张若虚
tang
Zhang Ruoxu was a Tang dynasty poet from Yangzhou. Very little is known about his life. He is traditionally grouped with He Zhizhang, Zhang Xu, and Bao Rong as one of the “Four Scholars of Wuzhong.” Only a small number of his poems survive, but “Spring River, Flowers, Moon, Night” alone secured his place in Chinese literary history. The poem takes up an old yuefu title but transforms it into a work of extraordinary scale, combining natural beauty, cosmic questioning, human impermanence, and longing. It is often regarded as one of the key poems leading from early Tang refinement toward the full poetic grandeur of the High Tang.