SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Studies on the scholar-official Zhang Zi’s poetry are rare. This article discusses how he aimed to create a pure, leisured and elegant style in both his life and in his poetry. Section one introduces his illustrious family background, being a great- grandson of the famous general Zhang Jun. It also points out his main interests in life, writing poetry and enjoying his garden, Osmanthus Retreat. Section two discusses the affiliation of his poetic style to previous masters from the Tang and Song dynasties, including Yang Wanli and Lu You. From the number of seven character quatrains that he wrote, which cover over 43% of his extant poems, we can see his affiliation to Yang Wanli, who wrote half of his poems using the same poetic form. Section three discusses Zhang’s poems on the building of his garden. These illustrate the passionate efforts he put into this activity, and provide useful information on garden building in the Southern Song period. Section four discusses his enjoyment of his garden, and focuses on a close reading and analysis of a series of poetic exchanges on the osmanthus flower between himself and Yang Wanli. The discussion concludes that, despite his efforts, Zhang's compositions are not equal to those of Yang Wanli, who demonstrates a masterful gift for natural poetic expression. The section continues with Zhang’s poems on peonies, a flower which symbolises wealth and nobility, and discusses his view on how to express this ‘wealthy and noble’ state in poetry, and argues that he chose to combine the expression of purity and elegance within this same state. This argument is continued in section five, when we see that in hosting his grand entertainments in his garden, he also aimed to achieve this state of purity and elegance.