Bao Zhao was an early medievalChinese poet, writer, and official known for his shi poetry, fu rhapsodies, and parallel prose. Bao's best known surviving work is his "Fu on the Ruined City", a long fu rhapsody on the ruined city of Guangling.
Life and career
Bao Zhao, courtesy name Mingyuan, was born around the year 414. Historical sources give contradictory information on his birthplace. He was probably born in the town of Jingkou, though sources variously say he was born in Shangdang or Xuzhou. Bao's younger sisterBao Linghui was also a poet, with seven poems still extant. Little is known of Bao's early life. He was probably a farmer as a young man before beginning his career as an official on the staffs of local princes of the Liu Song dynasty. From about 438, Bao served as an attendant gentleman to Liu Yiqing, the prince of Linchuan. In the early 440s, Liu served as governor of Jiangzhou, and Bao writes that he traveled around the area of modern Jiujiang, writing poems on the mountain scenery around Mount Lu. After Liu Yiqing's death in 444, Bao briefly returned home to Jingkou, then in 445 joined the staff of Liu Jun, another Liu Song prince, who was serving as governor of Yangzhou. Bao spent a number of years in Liu Jun's service, and accompanied him on his campaign to retaliate against the Xianbei-ruled Northern Wei dynasty, which had invaded southern China in January 451. Bao left Liu Jun's staff about 452, spending the next 12 years serving in various local governmental positions, as well as a stint in the imperial capital Jiankang as a professor at the Imperial Academy. In 464, Bao joined the staff of the seven-year-old prince Liu Zixu, who nominally served as governor of Jingzhou. In early 466, another Liu Song prince rebelled and declared himself Emperor, and Liu Zixu soon joined the rebellion, probably encouraged by his adult advisors. The rebellion was put down in the following months, and in September 466 imperial forces retook Jingzhou. Because the rebellion was organized by the prince's aides and administrators, and not the young prince himself, Bao was unable to escape punishment for his involvement. The nine-year-old Liu Zixu was forced to commit suicide, after which all of his staff members, including Bao, were executed.
Works
About 200 of Bao Zhao's poems survive. His works were initially gathered into a collection several decades after his death, but this collection seems to have been lost sometime during the Tang dynasty. Eleven of Bao's poems are preserved in the early medieval anthology Selections of Refined Literature. Bao's most famous piece is his "Fu on the Ruined City", a moving fu rhapsody on the former capital, Guangling, which had been razed to the ground in the Northern Wei invasion of January 451. It gives an account of the ruined capital, contrasted with its former grandiosity, in a nostalgic and longing fashion that is common in Liu Song-era poetry. Another of Bao's surviving fu rhapsodies is "Fu on the Dancing Cranes", which describes a troupe of trained performing cranes. Bao also composed shi poetry, and is best known for his use of the yuefu lyrical song genre. Bao is the first Chinese poet known to have composed shi poetry in the seven-syllable line format where, instead of the traditional AAAA rhyme scheme in which each line in a stanza rhymed, a more mixed rhyme scheme of ABCB was used.
