Writers › Writer / Poet
Zheng Gu
Late Tang poet, courtesy name Shouyu, nicknamed 'Zheng the Partridge' for his poem on partridges; rose to director in the Ministry of Justice
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 Shouyu · Zheng the Ministry Official · Zheng the Partridge
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Zheng Gu, courtesy name Shouyu, from Yichun in Yuanzhou (modern Jiangxi), was a poet of the late Tang. He passed the jinshi examination in 887 and rose to director in the Ministry of Justice, so he was known as Zheng Duguan. His poems are clear and graceful; his poem on partridges made him famous as 'Zheng the Partridge'. He exchanged verse with Xu Tang and Zhang Qiao and was counted among the 'Ten Talents of the Xiantong Era'. His collection Yuntai bian survives.
Life and times
- c. 851 CEBorn
Tang
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms - c. 910 CEDied
Works
Literature · Poetry2- Lotus LeavesTangZheng Gu's quatrain on lotus leaves left unpicked to shelter mandarin ducks, once misattributed
- Written on the Wall of an InnTangZheng Gu, on an inn wall, imagines his wife at home counting the stages of his journey