Zhang Ji (; c. 766 – c. 830),
courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...
Wenchang (), 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 ...
poet and scholar.
Life
Zhang Ji was born around 766. He was a native of the Wu River area, in
Jiangnan
Jiangnan or Jiang Nan (; formerly romanized Kiang-nan, literally "South of the River" meaning "South of the Yangtze") is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, incl ...
.
According to
Herbert Giles
Herbert Allen Giles (, 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British ...
, he was renowned as a scholar and poet, and he "was patronised by the great
Han Yu
Han Yu (; 76825 December 824), courtesy name Tuizhi (), and commonly known by his posthumous name Han Wengong (韓文公), was a Chinese essayist, poet, philosopher, and politician during the Tang dynasty who significantly influenced the devel ...
, whom he even ventured to take to task for his fondness for dice. The latter in 815 recommended him for employment, and he rose to be a Tutor in the Imperial Academy. But it is by his poems that he is known; among which may be mentioned the exquisite lines under the title of 節婦吟. He was also a vigorous opponent of Buddhism and Taoism, both of which he held in much contempt. In one account, he was 80 years of age when he died."
[Herbert Giles, " Chang Chi," ''A Chinese Biographical Dictionary'', 1898.]
He died around 830.
Poetry
Zhang Ji had one of his poems included in the famous anthology ''
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 ...
'', as poem #151, ''THINKING OF A FRIEND LOST IN THE TIBETAN WAR'' (according to
Witter Bynner
Harold Witter Bynner (August 10, 1881 – June 1, 1968), also known by the pen name Emanuel Morgan, was an American poet and translator. He was known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and association with other literary figures the ...
's translation).
American scholar
Jonathan Chaves has published the first book in any Western language on Zhang Ji, ''Cloud Gate Song'', using rhymed translations which track the rhyme schemes of the original texts. 300 of Zhang's poems are included.
See also
*
Simians (Chinese poetry)
Simians of various sorts (including the monkey, gibbon, and other primates of real or mythological nature) are an important motif in Chinese poetry. Examples of simian imagery have an important place in Chinese poetry ranging from the ''Chu Ci'' ...
References
Works cited
*
External links
*
*Books of the ''
Quan Tangshi
(''Complete Tang Poems'') is the largest collection of Tang poetry, containing some 49,000 lyric poems by more than twenty-two hundred poets. In 1705, it was commissioned at the direction of the Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor and published unde ...
'' that include collected poems of Zhang Ji at the
Chinese Text Project
The Chinese Text Project (CTP; ) is a digital library project that assembles collections of early Chinese texts. The name of the project in Chinese literally means "The Chinese Philosophical Book Digitization Project", showing its focus on books ...
:
Book 382Book 383Book 384Book 385Book 386
Three Hundred Tang Poems poets
760s births
830 deaths
People from Ma'anshan
Poets from Anhui
8th-century Chinese poets
9th-century Chinese poets
{{China-poet-stub