Wang Shifu

Wang Shifu (Chinese: 王实甫; pinyin: Wáng Shífǔ), courtesy name of Wang Dexin (1250-1337?),^[1] was a successful Chinese playwright of the Yuan Dynasty. He was born in Dadu (present-day Beijing), the capital of the Mongol-Yuan Dynasty.

There are 14 plays attributed to Wang and only three are extant.^[2] His The Story of the Western Wing (Xi Xiang Ji) is one of the most famous Chinese plays and is still popular today. It is an amplified zaju (杂剧), a then popular theatrical form.^[3]

Notes

1. Tres dramas chinos Gredos, 2002 ISBN 978-84-249-2358-7. Several dates are given for his death. The Britannica establishes it in 1337
2. Britannica Article, Alicia Relinque in Tres dramas chinos says only two complete works survived
3. Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema, "Introduction," Wang, The Moon and the Zither.

References

• Wang, Shifu, Edited and Translated with an Introduction by Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema; with a Study of Its Woodblock Illustrations by Yao Dajuin. The Moon and the Zither: The Story of the Western Wing. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. ISBN 0520068076.

External links

• Works by Wang Shifu at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Wang Shifu at Internet Archive