Early life

Li Kaixian's mother, surname Wang (王), was the daughter of a wealthy family from Xinjie, who married his father at age 19. His father failed the provincial examination several times before eventually passing and going to the capital for the national examination. Li Kaixian received the degree of jinshi, the highest award for imperial examinations, and then entered the Ministry of Revenue.

Career

In the late 1550s, Li Kaixian became interested in printing Yuan-dynasty qu, including sanqu and dramas. His publishing was complimented by his personal libraries of over 10,000 volumes, known as the "Library of Ten Thousand Fascicles". He also printed a number of plays in an anthology, Revised Plays by Yuan Masters (c=改定元賢傳奇|p=Gaiding Yuanxian chuanqi|first=|labels=no). Despite the anthology's importance, the whereabouts of the collection was unknown into the 20th century. It was believed to be in Taiwan, until it was revealed in 2001 that the existing edition is kept in Nanjing Library.

Although the surviving edition of the anthology preserves only 6 plays, the preface states that Li Kaixian intended to print 16. Li Kaixian also stated that he was the sponsor of the project and provided texts from his own personal collection, with assistance from his disciple Zhang Zishen, a native of Shanghe known for his expertise in northern qu, and Gao Yingqi (高應玘).

Following the printing of the anthology, Li Kaixian continued printing suites of songs and xiaoling (小令); in 1566 and 1567 he printed collections by Yuan masters Zhang Keiju (張可久) and Qiao Ji, respectively.

生平

由縣學增廣生中式嘉靖七年戊子科（1528年）山東鄉試第七名舉人，嘉靖八年（1529年）己丑科會試二十名，廷試二甲六十七名進士，觀戶部政，授戶部雲南司主事、歷任吏部考功司主事、稽勛司員外、驗封司、文選司郎中等職，十九年（1540年）三月官至太常寺少卿，提督四夷館。嘉靖二十年（1541年）四月，有「九廟災」，首輔夏言命其罷歸。

家族

曾祖李子瞻；祖李聰；父李淳，貢士；母王氏。慈侍下，弟繼先。

成就

詩文詞曲兼通，尤擅長傳奇，《寶劍記》是其戲曲的代表作，「自詡馬東籬、張小山無以過也」。有學者以為李開先就是《金瓶梅》的作者蘭陵笑笑生。愛好藏書、象棋。與王慎中、唐順之、陳束、趙時春、熊過、任瀚、呂高等七人詩文唱和，有「嘉靖八才子」之譽，共同反對前後七子「文必秦漢，詩必盛唐」的文風，主張學習韓愈、柳宗元、歐陽修和曾鞏的筆法，強調作品的思想內容，要求文字平易樸實。除重視文學理論外，也強調詩歌的本質與特色，另外更是否定詩文必須絕對復古的為文風氣。重要著作有詩文集《閒居集》及有關戲曲理論的《詞謔》。

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