Writers › Writer / Poet
Wu Guolun
Xingguo poet of the Later Seven Masters who was demoted for raising funeral money for Yang Jisheng and outlived all the others in the group
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 Mingqing · Hao Chuanlou · Nanyue Shanren
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Wu Guolun, courtesy name Mingqing, came from Xingguo in Huguang and gained his jinshi in 1550, rising from drafter to supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for War. When Yang Jisheng was executed in 1555, Wu led his colleagues in collecting money for the funeral, which angered Yan Song, and on another pretext he was demoted to a clerk in the Jiangxi surveillance office; after two years as a judge in Nankang and Guide he left his post. Once Yan Song had fallen he returned as vice prefect of Jianning and rose to left administration vice commissioner of Henan before an evaluation sent him home. A member of the poetry circle of Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen, he outlived every other member of the Later Seven Masters. The Ming History (Mingshi) says that in his last years those seeking a name went either east to Wang Shizhen at Taicang or west to Wu at Xingguo. His collected writings are titled Danzhui dong gao.
Life and times
Dates 1524 CE–1593 CE