Yu Xiangdou (; ) was a Chinese writer, editor, and publisher active during the late

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. He took over the leadership of his family's printing conglomerate in Jianyang,

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

after repeatedly failing the

imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...

, and was known for including portraits of himself in his publications.

Career

Yu's family had been in the publishing industry since as early as the twelfth century. At the time of Yu's birth around 1560, his family owned the largest printing conglomerate in Jianyang,

, which comprised some thirty independent publishing houses. In 1591, after failing the

multiple times, Yu began running the family business. Yu edited and published at least seventy titles, including the

Four Books and Five Classics The Four Books and Five Classics are authoritative and important books associated with Confucianism, written before 300 BC. They are traditionally believed to have been either written, edited or commented by Confucius or one of his disciples. S ...

, two collections of fictional Taoist writing, three collections of ''

gong'an Gong'an County () is a county in southern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, bordering Hunan to the south. It is under the administration of Jingzhou City. History During the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era, Gong'an County was k ...

'' (court-case) stories, and two or three editions of ''

Romance of the Three Kingdoms ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD and ...

''. By his own account, Yu also published "a treatise on poetry, at least two household encyclopedias, and several works on divination." Yu is credited with authoring two ''

shenmo Gods and demons fiction or Shenmo fiction () is a subgenre of Chinese fantasy fiction that revolves around the deities, immortals, demons and monsters of Chinese mythology. The term ''shenmo xiaoshuo'', coined in the early 20th century by the w ...

'' novels—the '' Huaguang Tianwang Nanyou zhizhuan'' () and the ''Quanxiang Beiyou ji Xuandi chushen zhuan'' (). These two novels, alongside the ''Baxian chuchu dongyou ji'' () by and the ''Xiyouji zhuan'' () by , make up the later

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

collection titled ''

Four Journeys The ''Four Journeys'' () is a collection of four shenmo novels that were published during the Ming dynasty Wanli era, and they consist of ''Journey to the North'', ''Journey to the South'', ''Journey to the East'', and ''Journey to the West'' ...

''. Yu occasionally passed off his own writing as part of the older novels that he republished. For instance, his additions to his 1594 edition of ''

Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (), also called ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' or ''All Men Are Brothers'', is a Chinese novel from the Ming dynasty that is one of the preeminent Classic Chinese Novels. Attributed to Shi Nai'an, ''Water Margin'' was one of the e ...

'' were derided as "the hasty, slipshod writing of a relatively illiterate bookseller" by one reviewer. On the other hand, Yu claimed that his republications were superior to those of other printing houses because of their unique illustrations. In the preface of the same 1594 edition of ''Water Margin'', Yu writes, In addition, Yu enjoyed including illustrations of himself in his publications. While many authors at the time were known to include their portraits in their books, it was "extremely rare" for commercial publishers to follow suit. One of the earliest surviving portraits of Yu—depicting him in front of one of his printing houses, Santai guan () or Triple-Terraced House—can be found on the cover page of his 1598 anthology of vernacular love stories, titled ''Xinke Xinke yunchuang huishuang Wanjin qinglin'' ().

Notes

References

Citations

Works cited

* * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Xiangdou 1560 births 1637 deaths People from Nanping Writers from Fujian Businesspeople from Fujian