Zhang Yanghao (; 1270–1329),

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 ...

Ximeng, was a Chinese writer from Shandong who lived during the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongols, Mongol-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Division of the M ...

and authored prose, poems, as well as songs.Kwai-cho Ho, A study of Zhang Yanghao (1270-1329) and his Sanqu, PhD thesis, The University of Hong Kong,1994 He is particularly well known for his Sanqu poetry. Among his works is one of the most frequently anthologized poems of the "meditation on the past" () genre, a song poem titled "Meditation on the Past at

Tong Pass Tongguan or Tong Pass, was a former mountain pass and fortress located south of the confluence of the Wei and Yellow Rivers, in today's Tongguan County, Shaanxi, China. It was an important chokepoint, protecting Xi'an and the surrounding Guanzh ...

" () and set to the tune of "Sheep on Mountain Slope" ().Zong-Qi Cai, How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology, Columbia University Press, 2008 Besides his work as a writer, Zhang Yanghao also held high government posts and served at one time as head of the

Ministry of Rites The Ministry or Board of Rites was one of the Six Ministries of government in late imperial China. It was part of the imperial Chinese government from the Tang (7th century) until the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. Along with religious rituals and c ...

.Tian Yuan Tan, Songs of Contentment and Transgression: Discharged Officials and Literati Communities in Sixteenth-Century North China, Harvard University Press, 2010. p. 48 His tomb is in Shandong, to the north of the city center of

Jinan Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...

Meditation on the Past at Tong Pass

The song poem "Meditation on the Past at Tong Pass" is Zhang Yanghao most well-known work. It reads:

List of poems

* Untitled () * Untitled () * Shan Po Yang: Thinking of the Past at the Tong Pass ()

References

1270 births 1329 deaths Yuan dynasty poets Poets from Shandong Writers from Jinan Yuan dynasty essayists {{china-bio-stub