author
active 934-965 Chongzuo Zhao
A little-known 10th-century Chinese compiler, he is remembered for preserving some of the earliest and most influential song lyrics in Chinese literature. His name is closely tied to the Huajian ji (Among the Flowers), an anthology that helped define the early ci tradition.
1 Audiobook
花間集
by active 934-965 Chongzuo Zhao
About the author
Active in the period around 934–965, Zhao Chongzuo is known less as an original poet than as the compiler of the Huajian ji (Among the Flowers), a landmark anthology of lyric poetry from late Tang and Five Dynasties writers.
The collection was completed in 940 in the kingdom of Later Shu. It gathered works by leading poets associated with the early ci style, preserving a body of writing centered on music, feeling, courtly life, and finely detailed scenes of love and nature.
Because so little biographical information about Zhao Chongzuo survives, his lasting reputation rests mainly on this editorial achievement. Even so, that role was important: by assembling and passing down the Huajian ji, he helped shape how later generations understood the beginnings of one of China’s great poetic forms.