Xu Zhenqing (1479—1511), styled Changgu or Changguo, was a native of Wu County in Suzhou (today’s Suzhou in Jiangsu Province). The 18th year of Emperor Hongzhi’s reign (1505) witnessed him successfully pass the highest imperial examination. Xu once served in the central judicial office. When seeing the eunuch Liu Jin’s dominance of office, Xu invested his anger into the poem “The Tiger’s Journey,” depicting the situation as “sustaining successive disasters.” In the fifth year of Emperor Zhengde’s reign (1510), Xu was relegated to be the official in charge of teaching affairs at the imperial academy. The man was buried at the northern end of Yujiabang River, a place close to Wandian Bridge at the western foot of the Tiger Hill. Xu Zhenqing, Tang Bohu, Zhu Yunming and Wen Zhengming were called the “Four Talents in Wuzhong”. Xu was blessed with impressive gifts. Even in his teens, he was capable of writing essays featuring tight logic. His Xin Qian Ji, a collection of sketchbook stories, completed at the age of sixteen made him very famous in the central area of Wu County. After his several failures in the imperial examination, he read Li Sao (The Lament, a poetic collection by Qu Yuan) and composed his own collection titled Tan Tan Ji (Sad Laments). Later he co-authored with Wen Zhengming and completed the collection of poems with the title Taihu Xin Lu (meaning “new notes made near Taihu Lake”). During his early years, Xu was best known for his poems, and the number of his poetic works was so great that people called him the “Master of Poetry”. After his success in the imperial examination, Xu kept close company with such writers as Li Mengyang and He Jingming. Feeling repentant of his early ideas about writing, Xu started to advocate restoration of classic writing traditions together with Li Mengyang, He Jingming, Bian Gong, Kang Hai, Wang Jiusi and Wang Ting. The seven of them were referred as “Seven Forerunning Poets”. Xu mainly followed the poetic tradition set by Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi, but later his style proved closer to that of the period of the Hang Dynasty and Wei Kingdom as well as the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. The poet made important contribution to shaking the domination of the cabinet style in literary writing. Ming Shi (The History of the Ming Dynasty) carried the comment on Xu’s poetic style: “Rong, Lian, Jing (精) and Jing(警)” meaning “refined yet simple, direct yet profound.” Thus people honoured him as “Poet Laureate in Wuzhong”. His Tan Yi Lu (Notes on Literature and Art) was mainly concerned with the recovery of classicism by concentrating solely on the period of the Han Dynasty and Wei Kingdom, while thinking very little of literary works created after the period of the Six Dynasties. Besides, Xu wrote such books as Di Gong Ji (Essays by a Di Gong, “Di Gong” referring to “Di Gong Lang,” a low-level official rank whose duties are varied and unspecified in ancient times), Jian Sheng Ye Wen (Sketches of an Unofficial History) and Yi Lin (Strange Stories), etc.
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