Writers › Writer / Poet
Xu Hun
Late-Tang poet, jinshi of 832, a master of regulated verse whose collection is the Dingmao Ji, famed for the line about mountain rain and wind filling the tower.
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 Yonghui · Also given as Zhonghui · Xu Dingmao · Xu of Yingzhou
Xu Hun, courtesy name Yonghui (also given as Zhonghui), came from Danyang in Runzhou (modern Danyang, Jiangsu) and was born around 788. He passed the jinshi in 832 and served as commandant of Dangtu, magistrate of Taiping, investigating censor, and prefect of Muzhou, then of Yingzhou from 853, hence 'Xu of Yingzhou'. In old age he lived at Dingmao Bridge in Danyang, and so is also called 'Xu Dingmao'. He excelled in regulated verse and quatrains; his collection is the Dingmao Ji, and his best-known line is 'Mountain rain is coming, wind fills the tower', from the poem on the tower east of Xianyang.
Life and times
Dates c. 788–c. 860 CE (death placed between 855 and 861)