Shi Yukun

Shi Yukun, whose courtesy name was Zhenzhi, was a highly popular Qing dynasty storyteller who performed in Beijing during the first half of the nineteenth century. Little is known about his life, but anecdotes recorded in the 1940s claimed he worked as a bondservant at a prince's mansion before he became a performer. He is the credited author of the wuxia novel The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants, first published in 1879, though most modern scholars believe he died several years before it appeared.