name: 仙侣 Xiānlǚ; courtesy name: 笠翁 Lìwēng; 1611–1680 AD), also known as Li Liweng, was a Chinese playwright, novelist and publisher.
Born in Rugao, in present-day Jiangsu province, he lived in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Although he passed the first stage of the imperial examination, he failed to pass higher levels before the political turmoil of the new dynasty, but instead turned to writing for the market. Li was an actor, producer, and director as well as a playwright, who traveled with his own troupe. His play Errors caused by the Kite (Chinese: 風箏誤; pinyin: Fēngzhēng wù) is performed in the Chinese Kun opera stage.[1]
Li is the presumed author of The Carnal Prayer Mat, a comedy of Chinese erotic literature.[2] He also wrote a book of short stories called Twelve Towers (十二樓; Shí'èr lóu). He addresses the topic of same-sex love in the tale "House of Gathered Refinements" (萃雅樓; Cuìyǎ lóu). This is a theme he revisits in the collection Silent Operas (i.e. "novels"; 無聲戲; Wúshēng Xì) and his play The Fragrant Companion. Li prefaced and published the painting manual Manual of the Mustard Seed GardeninJinling.
Li was also known for his informal essays, or xiaopin (小品), and for his gastronomy and gastronomical writings. Lin Yutang translated a number of these essays. Li's "On Having a Stomach" proposes that the mouth and the stomach "cause all the worry and trouble of mankind throughout the ages." He continues that the "plants can live without a mouth and a stomach, and the rocks and the soil have their being without any nourishment. Why, then, must we be given a mouth and a stomach and endowed with these two extra organs?"[3] Lin also translated Li's "How to be Happy Though Rich" and "How to be Happy Though Poor", and "The Arts of Sleeping, Walking, Sitting and Standing", which illustrate his satirical approach to serious topics.[4]
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