Song Zhiwen

Song Zhiwen (c. 660–712), also known by his courtesy name of Yanqing, was a Chinese poet of the early Tang dynasty, although technically his poetic career was largely within the anomalous dynastic interregnum of Wu Zetian. Together with Shen Quanqi, Song Zhiwen is considered to have the "credit for the final perfection" of the "new style" poetry of regulated verse (jintishi)[1] which was one of the most critical poetic developments of the early Tang poets, and much followed as a style which inspired future generations of poets.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Song.
Song Zhiwen
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese宋之問
Simplified Chinese宋之问
Courtesy name: Yanqing
Chinese延清
Japanese name
Kanji宋之問
Hiraganaそうしもん

He was ordered to commit suicide after Xuanzong came to the throne, ostensibly because of unwise involvement in the politics of the imperial succession.

Poetry

Song Zhiwen was particularly known for his five-character-regular-verse, or wujue, one of which is included in the famous poetry anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.

As an outstanding court poet in Early Tang dynasty, Song Zhiwen's poems are famous for his regulated verse which are regarded as lüshi, including heptasyllabic songs. His early opuses focus on court life and imperially assigned poems. Later, he prefers to write landscapes and inner embitterment feelings due to exile. His most famous poems are "度大庾岭" (A.D.705) and "渡汉江" (Crossing the Han River, A.D.706). Actually, he rather creates court poems than other topics when he stays in the royal circle, while composing lyrics instead when he is banished from the capital.

See also

Notes
  1. Davis, ix

References
  • Davis, A. R. (Albert Richard), Editor and Introduction, (1970), The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse. (Baltimore: Penguin Books).
  • Stephen Owen, "The Poetry of Early T'ang",New York:Yale University Press, 1977
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.