王湘綺 （闓運，1832-1916）是晚清到民國初年的一位很特殊的振奇人。他是文學家，經學家，和政治也有很深切的關係。在文學上他代表研究唐代以前的典雅絢麗的駢偶文字，個人寫作的風尚也是漢魂六朝。他提倡今文，主張公羊學，基本地影響了清末的經學風氣，也開了廖平、康有為這些人的思路。在政治上他又是曾國藩的門生、幕客，也和李鴻章、郭嵩燾、張之洞以至袁世凱這些人有很密的友誼，有資格替他們畫策，可以說又是一位著名的策略家。他的活動約從太平天國變亂的時期起，直到民國初年。 　　這篇論文特別提到他的婚姻和男女關係，在當時的社會�堙A也是很不尋常的。他初娶蔡菊生，兩人間雖沒有很濃烈的愛情，菊生和他相偶三十八年，也為他生了四男四女。他結婚後不多年曾去廣州，在那�堨L納了莫六雲做妾。六雲是個很可憐的廣西女孩子，在戰亂中曾遭擄劫、姦淫、拐賣，最後才被湘綺贖出了火坑。湘綺極喜歡她，兩人愛情很篤，不幸六雲又早死了。在（湘綺樓日記）�奡膩O湘綺在夢�埵蛬}要生生世世和六雲做夫婦，不管菊生那時候在旁邊瞪著眼看他。 　　多情並且弛蕩不霸的湘綺還有許多別的女子，都和他有不尋常的關係。這些人主要地是他家庭裡僕婦，有的是寡婦，有的丈夫還一起在他家中服役。王湘綺這裡複雜的情愛生活是很不簡單的。他受過《紅樓夢》這部小說很大的影響。即使在他的晚年，《日記》裡也常常自比做賈寶玉，有時候又比做林黛玉。他對《紅樓》的了解是值得人們尋思的。《日記》裡他曾記過兩首他模仿曹雪芹作的律詩，自云「絕似曹雪芹，亦自得意」，這種話也是一向自負的湘綺老人不容易這樣說的。

　　　　　In modern Chinese history, Wang Hsiang-ch'i 王湘綺 (formal name K'ai-yun 闓運，1832-1916) was an eccentric yet important scholar and man of letters. He was an expert in the study of the pre-T'ang classical poems on which he modelled in his own writings with great success. His theory expounding the hidden meanings in the Ch'un-ch'iu Chronicle (722-481 BC) upheld by the Confucians of the Kung-yan 公羊 School in Han time had served as catalyst to the researches carried out by Liao P'ing 廖平 (1852-1932) and K'ang Yu-wei 康有為 (1858-1927) of the late Ch'ing. As a disciple of Tseng Kuo-fan 曾國藩 (1811-1872) and friend of Li Hung-chang 李鴻章 (1823-1901), Kuo Sung-t'ao郭嵩燾 (1818-1891), Chang Chih-tung 張之洞 (1837-1909) and Yuan Shih-k'ai 袁世凱 (1859-1916) he also played an important role in politics, for he was a brain-truster to them. In short, his activities spread over a long period from the time of the T'ai-p'ing Rebellion till the early days of the Republican Era. 　　However, as Hsiang-ch'i was romantic and unruly in nature, he had a rather chequered marital life. He was married to Ts'ai Chu-sheng蔡菊生, the woman he didn't really love, who gave birth to his four sons and four daughters and died in 1890, after thirty-eight years of relationship. At much earlier time in 1864, when Hsiang-ch'i was in Kuangchou (Canton) he took as concubine Mo Liu-yun 莫六雲, a slave-girl who was a victim of kidnapping and rape during the unprecedented catastrophe of civil war and had become a prostitute. True love was engendered between them since Liu-yun was admitted into the family, and Hsiang-ch'i's love for her was so great that he pledged repeatedly in a dream, as recorded in his Diary (1887), two years after Liu-yun's untimely death, that he "would happily take her as proper wife in [his] next incarnation" while watching by his sulky wife, Chu-sheng. 　　Besides Chu-sheng and Liu-yun, Wang Hsiang-ch'i had a number of women with whom he had illicit connection, many were in his household service. They were in general married women or widows, some of the husbands were his servants. Developing his remarkable love-taste from the novel Hung-lou Meng 紅樓夢 (The Story of the Stone), Hsiang-ch'i, even at his advanced age, often compared himself to the hero in the novel, Chia Pao-yu, or to Pao-yu's lover, Lin Tai-yu, and vividly described his own emotional outbursts and extravaganza in his Diary, cherishing it into a personal philosophy. There is on need to say that he was also a great admirer of Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in 曹雪芹 (1715?-1763), the Han-bannerman author of the novel. Two poems Hsiang-ch'i composed after Ts'ao's style included in his diary, The Hsiang-chi' Lou Jih-chi 湘綺樓日記, was considered proudly by himself as literarily very much akin to the original.