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Wang Changling
High Tang poet of frontier and parting quatrains, twice banished to the south, whose Beyond the Pass was ranked by Ming critics the finest Tang quatrain
Mural of Going Beyond the Frontier (I), a work by this person.
A bright moon hangs over a distant frontier pass, where a watchtower and military banners mark the long border. The empty ramparts recall generations of soldiers who never returned.
Also known as Zishao Bo · Qijue Shengshou
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Wang Changling, courtesy name Shaobo, is variously said to have come from Chang'an, Taiyuan or Jiangning. He passed the jinshi examination in 727 and after passing a further examination in erudite literary composition was made sheriff of Sishui. Banished once to the far south, he returned to serve as assistant magistrate of Jiangning and was later demoted again to sheriff of Longbiao, prompting Li Bai to send him a poem of consolation. During the An Lushan rebellion he left his post for home and was killed by Luqiu Xiao, prefect of Bozhou; when Zhang Gao later condemned Luqiu and he begged mercy for his parent's sake, Zhang asked who would now care for Wang Changling's parent. Wang excelled in the seven-character quatrain, from the frontier poems Beyond the Pass and Joining the Army to the farewell At Hibiscus Tower. Yin Fan's anthology Heyue yingling ji included sixteen of his poems, and the Ming critic Li Panlong named Beyond the Pass the finest of all Tang quatrains.
Life and times
Dates c. 698 CE–c. 757 CE