Writers › Writer / Poet
Geng Wei
Mid-Tang poet from Hedong, one of the Ten Talents of the Dali era, who passed the jinshi in 763 and wrote of the desolation after the An Lushan rebellion.
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 Hong Yuan
Geng Wei, courtesy name Hongyuan, from Hedong, was born in 736 and was one of the Ten Talents of the Dali era. He passed the jinshi in 763 and served in posts including Granary Officer, Zhouzhi county defender, Reminder of the Left and judicial official at the Court of Judicial Review. Demoted around 777, he held granary and military posts in Xuzhou, Zhengzhou and Hezhong, and died in office as Merit Officer of Jingzhao Prefecture in 787. His two-scroll collection often depicts the desolation after the An Lushan rebellion.
Life and times
Dates 736 CE–787 CE