Writers › Writer / Poet
Liu Fangping
High Tang poet and painter from Luoyang who never held office, known for limpid quatrains such as Yue Ye and Chun Yuan; the latter is in Three Hundred Tang 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.
Also known as Praised as 'outstanding man of Shandong'
Liu Fangping was from Luoyang, of the Henan Liu clan of Xiongnu descent and a great-great-grandson of Liu Zhenghui. He failed the jinshi examination in 750, later failed to join the army, and lived in retirement by the Ying and Ru rivers, never holding office. He painted landscapes, and was friends with Yuan Dexiu, Li Qi and Huangfu Ran. His quatrains on scenes and objects, including Yue Ye, Chun Yuan, Xin Chun and Qiuye Fanzhou, are admired; the Complete Tang Poems preserves twenty-six of his poems.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active from his Tianbao 9 (750 CE) examination attempt