Wen Ting-Yun

Wen T’ing-Yün 

(also Wen Fei-ch’ing). Born circa 820; died circa 870. Chinese poet.

Wen T’ing-yün was one of the early composers of the tz’u romance, a musical-poetic genre that later became popular. More than 60 of his romances, in which popular melodies and poetic devices of the ancient yuofu are employed, have been preserved in the collection Among the Flowers. A master of refined form, Wen T’ing-yün mocked the mediocrity of the rulers, but his main theme was the unhappy lot of the singers, who were the lyric heroines of his romances.