Emerging from Anonymity: The First Generation of Writers of Songs and Drama in Mid-Ming Nanjing

Abstract

This paper traces the first generation of writers of songs and drama in Nanjing who emerged from the anonymous context of court entertainment in early Ming to establish their name and reputation in the second half of the fifteenth century. The author argues that these writers, Shi Zhong (1437-after 1516), Chen Duo (ca.1460-ca.1521), and Xu Lin (1462-1538), represented a different mode of writing songs and drama—it was no longer an occupation for them as in the case of the court performers, but became part of their cultural and social life. The paper also explores the extent to which our knowledge of these first-generation writers relies on local sources and the act of remembrance by later Nanjing writers.