Sima Xiangru

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Sima Xiangru's names
Given name Style name
Traditional 司馬相如 長卿
Simplified 司马相如 长卿
Pinyin Sīmǎ Xiāngrú Chángqīng
Wade-Giles Ssu1-ma3 Hsiang1-ju2 Chang2-ch'ing1
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Sima (司馬).

Sima Xiangru (179117 BC) was a Chinese writer. He was a minor official of the Western Han Dynasty but was better known for his poetic skills, jiu business, and controversial marriage to the widow Zhuo Wenjun after both eloped. One of his most famous works is the Chang Men Fu (literally "Ode of the Wide Gate"), written in the style fu, of rhymed prose under commission from a former Empress.

He was also a guqin player.

Much is known about him through Sima Qian's biography of him, Shij ji 117.[1]

  1. ^ Sima Qian. "Shi ji 117: Biography of Sima Xiangru." Pp. 259-306 in Vol 2 of Records of the Grand Historian. Han Dynasty. Burton Watson, trans. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.