Ma Zhiyuan

Who was Ma Zhiyuan?

Ma Zhiyuan, courtesy name Dongli, was a Chinese poet and celebrated playwright, a native of Dadu during the Yuan Dynasty.

Among his achievements is the development and popularizing of the new sanqu lyric variant of Classical Chinese poetry forms. The poem "Autumn Thoughts" from the book '东篱乐府' is the most widely known of his sanqu poems.

Only seven of his 15 plays are extant, of which four have been translated into English:

⁕Autumn in Han Palace, 漢宮秋

⁕The Yellow-Millet Dream, 黃粱夢

⁕Yueyang Tower, 岳陽樓

⁕Tears on the Blue Gown, 青衫淚

⁕任風子

⁕薦福碑

⁕陳搏高臥