1. Bao Zhao was a Chinese poet, writer, and official known for his shi poetry, fu rhapsodies, and parallel prose who lived during the Liu Song dynasty.
11 Facts About Bao Zhao
1. 2.
Bao Zhao, courtesy name Mingyuan, was born around the year AD414.
3.
Bao Zhao was probably born in the town of Jingkou, though some sources say he was born in Shangdang or Xuzhou.
4.
Bao Zhao's younger sister Bao Zhao Linghui was a poet, and seven of her poems have survived.
5.
Bao Zhao was born into a scholar-class family whose fortunes had declined.
6.
Bao Zhao 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.
7.
Bao Zhao 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.
8.
In 464, Bao Zhao joined the staff of the seven-year-old prince Liu Zixu, who nominally served as governor of Jingzhou.
9.
Bao Zhao's works were initially gathered into a collection several decades after his death, but this collection seems to have been lost during the Tang dynasty.
10.
Eleven of Bao Zhao's poems are preserved in the early medieval anthology Selections of Refined Literature.
11.
Bao Zhao composed shi poetry, and is best known for his use of the yuefu lyrical song genre.