| Sima Xiangru's names |
|
Given name |
Style name |
| Traditional |
司馬相如 |
長卿 |
| Simplified |
司马相如 |
长卿 |
| Pinyin |
Sīmǎ Xiāngrú |
Chángqīng |
| Wade-Giles |
Ssu1-ma3 Hsiang1-ju2 |
Chang2-ch'ing1 |
-
Sima Xiangru (179–117 BC) was a Chinese writer. He was a minor official of the Western Han Dynasty but was better known for his poetic skills, jiu business, and controversial marriage to the widow Zhuo Wenjun after both eloped. One of his most famous works is the Chang Men Fu (literally "Ode of the Wide Gate"), written in the style fu, of rhymed prose under commission from a former Empress. In fact, Sima was largely responsible for establishing fu as a literary genre.[1]
He was also a guqin player.
Much is known about him through Sima Qian's biography of him, Shij ji 117.[2]
Notes
- ^ Loewe (1986), 170–171.
- ^ Sima Qian. "Shi ji 117: Biography of Sima Xiangru." Pp. 259-306 in Vol 2 of Records of the Grand Historian. Han Dynasty. Burton Watson, trans. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
