Writers › Writer / Poet
Cao Zu
Northern Song ci poet from Yangdi in Yingchang, courtesy name Yanzhang, later Yuanchong, father of Cao Xun, who after repeated exam failures was granted jinshi status in 1121.
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 Yanzhang · Yuanchong
Cao Zu, courtesy name Yanzhang and later Yuanchong, was from Yangdi in Yingchang, in present-day Yuzhou, Henan; his dates are unknown. Brother of Cao Wei and father of Cao Xun, he was celebrated at the Imperial College yet failed the exams six times and wrote the Tieyan pian to spur himself on. In 1121 he was granted jinshi status; Huizong received him in the Yuhua Pavilion and called him a man of letters, then gave him military-rank posts such as Gatekeeper Announcer. His lyrics are colloquial and often amatory; his twenty-fascicle Jiying ji is lost, and Zhao Wanli compiled a reconstruction.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; granted jinshi status in 1121 CE; died near the end of the Northern Song