张岱
明末清初
Zhang Dai was a late Ming and early Qing writer and historian, courtesy name Zongzi and Shigong, literary name Tao'an. He was from Shanyin in Zhejiang. Born into a wealthy and cultivated family, he loved theater, gardens, tea, wine, mountains, water, and urban pleasures. After the fall of the Ming, he lived in seclusion and wrote works filled with memory of the lost Ming world. His major works include 'Dream Memories of Tao'an,' 'Dream Search of West Lake,' and 'The Stone Casket.' Zhang Dai's prose is concise, vivid, and highly visual, often combining elegance and leisure with nostalgia, loss, and historical sorrow.