Writers › Writer / Poet
Nie Yizhong
Late Tang poet and county official whose short poems on farmers' hardship, above all 'On Farming Families', were later recited to a Later Tang emperor
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 Tanzhi
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Nie Yizhong, courtesy name Tanzhi, came from Hedong and from a humble family. He passed the jinshi examination in 871 but, lacking patrons, waited a long time in Chang'an for a post before being named sheriff of Huayin, arriving with nothing but books and a zither. His poems dwell on the lot of farmers; 'On Farming Families', also titled 'Grieving for Farming Families', says that to cure the sore before one's eyes one must cut flesh from one's own heart. According to the biography of Feng Dao in the Old History of the Five Dynasties, when Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang asked about the people's hardships, Feng recited this poem, and the emperor had it copied out and read it often. The Complete Tang Poems (Quan Tangshi) gives him one chapter, including 'The Young Lord' and other pieces on farm life.
Life and times
Dates c. 837 CE–c. 884 CE