Wu Jiaji

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Wu Jiaji or Wu Chia-chi (1618-1684), Chinese poet, was an associate of the official and literary figure Chou Liang-kung (Zhou Lianggong). Wu’s writings provide us with a glimpse of conditions just prior to the Manchu conquest and especially descriptions of social conditions in rural society. Wu was from the T’ai-chou (Taizhou) area in Kiangsu, an area already known for radical intellectualism. The area had once experienced economic prosperity, but by the 17th century was in decline. Wu Chia-chi lived in the midst of poverty in a dilapidated home with broken tiles. Members of the local community still attempted to uphold old standards of education and culture. The area was one of salt production and Wu’s ancestors engaged in this profession. Wu himself engaged in variety of occupations. It is popular to view Wu Chia-chi, and others of his station, as hermits in protest against the newly established Manchu regime. Wu’s accounts of China’s new masters on a local level are of course revealing. Among Wu’s associates were seal carvers who came to the attention of the scholar Chou Liang-kung. Chou would publish a collection of their biographies, the Yin-jen chuan.

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Carpenter, Bruce E., ‘Wu Chia-chi and Life at the Bottom’, Tezukayama University Review (Tezukayama Daigaku ronshu), Nara, Japan, 1989, pp. 15-30.