Zhang Ruoxu

Zhang Ruoxu came from Yangzhou; his dates and courtesy name are unknown, and the only office recorded for him is military clerk of Yanzhou. The Old Tang History, in its biography of He Zhizhang, says that in the Shenlong years he, He Zhizhang, He Chao, Wan Qirong, Xing Ju and Bao Rong won fame in the capital as gifted writers from the Wu and Yue region, and later readers grouped him with He Zhizhang, Zhang Xu and Bao Rong as the Four Scholars of Wu. Most of his work is lost; the Complete Tang Poems (Quan Tang shi) holds only two pieces. Spring River on a Flower-Moon Night takes an old yuefu title and in thirty-six lines moves from the river tide and the moon to the longing of parted lovers; in the Song, Guo Maoqian placed it in his Collection of Yuefu Poetry. Wang Kaiyun in the late Qing said this single poem made Zhang a major poet, and Wen Yiduo called it the poem of poems.