Writers › Writer / Poet
Cui Shu
High Tang poet who topped the jinshi list in 738, known for his poem on the Mingtang pearl, whose Double Ninth poem is in the Tangshi Sanbaishou.
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 Also written Cui Shu (variant character)
Cui Shu, also written with a variant character, was a High Tang poet. Born poor, he studied under the Daoist Xing Hepu on Mount Zhongnan and lived in Songzhou, reading at Mount Shaoshi. He took first place in the jinshi examination of 738, where the set topic was the pearl atop the Mingtang; the couplet 'Tonight two moons are full; after dawn one lone star' was widely praised. He served as commandant of Henan and died the next year. The Quan Tang Shi preserves fifteen of his poems; Yin Fan found them rich in subtle sighs and sorrowful feeling, and his Double Ninth poem from Wangxian Terrace is in the Tangshi Sanbaishou.
Life and times
Dates Birth year unknown; died in 739 CE