Writers › Writer / Poet
Chenggong Sui
Western Jin fu writer with the compound surname Chenggong, courtesy name Zi'an, a secretariat gentleman who helped draft the legal code and is best remembered for his Rhapsody on Whistling.
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 Courtesy name Zi'an
Chenggong Sui, with the compound surname Chenggong and courtesy name Zi'an, came from Baima in Dongjun (modern Hua county, Henan) and was a Western Jin writer of fu. He served as secretary and assistant director in the palace library and rose to gentleman of the Secretariat; he joined Jia Chong and others in revising the law code. His Rhapsody on Whistling, in the Wen Xuan, evokes the sound and spirit of long whistling; other works include rhapsodies on the magnolia, the zither, the pipa and the Great River, and immortal poems. He died in 273, aged forty-three.
Life and times
Dates 231 CE–273 CE