Writers › Writer / Poet
Li Duan
Mid-Tang poet from Zhaozhou, one of the Ten Talents of the Dali era, jinshi of 770 and Military Aide at Hangzhou, whose tender boudoir poems include Ting Zheng from 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 Zheng Ji
Li Duan, courtesy name Zhengji, came from Zhaozhou (today's Zhao County, Hebei), of the eastern branch of the Zhaojun Li clan, and was one of the Ten Talents of the Dali era. In youth he lived in retirement on Mount Lu and studied verse with the monk Jiaoran. He took the jinshi in 770, served as collator in the Palace Library, and was later transferred to Hangzhou for his health, dying in office. He is said to have composed two regulated poems on the spot at Guo Ai's banquet. His tender poems on women's feelings, such as Ting Zheng, are admired; his three-scroll collection survives.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; jinshi 770 CE, died around or after 782–784 CE