Zhu Ziqing, originally named Zhu Zihua, was an outstanding educator, poet, and essayist. Though born in Donghai County of Jiangsu Province in 1898, Zhu often claimed himself a native of Yangzhou, as he lived in Yangzhou for 13 years and later taught in a middle school there.

He was invited to teach at Tsinghua University in 1925, and accepted a number of academic posts, becoming a professor and later the Dean of the Chinese Language Department, as well as the Head Librarian of the school. Upright, diligent, and a tireless teacher, Zhu was regarded as a model modern scholar by his students and colleagues.

Zhu was also a prolific writer, creating up to 27 kinds of literary works with a total of 1.9 million characters, including poetry, prose, academic reports, and so on. Most of these works were collected in the four-volume Collection of Zhu Ziqing published by the Kaiming Bookstore in 1953. In 1988, the Jiangsu Education Publishing House, after a comprehensive collection and coordination, published six volumes of Collection of Zhu Ziqing.

Though Zhu had started to compose poems after the May 4th Moverment (1919), his prose "Qinhuai River in the Oaring Sound and Light Shadow" published in 1923 showed his talent in prose. From then on, he devoted himself to prose creation, and achieved great accomplishments. The prose collection A View of Father's Back published in 1928 made him a highly reputable essayist at that time. The best prose of Zhu Ziqing (1898-1948), such as "My Father's Back," "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond," and "Green," were all included.

Zhu Ziqing was not only adept at descriptive writing but also an expert at weaving feelings and scenery into his descriptions. His landscape prose has a very significant status in modern literature. For example, "Green" exquisitely depicts the texture and color of the Meiyutan Waterfall using apt comparison and contrast. Zhu was very careful about wording and had a superb ability in manipulating language.

His mastery of language is even better embodied in "Moonlight Over the Lotus Pond." For example, to capture the loveliness of lotuses in moonlight, he compares them to pearls, stars, and a bathing beauty. To illustrate the soft fragrance of the lotus, he writes: "Like a distant song wafting vaguely over from faraway buildings," comparing the aroma to a song and its subtlety to vague distances.

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