Writers › Writer / Poet
Liu Shuo
Fourth son of Emperor Wen of Liu Song, Prince of Nanping and a poet whose verse is in the Yutai xinyong; he was poisoned at 23.
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 Courtesy name Xiuxuan · Prince Mu of Nanping
Liu Shuo, courtesy name Xiuxuan, was the fourth son of Emperor Wen of Song (Liu Yilong). He was made Prince of Nanping in 439 and, after death, posthumously styled Prince Mu. He held posts as governor of Xiang and Yu provinces, Commander of the Guard and Minister of Works. He wrote verse, with imitative yuefu pieces in the Yutai xinyong and Gushi yuan, and a White Ramie Song is traditionally credited to him. He was poisoned in 453 on the orders of the new emperor Liu Jun, at the age of twenty-three.
Life and times
Dates 431 CE–453 CE