Writers › Writer / Poet
Wen Tingyun
Late Tang poet and song-lyric writer nicknamed 'Eight-Folds Wen' for his speed at verse, whose lyrics open the Among the Flowers anthology
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 Ben Mingqi · Zi Feiqing · Wen Bacha · Wen Zhongkui
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Wen Tingyun, originally named Qi, courtesy name Feiqing, came from Qi in Taiyuan. According to Sun Guangxian's *Trivial Talk from North of the Meng* (*Beimeng suoyan*), he could finish an eight-rhyme examination rhapsody in the time it took to fold his hands eight times, which earned him the nickname 'Eight-Folds Wen'. He wrote ornate lyrics to the tunes of strings and pipes, but the *Old Book of Tang* (*Jiu Tangshu*) says his conduct was loose and careless, and he failed the jinshi examination again and again. He served as an adviser to Xu Shang at Xiangyang and as an instructor at the Imperial Academy, was demoted to sheriff of Fangcheng, and died soon after a transfer to Suixian. His poems were ranked with Li Shangyin's, the pair being called Wen and Li, while his lyrics dwell on women's private feelings. Zhao Chongzuo of the Later Shu put sixty-six of his lyrics at the head of the anthology *Among the Flowers* (*Huajian ji*).
Life and times
Dates c. 812 CE–c. 866 CE