Meng Jiao

Life

His father was Meng Tingfen, who died in 773. In his youth, Meng Jiao lived in seclusion on Mount Song and was known as a recluse; he was described as aloof and independent, and he traveled in Henan and Binning. Early in life he lived in Huzhou, joined a poetry society organized by the monk Jiao Ran, and absorbed Jiao Ran’s influence.

He repeatedly failed the Presented Scholar examination before succeeding. The year of his success is variously given as 796 or 798; other accounts say that he was forty-five or forty-six, or fifty, when he finally passed. In 800, the sixteenth year of the Zhenyuan era, he became Assistant County Magistrate of Liyang. He spent his days composing poetry and neglected administrative work; the county magistrate replaced him with a deputy, cut his stipend by half, and Meng Jiao resigned.

In 806, Zheng Yuqing appointed him a staff officer in the water-and-land transport administration and a probationary xielulang; the appointments continued through 809. After Zheng Yuqing took command at Xingyuan, he memorialized Meng Jiao for appointment as a counsellor in the Xingyuan army and probationary Dali pingshi, and Meng Jiao also held the post of a military commissioner’s staff judge. In 814 he set out for the appointment but died suddenly of illness at Wenxiang. He lived in poverty throughout his life and had no money for burial. His friendships included Han Yu and Jia Dao, and he also associated with Zhang Ji, Li Ao, and Lu Tong.

Poetry

Meng Jiao devoted himself to poetry, excelling in five-character old-style verse and yuefu. He was ranked with Han Yu, regarded as a founder of the Han–Meng poetic school, and paired with Jia Dao as “Jiao and Dao.” His poetry falls into two periods divided by his examination journey to Chang’an in 792, the eighth year of the Zhenyuan era: the earlier poetry moved from reclusion toward official life and sought purposeful expression, with an energetic and bright tone modeled on the High Tang, whereas the later poetry, shaped by frustrated official service, turned from expressing political purpose toward lyric feeling and developed an uncanny, eccentric style.

His subjects range broadly across social life: he sang of the suffering of ordinary people, denounced military governors’ separatism, and expressed his own poverty, advancing the poetic principle “下筆證興亡，陳詞備風骨.” In diction and syntax he avoided the commonplace and facile, pursuing a fresh, lean, hard-edged beauty; the poetry’s cold atmosphere and frequent lament over hardship contributed to the description “郊寒島瘦,” “Jiao cold and Dao thin,” shared with Jia Dao. Han Yu described his verse as “刃迎縷解，鉤章棘句，掐擢胃腎。神施鬼設，間見層出” and also wrote of its “橫空盤硬語，妥貼力排奡.”

Works

His poetry circulated in collections titled Meng Dongye’s Poetry, Meng Dongye’s Collection, and Meng Jiao’s Poetry Collection; in the Northern Song, Song Minqiu compiled the ten-fascicle Meng Dongye’s Collection. In the Ming, Ling Mengchu published an engraved edition of Meng Dongye’s Poetry, which carried comments by the Song scholars Guocai and Liu Chenweng; a later collated edition by Hua Chenzhi was regarded as more complete. Annotated editions include Hua Chenzhi and Yu Xuecai’s Collated Annotations to Meng Jiao’s Poetry and Han Quanxin’s Collated Annotations to Meng Jiao’s Collection. The number of fascicles of his poems in the Complete Tang Poetry is variously given as five or ten, while the Supplement to the Complete Tang Poetry adds one poem.