Writers › Writer / Poet
Sun Guangxian
Five Dynasties scholar-official of Jingnan and Huajian-school lyricist who served five Gao rulers, wrote the anecdote collection Beimeng Suoyan, and urged Gao Jichong to submit to the Song.
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 Courtesy name Mengwen · Style name Baoguangzi
Sun Guangxian, courtesy name Mengwen and self-styled Baoguangzi, came from Guiping in Lingzhou (northeast of modern Renshou, Sichuan). He served as a prefectural judge under the Later Tang, then as secretary to Gao Jixing of Jingnan, and went on to serve five Gao rulers, rising to Acting Director of the Palace Library. After urging Gao Jichong to hand over the territory to the Song he was made prefect of Huangzhou and died in 968. His anecdote collection Beimeng Suoyan survives in twenty chapters and preserves late Tang and Five Dynasties lore; his lyrics belong to the Huajian school, and the Huajian Collection includes sixty-one of them.
Life and times
Dates c. 896–968 CE