Jia Dao () (779–843),
courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China
China, officially the People's R ...
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 ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...
active during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
.
Biography
Jia Dao was born near modern
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
; after a period as a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
monk
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
, he went to
Chang'an
Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...
. 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 a Chinese essayist, poet, philosopher, and politician during the Tang dynasty who significantly influenced the devel ...
'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 referr ...
'' 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 ...
''
jintishi Regulated verse – also known as Jintishi () – is a development within Classical Chinese poetry of the '' shi'' main formal type. Regulated verse is one of the most important of all Classical Chinese poetry types. Although often regarded as a Tan ...
''. His works were criticised as "thin" by
Su Shi
Su Shi (; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, gastronomer, pharmacologist, poet, politician, and travel writer during the Song dynasty. A major personality of t ...
, 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
A knight-errant (or knight errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective '' errant'' (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric ...
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:
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 dyn ...
*Han Yu
Han Yu (; 76825 December 824), courtesy name Tuizhi (), and commonly known by his posthumous name Han Wengong (韓文公), was a Chinese essayist, poet, philosopher, and politician during the Tang dynasty who significantly influenced the devel ...
*Li He
Li He ( – ) was a Chinese poet of the 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 very young, and was noted ...
*Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...
*Meng Jiao
Meng Jiao (751–814) was a Chinese poet during the Tang Dynasty. Two of his poems have been collected in the popular anthology ''Three Hundred Tang Poems''. Meng was the oldest of the Mid-Tang poets and is noted for the unusual forcefulness ...
*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 as ...
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'') 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 under ...
'' 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