Su Hui (poet)
Encyclopedia
Su Hui was a Chinese poet of the Middle Sixteen Kingdoms
period. Her Chinese style name or courtesy name (zì)
is Yun Yan . She is most famous for her extremely complex "palindrome" (huiren) poem, apparently having innovated the genre, as well as producing the most complex example to date. Apparently, all of her other thousands of literary works have been lost.
, one of the Sixteen Kingdoms
, during the Six Dynasties
period. She was from a literate family, in what is now now Fufeng County
, in Shaanxi Province. She was the third daughter of Su Daozhi. Su Hui married at sixteen (fifteen, by Western reckoning), and went to live with her husband, Dou Tao, to what is now Qinzhou District
, Tianshui
, Prefecture, in Gansu
Province, where he was the governor.
Sixteen Kingdoms
The Sixteen Kingdoms, or less commonly the Sixteen States, were a collection of numerous short-lived sovereign states in China proper and its neighboring areas from 304 to 439 AD after the retreat of the Jin Dynasty to South China and before the establishment of the Northern Dynasties...
period. Her Chinese style name or courtesy name (zì)
Chinese style name
A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name , is a given name to be used later in life. After 20 years of age, the zì is assigned in place of one's given name as a symbol of adulthood and respect...
is Yun Yan . She is most famous for her extremely complex "palindrome" (huiren) poem, apparently having innovated the genre, as well as producing the most complex example to date. Apparently, all of her other thousands of literary works have been lost.
Biography
Su Hui was a poet of the kingdom of Former QinFormer Qin
The Former Qin was a state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in China. Founded by the Fu family of the Di ethnicity, it completed the unification of North China in 376. Its capital had been Xi'an up to the death of the ruler Fu Jiān. Despite its name, the Former Qin was much later and less powerful than...
, one of the Sixteen Kingdoms
Sixteen Kingdoms
The Sixteen Kingdoms, or less commonly the Sixteen States, were a collection of numerous short-lived sovereign states in China proper and its neighboring areas from 304 to 439 AD after the retreat of the Jin Dynasty to South China and before the establishment of the Northern Dynasties...
, during the Six Dynasties
Six Dynasties
Six Dynasties is a collective noun for six Chinese dynasties during the periods of the Three Kingdoms , Jin Dynasty , and Southern and Northern Dynasties ....
period. She was from a literate family, in what is now now Fufeng County
Fufeng County
Fufeng County is a county in Baoji, Shaanxi Province of China. It is 110 kilometers away from Xi'an, and 95 kilometers away from Baoji.It has a land area of 751 square kilometers, and a population of 460,000.Famen Temple is located in the county....
, in Shaanxi Province. She was the third daughter of Su Daozhi. Su Hui married at sixteen (fifteen, by Western reckoning), and went to live with her husband, Dou Tao, to what is now Qinzhou District
Qinzhou District
Qinzhou District is an administrative district in Gansu, the People's Republic of China. It is one of 17 districts of Gansu. It is part of the Tianshui prefecture, with the city of the same name being the prefecture seat....
, Tianshui
Tianshui
Tianshui is the second largest city in Gansu province in northwest China. Its population is approximately 3,500,000.Tianshui lies along the route of the ancient Northern Silk Road at the Wei River, through which much of trade occurred between China and the west...
, Prefecture, in Gansu
Gansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
Province, where he was the governor.
Poem
She has an important and unusual poem, the "Xuanji Tu". The poem is in the form of a twenty-nine by twenty-nine character grid, and can be read forward or backwards, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. This arrangement allows for 2,848 different readings.See also
- PalindromePalindromeA palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction, with general allowances for adjustments to punctuation and word dividers....
- Six dynasties poetrySix Dynasties poetrySix dynasties poetry refers to those types or styles of poetry particularly associated with the Six dynasties era of China . This poetry reflects one of the poetry world's more important flowerings, as well as being a unique period in Classical Chinese poetry' which, over this time period,...
- Classical Chinese poetryClassical Chinese poetrythumb|right|300px|Attributed to [[Han Gan]], Huiyebai , about 750CE .Classical Chinese poetry is that type of poetry that is the traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese. It is typified by certain traditional forms, or modes, and certain traditional genres...
- Classical Chinese poetry genresClassical Chinese poetry genresthumb|right|350px|"Reading in Autumn Scenery", Palace Museum, Beijing by [[Shen Zhou]], about 1500 CE .Classical Chinese poetry forms are those genres which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Classical Chinese...
Interwiki links
- Chinese Wikipedia article on Su Hui (In Chinese)
- Chinese Wikipedia article on Su Hui's poem (In Chinese) With color text and image versions of her Xuanji Tu.