Quan Deyu (with dates variously given as 758, 759, or 761–815 or 818) was a Tang writer, poet, and statesman who rose to Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, a chancellorship. His courtesy name was Zaizhi; he was ranked third in birth order and received the posthumous name Wen. His ancestral origin is given primarily as Lueyang in Tianshui (present-day northeastern Qin'an, Gansu); he later lived in Dantu in Runzhou (identified as present-day Zhenjiang or, in another account, Danyang), while Luoyang and Shanggui are also given as ancestral places.
Life
His father was Quan Gao (also written Quan Gao with the forms 權臯 and 權皐), and his father-in-law was Cui Zao. He could compose verse at four, lived with his father at Yangxian at seven, and by fifteen had written several hundred pieces of prose and compiled the Tongmeng ji; his reputation first arose from his writing.
In the Jianzhong era he first served as a transport staff officer under Bao Ji, and then held posts including Wei bingcao canjun (衛兵曹參軍), Mishu sheng jiaoshu lang (秘書省校書郎), a staff post with the Huainan circuit's chuzhishi, and positions in water-and-land transport administration. In early Zhenyuan he became a Dali pingshi and acting censor, served as an observer's judge in the Jiangnan East Circuit, and assisted Li Jian's Jiangxi staff. His examination record includes a general jinshi designation.
During the Zhenyuan era he was summoned as Taichang boshi and transferred to Zu buque; in 794 he became Qiju sheran and concurrently zhi zhigao, and later served as Jia bu yuanwailang, Si xun langzhong, and Zhongshu sheran. At the end of Zhenyuan he was appointed Libu shilang, presided over the metropolitan examinations three times, and was praised for selecting able candidates; he subsequently held the posts of Hubu, Bingbu, and Libu shilang, Taizi bin ke, and Taichang qing.
In the fifth year of Yuanhe (810), he became Libu shangshu and Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, entering the chancellery. Accounts describe him as outspoken and remonstrative in office, yet broad-minded and considerate toward subordinates; he exchanged poetry and prose with Li Jifu, although he was also said to have disagreed with him.
After leaving the chancellery, he held the posts of Xingbu shangshu, supervising official of the Ministry of Personnel, and Eastern Capital military governor, received the title Duke of Fufeng Commandery, and again served as Taichang qing before returning to the Ministry of Justice. He later went out to Xingyuan as a military governor of the Shannan West Circuit; the circuit attached to this office is also given as Shannan East.
One account places his illness, request to return, and death on the road in the eighth month of the thirteenth year of Yuanhe (818), at the age of sixty; another gives 815 as the year of his death, with Yangzhou also named as the place of death and Henan Prefecture as his burial place. He was posthumously named Wen and was posthumously granted the rank of Left Vice Director.
Quan Deyu had sons Quan Qu and Quan Jue, with Quan Qu also listed as his eldest son; he had a daughter referred to as Lady Quan, a son-in-law, Dugu Yu, and a granddaughter, Quan Cong.
Literary achievement and works
Quan Deyu became known for writing in his youth and was accomplished in both poetry and prose, with a broad command of the classical canon. His prose was praised as refined, upright, and richly developed; he supervised the drafting of imperial edicts for nine years, and many inscriptions, biographies, and collected-work prefaces for eminent officials and men of letters came from his hand, leading contemporaries to regard him as a leading literary authority.
The Quan Zaizhi wenji, also called the Quan Deyu ji, survives in fifty scrolls; the Zhi ji in fifty scrolls and the Tongmeng ji in ten are lost. His poems occupy ten scrolls in the Complete Tang Poems, with ten additional poems supplied by later supplements.
His poetry centers on courtly responses, imperial compositions, exchanges of poems and prose, and farewell pieces. The five-character old-style poems and five-character quatrains are generally regarded as his stronger work; critics also praised his old tunes and the feeling of his yuefu, considered the tonal force of his five-character regulated verse superior to that of his seven-character verse, and found his five-character old-style poems uneven.
Later criticism was divided. Some writers observed that he was not known in the Tang primarily for poetry but that his diction was elegant and fluent, and found in his verse affinities with High Tang poetry, Wei Yingwu, and Liu Changqing; others described it as richly ornamented and carefully ordered but seldom moving, while citing such pieces as Fushui Station, Qingming at Yiyang, and Weiyan as exceptions, and characterized his regulated verse as clear and steady and his seven-character verse as ornate.
Associations and posthumous commemoration
Quan Deyu wrote a preface for a work by Lu Zhi; Han Yu wrote his epitaph, and Quan Deyu wrote an epitaph for Zhang Maozhao.
References
- CBDB Quan Deyu (13624)
- 搜韵 權德輿 (15294)
- 法鼓佛教人名规范数据库 權德輿 (A009536)
- Wikidata Quan Deyu (Q365203)