Liu Zhangqing ( zh, w=''Liu Chang-ch'ing''; ca. 709–785), often read and Romanized as Liu Changqing,

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 ...

Wenfang (), was a Chinese poet and politician 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 ...

. Eleven of his poems are included in the popular anthology ''

Three Hundred Tang Poems The ''Three Hundred Tang Poems'' is an anthology of poems from the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907). It was first compiled around 1763 by Sun Zhu (1722–1778Yu, 64–65), who was a Qing Dynasty scholar and was also known as Hengtang Tuishi (, ...

''.

Biography

Different sources place the year of Liu Zhangqing's birth as early as 709 and as late as 726. He came from the city of

Xuancheng Xuancheng ( zh, s=宣城, p=Xuānchéng''; Xuanzhou Wu dialects, Xuanzhou Wu:'' Shye-san) is a city in the southeast of Anhui province. Archeological digs suggest that the city has been settled for over 4,000 years, and has been under formal admin ...

. Although his ancestral hometown was Hejian, he spent most of his youth in

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 ...

, the eastern capital of the

. Liu obtained his

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 ...

title around 750s. In 780, he was appointed governor of

Suizhou Suizhou ( zh, s= , t= , p=Suízhōu), formerly Sui County ( zh, s=, t=, p=Suí Xian, Suixian, links=no), is a prefecture-level city in northern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, bordering Henan province to the north and east. Etymolo ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

province. Because of this, his contemporaries often referred to him as Liu Suizhou. Like his birth, the year of his death is uncertain. One source says he died around 786.

Poetry

During his lifetime, Liu's poems did not receive much praise, although he was one of the representative poets during the reign of Emperor Dezong. Later generations, however, have acknowledged his skill as a poet. Liu was especially skillful in writing of poems with 5 characters.《唐诗大辞典》 An example:

Notes

References

Works cited

* * * * *Watson, Burton (1971). ''CHINESE LYRICISM: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century''. New York: Columbia University Press. *

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 Liu Zhangqing 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 ...