Writers › Writer / Poet
Bian Gong
Ming poet from Licheng who rose to minister of revenue in Nanjing, lost the post for drinking on duty, and was one of the Former Seven Masters
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 Tingshi · Hao Huaquan
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Bian Gong, courtesy name Tingshi, styled Huaquan, came from Licheng, present-day Jinan, passed the provincial examination at twenty and became a jinshi in 1496, serving as a supervising secretary for war. After the Hongzhi emperor's death he impeached the eunuch Zhang Yu and the physicians who had treated the emperor, and attacked the eunuch Miao Kui, the Duke of Baoguo Zhu Hui and the censor Shi Lin for their conduct of a frontier campaign. He went on to be prefect of Weihui and Jingzhou and education intendant of Shaanxi and Henan, and early in the Jiajing reign he was recalled to Nanjing, rising to minister of revenue in the southern capital. With little to do there, he spent his days sightseeing, drinking and writing verse until a censor impeached him for neglecting his duties; he was dismissed and died in 1532. He was grouped with Li Mengyang, He Jingming and Xu Zhenqing as the Four Masters.
Life and times
Dates 1476 CE–1532 CE