Meng Jiao (Meng Chiao)
751-814 A.D.
One of the Tang-dynasty writers who advocated
the emulation of the ancients, Meng was associated with Han Yu. He came
from modern Zhejiang, passed the jinshi examination at the third attempt
in 796 and in 800 took up a minor official post. By 805 he had resigned
and spent the rest of his life in Loyang. His poetry is often angry and
discordant, not polished and gracious like that of his contemporaries, and
his poem sequences in particular can be disturbing. Later critics disliked
his work intensely and he is not amongst the most popular of poets in recent
centuries.
[Song of a Traveling Son][Fairy of the Magpie Bridge][Chinese
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