Writers › Writer / Poet
Zhang Xiaoxiang
Southern Song lyricist, top jinshi of 1154 and Layman of Yuhu, whose bold style is best known from Nian nu jiao: Crossing Dongting.
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 Anguo · Style name Layman of Yuhu
Zhang Xiaoxiang, courtesy name Anguo and style name Layman of Yuhu, was from Wujiang in Liyang (modern He County, Anhui) and lived 1132 to 1169. He placed first in the 1154 palace examination and served as Secretariat Drafter, military commissioner of Jingnan and Hubei, and prefect of Fuzhou and Pingjiang, retiring as Academician of the Xianmo Pavilion. His lyrics are bold in manner, best known for the Nian nu jiao written crossing Dongting Lake at the Mid-Autumn Festival. He left the Yuhu ji in forty scrolls and a Yuhu ci in one; two of his lyrics are in the Three Hundred Song Lyrics.
Life and times
- 1132 CEBorn
Song - 1169 CEDied
Works
Literature · Lyrics2- Six Prefectures Song · Gazing Down the Long HuaiSongZhang Xiaoxiang's long ci at the Huai frontier, grieving for a lost north and a court at peace
- Charm of Niannu · Dongting and the Green Grass LakeSongZhang Xiaoxiang's long ci of a moonlit boat on Dongting near mid-autumn, one with lake and sky