''Tengwang Ge Xu'' ( zh, t=滕王閣序, p=Téngwáng Gé Xù, ''Preface to the Prince Teng's Pavilion''), full name ''Preface to a Farewell Feast Atop the Prince Teng's Pavilion in Autumn'' ( zh, t=秋日登洪府滕王閣餞別序, p=Qiūrì Dēng Hóng Fǔ Téngwáng Gé Jiànbié Xù) or ''Preface to Poems on the Prince of Teng's Pavilion'' ( zh, t=滕王閣詩序, p=Téngwáng Gé Shī Xù), is a masterpiece of parallel prose by Wang Bo of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

. Some of the lines in this preface are widely known among the Chinese readers, such as “The glowing clouds at sunset fly away with a lonely egret ;The autumnal waters merge with the broad sky in one fading color.” It is classified as pianwen ( zh, s=駢文, p=Piánwén), which depends greatly on rhythm, somewhat like

classical Chinese poetry Classical Chinese poetry is traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese and typified by certain traditional forms, or modes; traditional genres; and connections with particular historical periods, such as the poetry of the Tang dy ...

, but does not have a restriction of how many characters should be in one sentence, and how many sentences in one paragraph. It is named after

Pavilion of Prince Teng The Pavilion of Prince Teng () is a building in the North West of the city of Nanchang, in Jiangxi province, China, on the east bank of the Gan River and is one of the Three Great Towers of southern China. The other two are the Yueyang Tower an ...

, a pavilion standing by the

Gan River The Gan River (, Gan: Kōm-kong) runs north through the western part of Jiangxi before flowing into Lake Poyang and thus the Yangtze River. The Xiang-Gan uplands separate it from the Xiang River of neighboring eastern Hunan. Two similarly siz ...

Nanchang Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi, China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake. Because of its strate ...

City, which was then called Hongzhou ( zh, s=洪州, p=Hóngzhou) and is the capital of the current province of

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

. It was first built in the early

. Wang Bo was on his way to Jiaozhi County, in present-day northern Vietnam, visiting his father, and encountered a grand banquet held there. It is acknowledged that he actually finished the work at the banquet. The author expressed his sadness at being unable to make use of his talent. In fact, he was drowned in the South China Sea not long after he finished this classic before he reached Vietnam to see his father.

...

Wen Zhengming Wen Zhengming (28 November 1470 – 28 March 1559Wen Zhengming's epitaph by Huang Zuo indicate that he died on the 20th day of the 2nd month of the ''ji'wei'' year during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor. (嘉靖己未二月二十日，与严侍 ...

's calligraphy of ''Tengwang Ge Xu''

References

External links

{{Wikisourcelang, zh, 滕王閣序 Nanchang Chinese classic texts