Liu Zhangqing

Different sources place the year of Liu Zhangqing's birth as early as 709 and as late as 726. He came from the city of Xuancheng. Although his ancestral hometown was Hejian, he spent most of his youth in Luoyang, the eastern capital of the Tang dynasty. Liu obtained his Jinshi title around 750s. In 780, he was appointed governor of Suizhou in Henan province. Because of this, his contemporaries often referred to him as Liu Suizhou.

Like his birth, the year of his death is uncertain. One source says he died around 786.

During his lifetime, Liu's poems did not receive much praise, although he was one of the representative poets during the reign of Emperor Dezong. Later generations, however, have acknowledged his skill as a poet. Liu was especially skillful in writing of poems with 5 characters.

An example:

While Visiting on the South Stream the Taoist Priest Chang (尋南溪常山道人隱居)

一路經行處，   Walking along a little path, ;
莓苔見履痕，   I find a footprint on the moss.
白雲依靜渚，   A while cloud low on the quiet lake
春草閉閒門。   Grasses that sweeten an idle door.
過雨看松色，   A pine grown greener with the rain;
隨山到水源，   A brook that comes from a mountain source,
溪花與禪意，   And, mingling with Truth among the flowers,
相對亦忘言。   I have forgotten what to say.