Flying Flowers and Fantasy

The eighteenth chapter of "Fei Hua Yan Xiang" is titled "Compiled by Qiao Yun Shanren". It is generally believed that the person from Qiaoyun Mountain is Liu Zhang. The author Liu Zhang was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi, with the courtesy name Yutang and the nickname Jiefu, also known as Yanxiasanren and Qiaoyunshanren. He was born in about the sixth year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1667). He was elected in the 35th year of Kangxi's reign (1696). In the first year of Yongzheng's reign (1723), he was appointed magistrate of Shenze County. He served for four years and was later dismissed. Among the novels he wrote, the earliest published one is "The Legend of Killing Ghosts", and there are also "Phoenix Pond", "Qiao Lian Zhu", etc. There are two early editions of "Fei Hua Yan Xiang" in existence, both of which are not signed with the name of the bookstore.