Chu Guangxi

Life

In the fourteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong’s Kaiyuan era (726), he passed the jinshi examination and was on the same list as Cui Guofu and Qi Wuqian. His first post at Fengyi is described as either county assistant or county lieutenant; he later served as county lieutenant at Sishui, Anyi, and Xia Gui. Around the twenty-first year of Kaiyuan, he resigned and returned home, then entered Qin and lived in seclusion at Zhongnan, also described as Zhongnan Mountain or 終南別業.

He came out of seclusion to serve again as 太祝, after which he was known as 儲太祝; he was then transferred to Investigating Censor (監察御史). At the end of Tianbao, he was sent on a mission to Fanyang. An Lushan then held the military governorships of Fanyang, Pinglu, and Hedong and was plotting rebellion. On the journey Chu wrote two poems entitled “效古”; after reaching Fanyang he wrote “觀范陽遞俘,” and the poems express deep concern over the political situation.

During the An Lushan rebellion, the rebels captured Chang’an, and Chu was taken prisoner and compelled to accept a puppet office; he later escaped and returned to court. After the two capitals were recovered, he was imprisoned and eventually died in exile in Lingnan. His poetic and prose exchanges included Xiao Hua, Fang Guan, Gao Shi, Wei Zhi, Wang Wei, and Cen Shen; he also received poems and prose from Du Fu, Meng Haoran, and Qi Wuqian. Chu Sizong was his grandson.

Poetry and criticism

Chu Guangxi is especially known for landscape and pastoral poetry. He wrote particularly many pentasyllabic old-style poems; critics described his poetry as plain yet archaic in flavor, with an elevated style, distant resonance, and deep feeling.

Critics compared him with Tao Yuanming and Wang Wei: one comparison found his finest passages like Tao and his flatter passages like Wang, while another held that he was closer to Tao than Wang when imitating Tao. He was also described as sincere and graceful, with a special gift for portraying rural life. Other criticism observed that, although his poetic output was extensive, his forms were too similar to make him fully accomplished; it further found the modes of “樵父” and “漁父” striking but neither properly classical nor fully his own, while regarding the “田家” poems as more successful.

Works

His works include the five-volume *儲光羲集*; another tradition reports a seventy-volume version, now lost, while a five-volume *儲光羲詩集* circulated. *全唐詩* includes four volumes of his poems, and *全唐詩續拾* adds one poem.

He also wrote the fifteen-volume *正論* and the twenty-volume *九經外義疏*, both of which are lost; the latter title is also found as *九經外議疏*. The anthology *丹陽集*, which included works by Chu Guangxi, Bao Rong, and fifteen other poets, is likewise lost. A one-volume *從賊中詣行在日記* was once attributed to Chu, but because it is not listed in the *Xin Tangshu* bibliography, that attribution has been judged erroneous.