Writers › Writer / Poet
Cheng Gai
Southern Song lyricist from Meishan, grandson of Su Shi's maternal cousin, known for tender love lyrics collected in the Shuzhou Ci; Yang Wanli recommended him for examination in 1192.
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 Zheng Bo · Shuzhou
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Cheng Gai, courtesy name Zhengbo and styled Shuzhou, was from Meishan in Meizhou (today's Sichuan); his grandfather Cheng Zhicai was a maternal cousin of Su Shi. He visited Lin'an in 1186, and in 1192 Yang Wanli recommended him for the xianliang fangzheng examination, without success. His lyrics, mostly on love and longing, resemble Liu Yong's and are collected in the Shuzhou Ci; Three Hundred Song Lyrics and Baixiang Cipu both include him. His dates are unknown.
Life and times
- UnknownBorn
Songactive 1186–1192 CE - UnknownDied
Works
Literature · Lyrics2- Water Dragon Chant · Wind and Rain in the NightSongCheng Gai's long ci of a stormy spring night, the season ever renewed while the man grows old
- Southern Shore · Late Spring: The Gold Duck Censer Left UnlitSongCheng Gai's long ci of late spring: a cold censer, fallen petals, a cuckoo calling spring away