Ma Zhiyuan

Ma Zhiyuan (1250–1321), also known by his courtesy name Dongli, was a Chinese dramatist, playwright, and poet active during the Yuan dynasty. He is credited with advancing and popularizing the sanqu form of Classical Chinese poetry.

His most famous sanqu poem is “Autumn Thoughts,” which is composed to the metric pattern Tianjingsha. The poem uses ten distinct images within twenty-two monosyllables to set up an emotional state, and it is regarded as an exemplary piece in Chinese poetry for capturing the melancholy typical of the Chinese male literati during late autumn. Ma Zhiyuan’s sanqu works were gathered in the collection “Dongli Yuefu,” which contains 104 single sanqu (xiaoling) and 17 song suites (taoshu).

In addition to his poetry, Ma Zhiyuan wrote plays. Of the fifteen plays he authored, only seven survive, and four of these have been translated into English.

One of his best-known plays is “Autumn in Han Palace,” whose full title is “Breaking a Troubling Dream: A Lone Goose in Autumn over the Palaces of Han.” This play recounts the story of Han Emperor Yuandi and Wang Zhaojun and is considered the finest example of Yuan dynasty theatre. Another play, “The Yellow-Millet Dream,” has the full title “On the Road to Handan, Awakening from a Dream Dreamt While Cooking Millet.” A third play is “Yueyang Tower,” fully titled “Lü Dongbin Gets Drunk Three Times in Yueyang Tower.” A fourth translated play is “Tears on the Blue Gown,” whose full title is “The Overseer of Jiangzhou: Tears on the Blue Gown.” Three additional extant plays remain untranslated, with only their full titles recorded. Ma Zhiyuan’s contributions to both sanqu poetry and Yuan drama secured his lasting influence in Chinese literary history.