Writers › Writer / Poet
Mao Xizhen
Five Dynasties poet of Later Shu who served as a palace secretary; 29 of his lyrics are preserved in the Huajian Ji.
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 Secretary Mao
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Mao Xizhen's dates and birthplace are unknown. A lyric poet of the Later Shu in the Five Dynasties, he rose to be a palace secretary and appears in the Huajian Ji as 'Secretary Mao'. Twenty-nine of his lyrics survive, all in that anthology, mostly on women and their settings in ornate language. He is also mentioned in Huang Xiufu's Maoting Ke Hua, juan 3.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; a Later Shu poet active c. 936-942