《官场现形记》作者李伯元,别号南亭亭长、游戏主人,常州市人。清同治六年生于山东,三岁丧父,由伯父抚养成人。伯父和母亲督教甚严,伯元学业精进,擅长八股诗赋,能书画,工词曲,精篆刻。二十来岁时考秀才,得第一名。1892年,伯父辞官回常,伯元一家亦返回故乡。因北门青山桥罗武坝祖宅早毁,先后住常州青果巷、三牌楼两处。两年后,伯父去世,伯元一家只得谋求自立。时值变法运动兴起,他受改良主义思想影响,想到报纸为民喉舌,可收振聋发聩之效,于1896年去上海办报,并考虑从游戏入手,以便接近民众,先后办了《指 “Bureaucrats” author Li Boyuan, alias Nan Ting Ting long, the game owner, Changzhou City. Qing Tongzhi six years was born in Shandong, his father died three years old, raised by the uncle adult. Uncle and mother to teach very strict, Bo Yuan study, good at the eight-poem Fu, can calligraphy and painting, work lyrics, fine carving. Twenty-year-old exam scholar, had first place. In 1892, uncle returned to his hometown, and his family returned home. Due to the North Gate Aoyama Bridge Lo Wuba ancestral home destroyed early, has lived in Changzhou Green Lane, the three arches. Two years later, uncle died, the Bo Yuan family had to seek independence. The rise of change of time movement, he was influenced by the reformist thinking, think of newspaper mouthpiece for the public, can bring the effect of deafness, went to Shanghai to run the newspaper in 1896, and consider starting from the game, so close to the public, has done a "means