Chen Xu, better known by
Chen Diexian (his
art name), was a Chinese poet and industrialist born in
Hangzhou in 1879. Chen wrote poetry from a young age; he reported writing his first
tanci (a form of
ballad incorporating spoken portions) around 1893. By 1900, he had written a volume of collected works, an opera, a novel, and various poems and songs. He wrote prolifically through the following decades (his 1923
bibliography lists 31 novels), although he stopped writing around 1917 in order to focus on his career as an industrialist. Chen's work often focused on romance and erotic themes. He was greatly inspired by the classic Chinese novel
Dream of the Red Chamber; he included many characters from the work in his first
tanci. Around 1896 and 1897, he wrote two romance novels—
Luohua meng and
Leizhu yuan—inspired by
Dream of the Red Chamber and incorporating both fictional and autobiographical elements. Many of his poems also focus on his personal romances. According to his works, Chen's first romantic partner was his cousin and fellow poet Gu Yinglian. The main love interest of his
Luohua meng, she was purportedly prevented from marrying Chen due to "belonging to the following generation" despite being three years older than him, who then either drowns or "dies from melancholy" in Chen's semi-autobiographical works. His second novel includes his dalliances with Gu and Zhu Shu, the latter of whom he married in 1897. However, he continued to have deep romantic feelings for another woman he had been previously involved with, a family friend named Zhenglou. Zhu purportedly discovered their romance in 1898, and attempted to convince his mother to allow him to take Zhenglou as a
concubine. Seeing his mother as an overly harsh person, she did not agree to become his concubine, although occasionally maintained her romantic relationship with Chen. == Plot ==