Liu Changqing

Life

At an early age he lived in Luoyang, had entered for the jinshi examination by the Kaiyuan era under Xuanzong, and passed in the middle or later Tianbao period; another account places his success in the twenty-first year of Kaiyuan. After entering office, he served as magistrate of Changzhou and, in 758, acted as magistrate of Haiyan. He was imprisoned over an unspecified matter in the same year, demoted to Nanba, and later received a lesser transfer after a renewed investigation.

His subsequent offices included Investigating Censor; the title Palace Censor is also recorded. Early in the Dali era, he was appointed, with examination of rank, as a vice director in the Ministry of Rites and sent out as a transportation commissioner’s judge; stationed at Yangzhou, he oversaw transportation in Huai-Xi and E-Yue and was later promoted to transport commissioner’s provisional deputy. When Wu Zhongru, the observation commissioner of E-Yue, falsely impeached him, he was demoted to Sima of Mu Prefecture; this appointment is dated around 775.

Early in the Jianzhong era he became prefect of Suizhou. In 782, Li Xilie rebelled and occupied Suizhou, after which Liu lived in Jiangzhou; late in life he joined the staff of the Huainan military command.

Poetry

His early work was already accomplished, but he established his reputation as a poet after the reigns of Suzong and Daizong. Together with Qian Qi, he was known as “Qian–Liu” and became a leading representative of the Dali poetic style. He devoted himself to regulated verse, especially five-character regulated poetry, and called himself the “Great Wall of Five-Character Poetry”; his poems often voice sorrow over personal circumstances and sometimes address affairs of state and the people’s hardships, combining lucid diction with a responsive interplay of emotion and scene. Contemporary Tang critics praised his verbal refinement while finding his poetic manner insufficiently novel and occasionally repetitive, especially in concluding lines; later criticism increasingly valued the quiet, restrained quality of his poetry, its emotional landscapes, and its suggestive resonance beyond the literal image.

Works

His collected works are generally known as 《劉隨州集》, whose length is variously given as ten or eleven juan; other titles include 《劉長卿集》, 《劉隨州文集》, and 《劉隨州詩集》. The Complete Tang Poetry includes five juan of his poems, while the Complete Tang Poetry Supplement and Continuation add two poems; one ci lyric, 《謫仙怨》, is also attributed to him. Editions in the Sibu congkan and Sibu beiyao series circulated, and modern editorial works include Chu Zhongjun’s chronological annotated edition and Yang Shiming’s chronological collated edition of his poetry.

Family and associations

His grandfather was Liu Chuyue, and his son-in-law was Li Mu. He had a literary association with Li Ye and praised her as a “heroine among women poets”; he also sent poems and prose to Liu Yan, Zhang Ji, and others.