Writers › Writer / Poet
Wang Yisun
Late Song lyricist from Kuaiji, master of the object poem, whose Huawai ji Zhou Ji recommended as the starting point for learning to write song lyrics
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Shengyu · Hao Bishan · Zhong Xian · Yusi Shanren
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Wang Yisun, courtesy name Shengyu, sobriquet Bishan, came from Kuaiji. In the first years after the fall of the Song he joined Zhou Mi, Zhang Yan, Tang Jue and others in a poetry society that wrote on set objects, ambergris, white lotus, water shield, cicada and crab, and their pieces were collected as the *Yuefu buti*. Early in the Yuan he served as instructor at the Qingyuan circuit school and kept up an exchange of lyrics with Zhou Mi and Zhang Yan. He excelled at the object poem, using a cicada or a new moon to carry his own fortunes and grief for the lost dynasty. His collection, *Huawai ji*, also called *Bishan yuefu*, holds some sixty lyrics. The Qing critic Zhou Ji advised students to begin with Wang Yisun and then move back through Wu Wenying and Xin Qiji to Zhou Bangyan.
Life and times
Song
YuanWorks
Literature · Lyrics6- Heavenly Fragrance · Smoke Coiled round a Lone PeakSongWang Yisun's long ci on ambergris, from its sea-born origin to a scent that recalls lost days
- Charming Brows · A New Crescent Hanging in the WillowsSongWang Yisun's long ci on the new moon, a broken golden mirror that no one can mend
- Joy Equal to Heaven · A Breast Full of Lingering GriefSongWang Yisun's long ci on the cicada, a frail autumn singer of grief and of palaces long gone
- Lament at the Long Pavilion, Slow · Drifting in a Lone Skiff by the East BankSongWang Yisun's long ci on passing again by Zhong'an's old garden, its company long scattered
- Gaoyang Terrace · Lingering Snow in the Courtyard ShadeSongWang Yisun's long ci matching Zhou Mi's rhymes, sent in longing to friends in Yue
+1 more
- Dharma Melody Offering Immortal Music · Layered Green, Towering HighSongWang Yisun's long ci on the plum blossom at Jujing Pavilion, matching Zhou Mi's rhymes