Liu Zongyuan

Liu Zongyuan

This is a Chinese name; the family name is 柳 (Liu).

Liu Zongyuan (Chinese: 柳宗元; pinyin: Liǔ Zōngyuán; Wade-Giles: Liu Tsungyüan) (773–819), courtesy name Zihou (子厚), was a Chinese writer who lived in Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty. Liu was born in present-day Yongji, Shanxi, along with Han Yu, he was a founder of the Classical Prose Movement. He was traditionally classed as one of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song.

Civil service career

His civil service career was initially successful, but in 805 he fell from favour because of his association with a failed reformist movement. He was exiled first to Yongzhou, Hunan, and then to Liuzhou, Guangxi, where he eventually became the city Governor. His exile allowed his literary career to flourish: he produced poems, fables, reflective travelogues and essays synthesizing elements of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

Works

Landscape by Zhou Wenjing, featuring part of Liu Zongyuan's poem "Winter Snow" in the upper right corner ("孤舟蓑笠翁，獨釣寒江雪")

Liu's best-known travel pieces are the Eight Records of Excursions in Yongzhou (永州八游记). Around 180 of his poems are extant, of which five have been collected in the anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. Some of his works celebrate his freedom from office, while others mourn his banishment. One of his most famous poems has been often translated into English as "Winter Snow", or something similar: this poem has also been depicted in Chinese Painting many times.

See also

• Classical Chinese poetry
• List of Three Hundred Tang Poems poets
• Tang poetry

References

• Qian, Zonglian, Liu Zongyuan. Encyclopedia of China (Chinese Literature Edition), 1st ed.
• Chen, Jo-shui, Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Chang in T'ang China, 773-819, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
• Nienhauser Jr., William H.; Hartmann, Charles; Crawford, William Bruce; Walls, Jan W.; Neighbours, Lload, Liu Tsung-yüan, New York: Twayne Publishers Inc., 1973.

External links

• Liu Zongyuan in Wengu textbase, five poems in traditional Chinese arrayed with Bynner's translation.
• Biography and translations of five poems. (Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping)