Li He
Li He (c. 790–816) was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, known for compressed, richly imaginative verse filled with supernatural and uncanny images.
Tang poetry: Poetry written during China's Tang dynasty, a period associated with major developments in regulated verse and lyric forms. Li He wrote within the Tang poetic tradition while pushing its imagery toward the uncanny.
Song of the Weeping Xian: A poem by Li He that evokes a spirit-filled landscape through striking, compressed images. It exemplifies the supernatural atmosphere associated with Li He's poetry.
Du Mu: A Tang poet and prose writer known for lucid verse, historical reflection, and political criticism. Du Mu wrote an influential preface that helped frame Li He's poetry for later readers.
Chinese tonal prosody: The use of pitch patterns as a structural feature in traditional Chinese poetry and verse. Tonal expectations form part of the poetic soundscape against which Li He's lines operate.
Tang dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 618 to 907 and fostered major developments in poetry, art, and statecraft. Li He's brief career belonged to the dynasty whose poetry became a lasting literary canon.
Classical Chinese poetry: Poetry composed in literary Chinese before the modern period, shaped by changing forms, conventions, and literary cultures. Its inherited language and conventions provide the wider tradition Li He transformed.
The Song of the Governor of Yanmen: A Li He poem portraying a besieged fortress through vivid images of battle, color, and impending danger. Its tightly packed images show how Li He intensifies a historical scene.
Han Yu: A Tang prose writer and poet who advocated classical prose and helped shape literary debates of his era. Han Yu defended Li He's eligibility for the imperial examinations against a naming taboo.
Chinese poetic imagery: The use of concrete images in Chinese poetry to evoke settings, emotions, ideas, and allusions. Li He makes familiar poetic images uncanny through abrupt juxtapositions and unusual details.
Classical Chinese literary criticism: The traditions of evaluating and interpreting Chinese literature through essays, prefaces, anthologies, and commentary. Later judgments of Li He helped define how his eccentric style entered the poetic canon.