Fengyi Li

Fengyi Li

Fengyi Li is located between Si Lane and Xin Lane on Longmian East Road in the urban area. Fang Bao, who resided in Jiangning (now Nanjing), often lived here when he returned to his hometown for imperial examinations, ancestral worship, family visits, and meetings with friends.

Fun Fact: Fang Bao (1668–1749), courtesy name Fengjiu, also known as Linggao, with the pseudonym Wangxi, was a renowned literary figure of the Qing Dynasty and the founder of the Tongcheng School of literature. Gifted from an early age, he could recite various classical texts by the age of six and was hailed in the capital at the age of twenty-four as the “foremost in Jiangdong” and a “revival of Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu.” He was once imprisoned due to his connection with Dai Mingshi’s case involving the *Nanshan Collection*, but was later pardoned. During the Qianlong era, he was appointed Vice Minister of Rites and successively served as Vice President of the *Imperial Qing Literary Compilation* and *Commentaries on the Three Ritual Classics*, as well as Chief Editor of the “Classics and History Bureau.” He retired at the age of seventy-five. In his scholarship and writing, Fang Bao integrated moral principles with literary form, pioneering the theory of “meaning and method,” which laid the foundation for the prose theory of the Tongcheng School. His works are characterized by rigor, elegance, simplicity, and naturalness, and his writings have been compiled under the collected title *Complete Works of Fang Wangxi*.