Writers › Writer / Poet
Li Yuanying
Northern Song lyricist from Dongping and teacher at the Southern Capital school; his Dongxian Ge is in Three Hundred Song Lyrics, and a lament for his wife is recorded in Lengzhai Yehua.
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.
Li Yuanying came from Dongping (Xucheng). He taught at the prefectural school of the Southern Capital (Yingtianfu) and was a contemporary of Cai Jing, who knew his talent well. He wrote a preface to Li Xiaomei's ink manual, whose other preface, by Ma Juan, is dated 1095. According to Xu Yanzhou as quoted in Lengzhai Yehua, he lost his wife while teaching at the Southern Capital, mourned her in a lyric, and died soon afterwards. Zhu Yizun's anthology Cizong includes four of his lyrics, and Three Hundred Song Lyrics includes his Dongxian Ge. His dates are unknown.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; a contemporary of Cai Jing, living around the reign of Emperor Zhezong (he prefaced Li Xiaomei's ink manual, whose other preface is dated 1095)