Writers › Writer / Poet
Zhao Shixiu
Southern Song poet and one of the Four Spirits of Yongjia, who followed Yao He and Jia Dao in five-character regulated verse.
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 Zizhi · Hao Lingxiu
Zhao Shixiu, courtesy name Zizhi, sobriquet Lingxiu (also Lingzhi and Tianle), came from Yongjia (modern Wenzhou, Zhejiang) and was born in 1170. He passed the jinshi in 1190, became registrar of Shangyuan in 1195 and later judicial assistant in Junzhou, an undistinguished career. He died around 1220 and was buried by West Lake. Following Yao He and Jia Dao, he excelled at five-character regulated verse, polishing each word and line, and is counted the foremost of the Four Spirits of Yongjia. He compiled the Ermiao Ji from the two Tang poets; his own collection, Tiantang Tang Ji, is lost.
Life and times
Dates 1170 CE–1220 CE (some sources give 1219 for his death)