Gui Youguang (; 1507–1571) was a Chinese writer of Ming Dynasty. His courtesy name was Xifu () and his art name was Zhenchuan (), and he was also known as Xiangji Sheng (, literally Scholar of Xiangji). His prose writings were highly praised. People of his time regarded him as a modern-day Ouyang Xiu, an important writer of the earlier Song Dynasty, and later generations praised his works as "the best prose of the Ming Dynasty". He was one of the early masters of the xiaopin. Names and titles Youguang When Gui's mother conceived him, it was said that there was a rainbow glowed in the yard, while its light reached the sky, which was deemed lucky. Accordingly, he was gave the name "Youguang", literally "There was a light" in Chinese. Zhenchuan Gui detested art names when he was young. Once he was notice as an exception without one at a party, thus the others began to call him "Zhenchuan". It is a compound of two geographical nouns: "zhen" refers to "Zhenze" (), the ancient name of Lake Tai which adjoins his hometown, while "chuan" is a synonym for river in Chinese, refers to the Yangtze River sometimes. However, Gui still rejected that until he met He Qitu (), an erudite scholar from Henan who happened to share the same art name with him. Gui took "Zhenchuan" out of admiration for He, he also made an analogy between them and Sima Xiangru together with Lin Xiangru. Xiangji Sheng Gui's ancestors once lived along a river call Xiangjijing () in Taicang during Yuan dynasty, later he designate his sanctum as Xiangjixuan () to commemorate them probably. Hence, Gui called himself Xiangji Sheng. While "Xiangji" is supposed to be the abbreviation of "Xiangjixuan". Biography Gui Youguang was born in Kunshan, Suzhou Prefecture, a satellite city in south-east Jiangsu Province nowadays. His family had been a large, important family in the past, but by Gui Youguang's time, their influence were starting to decline. When he was only seven years old, his mother died, leaving her husband to support their three sons and two daughters. After that, his family lived a much harder life; Gui learned about suffering and sorrow at a very early age. Because of his cleverness and hard work, Gui was able to write relatively good articles when he was only nine years old. At the age of ten, he wrote