Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng wrote The Golden Lotus during the early years of the Wanji era (1573--1620) of the Ming Empire. Nothing certain is known of Lanling's life.
Clement Egerton was at various times a senior officer in the British army, an Anglican bishop, and a writer, editor, linguist, and prolific photographer, but he is best known for his enduring translation of The Golden Lotus.
Shu Qingchun boarded with Clement Egerton and his wife when he was a lecturer in Chinese at the School of Oriental Studies in London, but he became famous as the Beijing novelist and dramatist Lao She, whose best-known work may be Rickshaw Boy. He was killed, or committed suicide, during the Cultural Revolution.
Robert Hegel is the Liselotte Dieckmann Professor of Comparative Literature and a professor of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
