Li Ruzhen
Chinese writer
Li Ruzhen, formerly romanized as Li Ju-chen (Chinese: 李汝珍; c. 1763 - 1830), courtesy name Songshi (松石), art name Songshi Daoren (松石道人), was a Chinese novelist and phonologist of the Qing dynasty. A native of Beijing, he was the author of the novel Jing Hua Yuan (鏡花緣), or Flowers in the Mirror. He also wrote Lishi Yinjian (李氏音鑑), a work of Chinese phonology, and complied Shou Zi Pu (受子譜), a valuable kifu of Go.
Flowers in the Mirror (completed in 1827) is a novel of fantasy and erudition in 100 chapters. In the first half of the novel, the protagonist, like Gulliver, travels to strange lands, reminiscent of what are mentioned in Shan Hai Jing. The second half of the novel is a display of Li's erudition, and reads more like an encyclopedia than a novel.
The Lishi Yinjian, in the line of the rime table tradition, comprises syllable charts which are both innovative and confusing. Like Li's novel, it is a work of erudition, quoting from more than 400 works. It is valuable for its recording of the phonological system of the then-Beijing dialect.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Li Ruzhen” as chinese writer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as chinese writer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q711457. VIAF identifies the subject as 29710881. The Library of Congress control number is n80147689. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1763, 1830 and 1827.
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This entry incorporates text from “Li Ruzhen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.