Wú Wòyáo 吳沃堯 (1866–1910), also known as Wú Jiǎnrén 吳趼人, pen name Wǒ Fó Shānrén 我佛山人, was one of the most prolific and socially engaged novelists of the late Qīng period. Born in Fóshān 佛山 near Guǎngzhōu (Guǎngdōng), he spent much of his adult life in Shanghai, working as a journalist, editor, and professional fiction writer in the treaty-port literary milieu.
His pen name Wǒ Fó Shānrén functions as a bilingual pun: it reads simultaneously as 我佛山人 (“I am a man of Fóshān” — his native place) and 我佛山人 (“I am a Buddhist hermit”) — a characteristic Cantonese literary wit noted by Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, §8.10.2).
His major works include:
- Èrshí Nián Mùdǔ zhī Guài Xiànzhuàng 二十年目睹之怪現狀 (KR4k0107), his longest and most celebrated exposé novel (108 huí, first serialized 1903–1909).
- Fā Cái Mìjué 發財秘訣 (KR4k0108), a shorter satirical novel on the get-rich-quick mentality of the treaty-port era.
- Héns Hǎi 恨海 (1906), a romantic tragedy; tr. Patrick Hanan, The Sea of Regret (University of Hawai’i Press, 1995).
- Qiú Wáng Mèng 九命奇冤 and numerous other novels and story collections.
CBDB records: id 78399, birth 1866 (Tóngzhì 5), death 1910 (Xuāntǒng 2). The CBDB note cites 《清代人物生卒年表》 (#9407) for these dates. Wilkinson (§31.2.3) gives dates as “1866–1910 (Wu Woyao 吳沃堯).”