Writers › Writer / Poet
Gao Shi
High Tang poet of the frontier, author of 'Song of Yan', who rose after the An Lushan rebellion to military governor of Huainan and Western Sichuan and Marquis of Bohai
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 Dafu · Bohai Xianhou · Zhong · Zi Zhongwu
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Gao Shi, courtesy name Dafu, also Zhongwu, came from Tiao in Bohai. As a young man he drifted without a livelihood through the old lands of Liang and Song, and in 738 he wrote 'Song of Yan' (Yan ge xing). In 749, recommended by the prefect Zhang Jiugao, he passed a special examination and became sheriff of Fengqiu, but soon left to serve the Hexi commander Geshu Han as secretary. During the An Lushan rebellion he joined the fleeing Emperor Xuanzong, became a remonstrance official, and under Emperor Suzong was made military governor of Huainan to put down Prince Yong. Slandered by Li Fuguo, he was shifted to a court sinecure, then governed Pengzhou and Shuzhou before becoming military governor of Western Sichuan. Recalled as vice minister of justice, he was made Marquis of Bohai and died early in 765, receiving the posthumous name Zhong. The Old Book of Tang (Jiu Tangshu) remarks that of all Tang poets only Gao Shi rose to high office.
Life and times
Dates 704 CE–765 CE