Writers › Writer / Poet
Li Xianyong
Late Tang poet of the Yizong era who was summoned as a judicial assistant but wandered through the late Tang turmoil; his Pisha Ji preserves nearly two hundred poems.
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.
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Li Xianyong was a late Tang poet active under Emperor Yizong; his dates and courtesy name are unknown. He was once summoned to serve as a judicial assistant but, with the dynasty in turmoil, spent his life wandering. His Pisha Ji, originally six scrolls and now three, carries a preface by Yang Wanli, and the Complete Tang Poems preserves 196 of his poems, among them Glad at a Friend's Arrival on a Winter Evening, cited as an early use of the word xinwen, 'news'.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active under Emperor Yizong (859–873)