Writers › Writer / Poet
Luo Binwang
Early Tang poet from Yiwu, one of the Four Talents, who wrote Xu Jingye's manifesto against Empress Wu in 684 and vanished after the rising failed
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 Guanguang · Luo Linhai
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Luo Binwang came from Yiwu in Wuzhou; the New Book of Tang (Xin Tangshu) says he could write verse at seven. He began on the staff of the Prince of Dao, then served as assistant magistrate of Wugong and of Chang'an, and after repeatedly submitting memorials under Empress Wu he was demoted to Linhai, the source of his nickname. In prison he wrote 'Ode to the Cicada in Prison' to protest his innocence. When Xu Jingye rose at Yangzhou in 684, Luo drafted his proclamation against the empress; reading its line asking whether the earth on the late emperor's tomb was even dry, she asked who wrote it and said the chief ministers had failed to recruit such a man. The New Book of Tang says he fled after the defeat and was never found, while the Old Book of Tang (Jiu Tangshu) says he was executed. Under Zhongzong the court recovered several hundred of his pieces, and he is counted among the Four Talents of the early Tang.
Life and times
Dates c. 640 CE–death unknown (missing after 684)