Writers › Writer / Poet
Gu Kuang
Mid-Tang poet and painter from Haiyan near Suzhou, jinshi of 757 who retired to Mount Mao, a forerunner of the New Yuefu poets; the Complete Tang Poems keeps 239 of his 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 Bu Weng · Huayang Zhenyi · Bei Weng
Gu Kuang, courtesy name Buweng and styled Huayang Zhenyi, and in old age Beiweng, came from Haiyan near Suzhou, of the Gu clan of Wu. He passed the jinshi in 757 and served as collator, Judicial Assistant, aide to Han Huang and Compiler, and retired to Mount Mao. A poet and landscape painter, he is regarded as a forerunner of the New Yuefu movement; the Complete Tang Poems preserves 239 of his poems, and he left the Huayang Ji. Tradition has the young Bai Juyi calling on him with his verse.
Life and times
Dates Born c. 725–736 CE; died around or after 814 CE