Zheng Gu

Life

His father was Zheng Shi, and his elder brother was Zheng Qi. He was precocious: at seven he could compose poetry and won the notice of Ma Dai; another tradition says that Sikong Tu recognized his talent in childhood. As a young man, he entered the jinshi examinations and spent sixteen years pursuing them; in his own preface he recalled composing verse from childhood and filling chests with drafts while seeking the spring examination.

He exchanged poems with Xue Neng and Li Pin and associated with Zhang Qiao, Xu Tang, Zhou You, and Wen Xian. This circle was called the “Ten Worthies of the Xiantong era,” though “Ten Worthies of Fanglin” is also found. When Huang Chao entered Chang’an in 880, Zheng Gu fled to western Shu; he later travelled in western Shu and Jingchu. He passed the jinshi examination in the Guangqi era, with one chronology specifying the third year of Guangqi (887).

In the second year of Jingfu (893), he entered office as commandant of Hu County (鄠縣尉), served concurrently as a staff officer in Jingzhao, and later held the posts of Right Shiyi (右拾遺) and Right Buque (右補闕). Other recorded titles include a Ruzhou functionary and service as a canjun. When Emperor Zhaozong went to Huazhou during the Qianning era, Zheng Gu followed the travelling court, became Duguan langzhong, lived at Yuntai Daoist Lodge, and compiled three juan of verse as the Yuntai bian. The appointment as Duguan langzhong is dated to the third year of Qianning (896) in one chronology and to the fourth year (897) in another.

Around the third year of Tianfu (903), he returned to Yichun and exchanged poems with the monk Qiji. In the “Early Plum” anecdote, Qiji brought him a poem; Zheng Gu changed “several blossoms” to “a single blossom,” and Qiji thereafter honored him as a “one-character teacher.” In later life he retired to the Yangshan Academy and died at the Beiyan villa; other accounts place his death after he entered the Later Liang.

Poetry and works

His poem “Partridge” made him known as Zheng Zhegu (“Zheng of the Partridge”), while his office made “Zheng Duguan” a common appellation. He excelled in five- and seven-character verse. His style was praised as clear, graceful, and direct, with diction easy to understand; it circulated widely in the late Tang, and households used it to teach children.

Assessments of his poetic form were divided: some judged it lacking in elevation, structurally frail, or overly soft, while others found distinctive thought within its tone and regarded his quatrains as those of a master. The three-juan Yuntai bian, also known as Zheng Shouyu’s Collected Works, survives; the three-juan Yiyang ji is lost, and Yiyang waibian is also listed among his works. The Quan Tang shi preserves four juan of his poetry, and the Quan Tang shi xubian adds three poems and six lines.