Hou Fangyu

Hou Fangyu was a writer and scholar active during the collapse of the Ming dynasty and the first years of Qing rule.

A member of the late Ming literary elite, he was associated with reformist political circles and with Li Xiangjun. His prose reputation survived the dynasty’s fall, while their relationship became the historical basis for The Peach Blossom Fan. In Alice Poon’s historical fiction, this person is represented within the Ming–Qing transition or the founding of the Qing dynasty.