Writers › Writer / Poet
Jiaoran
Tang poet-monk from Wuxing, descendant of Xie Lingyun and author of the Shishi on poetry
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 Shi Jiaoran · Zhou Shangren · Xie Zhou · Zhushan Seng
Jiaoran, born Xie, courtesy name Qingzhou, from Wuxing, a tenth-generation descendant of Xie Lingyun, was a Tang poet-monk. After becoming a monk he lived for many years at Miaoxi Temple on Mount Zhushan in Huzhou, was a friend of Lu Yu and took part in compiling the Yunhai jingyuan under Yan Zhenqing. His treatise on poetry, the Shishi, discusses taking a scene and distinguishing styles; he also wrote the Shiyi and the Shiping, and his poems are collected as the Jiaoran ji, also called the Zhushan ji. A tea lover, he wrote that the third cup brings the Way.
Life and times
Dates 730 - 799