Yang Jiong (; 650–695?) was a

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

Chinese poet, traditionally grouped together with

Luo Binwang Luo Binwang (, ca. 619–684?), courtesy name Guanguang (觀光/观光), was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty. His family was from Wuzhou, modern Yiwu, Zhejiang, but he was raised in Shandong. Luo is grouped with Lu Zhaolin, Wang Bo, and Yan ...

Lu Zhaolin Lu Zhaolin (; ca. 634 – ca. 684 or 686), courtesy name Shengzhi, was a Tang dynasty Chinese poet, traditionally grouped together with Luo Binwang, Wang Bo, and Yang Jiong as the Four Paragons of the Early Tang. Biography Lu Zhaolin was born ...

, and Wang Bo as the

Four Paragons of the Early Tang The Four Paragons of the Early Tang () is a group name for four Chinese poets of the early Tang dynasty: Luo Binwang, Lu Zhaolin, Wang Bo, and Yang Jiong. {{multiple image , align = right , direction = horizontal , header = Four Paragons of the ...

. Known for his eight extant ''fu'' (rhapsody) poems, he also wrote an influential preface to the collected works of Wang Bo, in which he criticized the excessive formality of the court poetry of the preceding generation, and lauded the classical style of Wang Bo and Lu Zhaolin.

Life

Yang Jiong was born in

Huayin Huayin is a county-level city in Weinan, Shaanxi province, China. Prior to 1990, Huayin was regarded as a county. Huayin literally means 'to the north of Mount Hua Mount Hua () is a mountain located near the city of Huayin in Shaanxi Pro ...

in today's

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

province. A child prodigy, Yang Jiong passed the special civil service examination for boys and was awarded with an official appointment to the prestigious Hongwen College in 659, when he was only nine years old. Unlike the other three "paragons", He spent most of his life serving at the imperial court in the capital

Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin Shi ...

. He later served as the magistrate of Yingchuan County, and became commonly known as Yang Yingchuan (). He died under unremarkable circumstances while in office, the only one of the "Four Paragons" to do so.

Works

The imperial bibliographies of the ''

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

'' and the ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'' both recorded 30 ''juan'' ( volumes) of Yang Jiong's collected works. However, the ''Chongwen Catalog'' of the Northern Song dynasty recorded 20 ''juan''. Yang Jiong's ''

shi Shi or SHI may refer to: Language * ''Shi'', a Japanese titles#Shi, Japanese title commonly used as a pronoun * ''Shi'', proposed gender-neutral pronoun * Shi (kana), a kana in Japanese syllabaries * Shi language * ''Shī'', transliteration of ...

'' poems are not exceptional, but he is best known for his eight extant ''fu'' poems, most prominently "The Enveloping Sky", "The Old Man Star", and "

Ullambana The Yulanpen Sutra, also known as the Ullambana Sutra (), is a Mahayana sutra concerning filial piety. It was translated from an Indic language (see History) and is found in Taisho 685 and Taisho 686 in Volume 16, the third volume of the Collec ...

". His ''fu'' are described as "rich confections of scholarly lore and wordplay", some of which provide insight into the astral beliefs of the Tang dynasty. Yang Jiong also wrote the preface for the collected works of Wang Bo, published after Wang's premature death. Yang criticized the "aberrant style" of the preceding generation of poetry, which became widely accepted by traditional scholars. In contrast, he lauded Wang Bo's classical style and praised

for checking the excessive formality of the court poetry.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yang, Jiong Tang dynasty poets 7th-century Chinese poets 650 births 690s deaths Writers from Weinan Poets from Shaanxi