李绿园

《歧路灯》 follows 谭绍闻, the son of a good family in Kaifeng, who falls in with gamblers, loses the family fortune and slowly mends his ways. The lamp of the title is meant to light the road for young men who have gone astray. Long read only in manuscript, it was not published in full until 1980.

His given name was 海观; 绿园, 'green garden', was the name he wrote under. He passed the provincial exam, served as a county magistrate, and wrote the novel to teach; its many sermons show it.