Writers › Writer / Poet

Sun Chuo

Celebrated Eastern Jin poet and scholar present at the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, famed for his Rhapsody on Roaming Mount Tiantai.

Also known as Zi Xinggong · Sun Xinggong

Sun Chuo (314 CE–371 CE) was a leading Eastern Jin poet and essayist. A central participant in Wang Xizhi's Orchid Pavilion Gathering, he authored the companion preface and iconic poetic works.

Life and times

  1. 314 CEBornJin
  2. 353Lanting Canon & Literati AestheticTook partage 39Wang Xizhi's masterpiece anchoring the paramount aesthetic canon of Chinese calligraphy and literati landscape poetry.
    1. Wang Xizhi Writes the Lanting PrefaceAt the Orchid Pavilion in 353 CE, Wang Xizhi joined forty-two scholars in poetry and wine, brushwriting the greatest masterpiece in Chinese calligraphy.
  3. 371 CEDied

Works

  1. Literature · Sayings6
    1. Passing from Being into NonbeingJinIdiom from Sun Chuo's Rhapsody on Roaming Mount Tiantai: immortals pass from being to nonbeing
    2. A Brave Man Cuts Off His Bitten HandJinIdiom echoed in Sun Chuo's essay: cut off the bitten limb to save the whole body
    3. The Summer Insect Doubts There Is IceJinIdiom from Sun Chuo's rhapsody on Mount Tiantai: the narrow view of a summer insect
    4. Every Stroke of the Blade Finds Empty SpaceJinIdiom in Sun Chuo's Rhapsody on Mount Tiantai: a blade that meets no resistance
    5. Times Shift and the World ChangesJinIdiom from Sun Chuo's Illustrating the Way: as times shift, the world changes too
    6. +1 more
      1. No Longer Seeing the Whole Ox: Sun Chuo on Mount TiantaiJinIdiom in Sun Chuo's Rhapsody on Mount Tiantai, from Cook Ding: mastery beyond the whole
  2. Literature · Prose2
    1. Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Poems of the Third Day of the Third Month (Later Preface)JinSun Chuo's later preface to the Orchid Pavilion poems of 353, companion to Wang Xizhi's
    2. Illustrating the WayJinSun Chuo's Eastern Jin dialogue defending Buddhism as one with the teaching of Confucius
  3. Literature · Rhapsodies1
    1. Rhapsody on Roaming Mount TiantaiJinSun Chuo's Eastern Jin rhapsody of an imagined ascent into Buddhist and Daoist mysteries

Connections

  1. Shared events2
    1. Wang Xizhi303 CE–361 CE
    2. Xie An320 CE–385 CE