Writers › Writer / Poet
Ouyang Zhan
Tang writer from Jinjiang in Quanzhou who passed the 792 examination on the 'Dragon and Tiger List' with Han Yu and wrote the Preface to Poems on Enjoying the Moon.
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 Xingzhou
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Ouyang Zhan, courtesy name Xingzhou, came from Jinjiang in Quanzhou, where his family had long served as local officials. When Chang Gun, as surveillance commissioner of Fujian, began to receive talented local writers as his guests, Ouyang made his name. In 792 he passed the jinshi examination together with Han Yu, Li Guan, Li Jiang, Cui Qun and Wang Ya, a list known as the Dragon and Tiger List; he later served as assistant instructor at the Directorate of Education and led his students to petition the throne to appoint Han Yu an erudite. He died in his forties. His Preface to Poems on Enjoying the Moon argues that the fifteenth night of the eighth month, the middle of both autumn and the month, is the best for admiring the moon, and is often cited as early evidence for the Mid-Autumn custom. His works were collected as the Ouyang Xingzhou wenji in ten juan.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; jinshi graduate of 792, assistant instructor at the Directorate of Education, died in his forties