Jia Dao () (779–843),
courtesy name
A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...
Langxian (), was a Chinese Buddhist monk and
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
active during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
.
Biography
Jia Dao was born near modern
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
; after a period as a
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
, he went to
Chang'an
Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...
. He became one of
Han Yu
Han Yu (; 76825 December 824), courtesy name Tuizhi (), and commonly known by his posthumous name Han Wengong (韓文公), was an essayist, Confucian scholar, poet, and government official during the Tang dynasty who significantly influenced t ...
's disciples, but failed the ''
jinshi
''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referre ...
'' exam several times. He wrote both discursive ''
gushi'' and
lyric
Lyric may refer to:
* Lyrics, the words, often in verse form, which are sung, usually to a melody, and constitute the semantic content of a song
* Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view
* Lyric, from t ...
''
jintishi''. His works were criticised as "thin" by
Su Shi
Su Shi ( zh, t=, s=苏轼, p=Sū Shì; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese poet, essayist, calligrapher, painter, scholar-official, literatus, artist, pharmacologist, and gastronome wh ...
, and some other commentators have considered them limited and artificial.
According to Dr. James J.Y. Liu (1926–1986), a professor of Chinese and comparative literature, Jia's poem ''The Swordsman'' () "seems...to sum up the spirit of
knight errantry in four lines."
[Liu, James J.Y. ''The Chinese Knight Errant''. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967 ()] "The Swordsman" reads in Liu's translation as follows:
A metric translation of the original Chinese poem with one
iamb per Chinese character
[Tian Min, 2020]
Medium article.
/ref> reads as follows:
The original Chinese:
劍客:
十年磨一劍,
霜刃未曾試.
今日把示君,
誰有不平事.
The opening line of ''The Swordsman'' is often used as a proverb to refer to a long and arduous undertaking.
See also
*Classical Chinese poetry
Classical Chinese poetry is traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese and typified by certain traditional forms, or modes; traditional genres; and connections with particular historical periods, such as the poetry of the Tang dy ...
*Han Yu
Han Yu (; 76825 December 824), courtesy name Tuizhi (), and commonly known by his posthumous name Han Wengong (韓文公), was an essayist, Confucian scholar, poet, and government official during the Tang dynasty who significantly influenced t ...
*Li He
Li He ( – ) was a Chinese poet of the Tang poetry#Middle Tang, mid-Tang dynasty. His courtesy name was Changji, and he is also known as Guicai and Shigui.
He was prevented from taking the imperial examination due to a naming taboo. He died ve ...
*Luoyang
Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...
* Meng Jiao
*Tang poetry
Tang poetry () refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) and/or follows a certain style, often considered a ...
References
Sources
Pine, Red, and Mike O'Connor. ''The clouds should know me by now: Buddhist poet monks of China.'' Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1999. Includes selection of dual-language poems.
External links
*
*Books of the ''Quan Tangshi
''Complete Tang Poems'' (or ') is the largest collection of Tang poetry, containing some 49,000 lyric poems by more than twenty-two hundred poets. In 1705, it was commissioned at the direction of the Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor and published un ...
'' that include collected poems of Jia Dao at the Chinese Text Project
The Chinese Text Project (CTP; ) is a digital library project that assembles collections of early Chinese texts. The name of the project in Chinese literally means "The Chinese Philosophical Book Digitization Project", showing its focus on books ...
:
Book 571
Book 572
Book 573
Book 574
779 births
843 deaths
8th-century Chinese poets
9th-century Chinese poets
Poets from Hebei
Tang dynasty Buddhist monks
Three Hundred Tang Poems poets
Writers from Baoding
{{China-poet-stub