Gao Bing (高棅, 1350 to 1423), was a Chinese poetry anthologist and writer. A native of
Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
, he flourished during the newly established
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
(1368–1644) as an author and poetry theorist. Gao Bing collected and arranged
Tang poetry
Tang poetry () refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) and/or follows a certain style, often considered as ...
-era poems and wrote commentary material upon them in a work published as the ''Graded Compendium of Tang Poetry'' (''Tangshi Pinhui'', 唐詩品彙), a seminal work using
prosodic principles in a systematic method to classify poetry by
Classical Chinese poetry forms
Classical Chinese poetry forms are poetry forms or modes which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Literary Chinese or Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese poetry has various characteristic forms, some attested to as early as the ...
. It contained 5,769 poems by 620 poets, along with notes and commentary.
[''The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature'', vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, 201]
p. 11. The ''Tangshi Pinhui'' aimed in part to correct what Gao Bing saw as lacking in previous works, particularly those of
Song Dynasty, Song critic
Yan Yu and
Yuan critic Yang Shihong (''fl'' 1340). Other works would later build upon the ''Tangshi Pinhui'' system which would later greatly influence the perception of Chinese poetry: in part because of Gao Bing's explicit nine-rank grading system (similar to the
nine-rank grading system of the
Imperial examination system), by which he evaluated the works of poets such as
Du Fu
Du Fu (; 712–770) was a Tang dynasty poet and politician. Along with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.Ebrey, 103. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as ...
,
Li Bai
Li Bai (, 701–762), also pronounced as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet, acclaimed from his own time to the present as a brilliant and romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du F ...
, and
Wang Wei.
Gao's ''Pinhui'' ranking system
Gao Bing's ranking system for qualifying Tang dynasty poetry used a 9-rank system. The lowest rank which Gao declared worthy of inclusion in his ''Tang Shi Ping Hui'' was what he referred to as ''zhengshi'' (正始). ''Zhengshi'' is translatable as "pioneers of orthodoxy". The highest ranking classes of poetry (and thus rated most worthy of study and emulation), reserved for the 8th century, "High Tang" poetry were the "patriarchs" (''zhengzong'', 正宗) and the "masters", ''dajia'' (大家) and ''mingjia'' (名家).
[Yu 2002, p. 63.]
See also
*''
Three Hundred Tang Poems
The ''Three Hundred Tang Poems'' () is an anthology of poems from the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907). It was first compiled around 1763 by Sun Zhu (1722–1778Yu, 64–65), who was a Qing Dynasty scholar and was also known as Hengtang Tuishi ...
'', another Ming dynasty Tang poetry anthology
Notes
References
*Yu, Pauline (2002). "Chinese Poetry and Its Institutions", in ''Hsiang Lectures on Chinese Poetry, Volume 2'', Grace S. Fong, editor. (Montreal: Center for East Asian Research, McGill University).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gao, Bing
Chinese poetry anthologists
Ming dynasty writers
Poets from Fujian
Writers from Fuzhou