Author of The Romance of the Western Chamber, a peak of classical love drama
A Yuan-dynasty playwright, remembered for The Romance of the Western Chamber. This play tells how the scholar Zhang and the chancellor’s daughter Cui Yingying fall in love at first sight in a monastery and, breaking through the rites, finally wed — its diction lush, its feeling sincere, crying out "may all the lovers in the world be joined as one." It writes the young’s yearning for free love with boldness and tenderness, deeply influencing later masterpieces like The Peony Pavilion and Dream of the Red Chamber.
The most moving thing about the Western Chamber is its courage to stand on the side of "feeling" against the whole apparatus of rites. Through the union of Zhang and Cui, Wang Shifu cries "may all the lovers in the world be joined as one" — a wish that for centuries after has been the Chinese people’s plainest and most stubborn hope for love.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.