Writers › Writer / Poet
Xu Ling
Liang and Chen court writer who gave his name, with Yu Xin, to the ornate Xu-Yu style and compiled the anthology New Songs from a Jade Terrace
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 Xiaomu
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Xu Ling, courtesy name Xiaomu, came from Tan in Donghai; his father Xu Chi was a leading writer of the Liang palace style. He wrote prose at eight, and the Book of Chen says the monk Baozhi patted his head and called him a stone qilin from heaven. Under the Liang he and Yu Xin served the crown prince Xiao Gang as compilers, and their ornate manner became known as the Xu-Yu style; the ten-juan anthology New Songs from a Jade Terrace (Yutai xinyong) is traditionally said to have been compiled by him at Xiao Gang's request. Sent as envoy to the Eastern Wei in 548, he was stranded in the north for years when Hou Jing's rebellion broke out, writing repeatedly to ask leave to return. Under the Chen he rose to vice director of the Department of State Affairs and drafted the court's major documents. He died in 583 at seventy-six with the posthumous name Zhang.
Life and times
Dates 507 CE–583 CE