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Liang-dynasty poet and official, courtesy name Wenchang, admired for his clear, elegant verse such as the Jiangnan Qu, and skilled in music and the zither.
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 Wenchang
Liu Yun, courtesy name Wenchang, was born under the Liu Song and served the Qi and Liang. His posts included Crown Prince's Attendant, Chancellor of the Prince of Poyang, Governor of Guangzhou, Director of the Palace Library and Governor of Wuxing. Some twenty of his poems survive, mostly in the Yutai Xinyong and Wenyuan Yinghua, among them the Jiangnan Qu and a fulling-song poem. He was also skilled in music and the zither; most of his other writings are lost.
Northern and Southern
Literature · Poetry9After mourning, Liu Yun became Counselor to the General of Agile Cavalry; the emperor made him Marshal of the Eastern Campaign office, then Gentleman of the Yellow Gate and commander of the Infantry Colonels. He helped Shen Yue and others settle the new code, served as governor of Wuxing and Inspector of Guangzhou, and was recalled as Director of the Palace Library with command of the Left Army.
Liu Yun was skilled at verse from youth; his early couplet about leaves falling on the riverbank and autumn clouds over the hill was praised by Wang Yuanchang. He also wrote a reply to the emperor's poem on climbing the Jingyang Tower, and as a master of the qin, fearing that modern tunes had left the old method, wrote the Treatise on Qingdiao Tunes.