Po Chü-i

Po Chü-i (bô jü-ē), 772–846, Chinese poet. He occupied several important government posts, rising to the presidency of the imperial board of war in 841. He wrote over 3,000 poems, brief, topical verses expressed in very simple, clear language. Perhaps his most noted poem is the Song of Everlasting Regret (806), which recounts the sufferings of Emperor Ming Huang on the murder of his concubine by rebels. The poem figures prominently in The Tale of Genji, the 10th-century Japanese novel by Murasaki Shikibu; Po's work gained wide popularity throughout East Asia. He continued to write despite partial paralysis and enjoyed great fame during his lifetime.

Bibliography

See A. Waley, The Life and Times of Po Chü-i (1949); E. Feifel, Po Chü-i as a Censor (1961).