Poet
Wang Chang-Ling
Category: Poet
Wang Changling (simplified Chinese: 王昌龄; traditional Chinese: 王昌齡; pinyin: Wáng Chānglíng) (698–756) was a major Tang Dynasty poet. His zi was Shaobo (Chinese: 少伯).
He was originally from Taiyuan in the Shanxi province of China, according to the editors of the Three Hundred Tang Poems, although other sources claim that he was actually from Jiangning near modern-day Nanjing. After passing the prestigious jinshi examination, he became a secretarial official and later held other imperial positions, including that of an official posting to Sishui (汜水), in what is currently Xingyang, in Henan province. Near the end of his life he was appointed as a minister of Jiangning county. He died in the An Lushan Rebellion.
He is best known for his poems describing battles in the frontier regions of western China. Wang Changling was one of the competitors in the famous wine shop competition along with Gao Shi and Wang Zhihuan.
From A Lute of Jade – Being selections from the Classical poets of China [The Wisdom of the East series] edited and translated by L. Cranmer-Byng and Dr S. Kapadia [1918]
This poet came from the district of Chiang-ning to the capital, where he obtained his doctor's degree and distinguished himself as a man of letters.
For some time he filled a minor post, but was eventually disgraced and exiled to the province of Hunan.
When the rebellion of An Lu-shan broke out, he returned to his native place, where he was cruelly murdered by the censor Lu Ch`in-hsiao.
(See Hervey Saint-Denys, `Poe/sies des Thang', p. 224; Giles, `Biog. Dict.' p. 8087.)
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