The person known as the Seven Masters is Wang Changling.
Wang Changling (698-757), courtesy name Shaobo, was a minister during the Tang Dynasty and a famous frontier poet. In the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan (727), he passed the imperial examination, was awarded the title of Shulang, and was appointed as the captain of Sishui County. He took the Erxuehongci examination and was exiled to Lingnan. At the end of Kaiyuan Dynasty, he returned to Chang'an and was awarded the title of County Magistrate of Jiangning County. During the Anshi Rebellion, he was brutally killed by Lu Qiuxiao, the governor of Bozhou.
Wang Changling had close contacts with Li Bai, Gao Shi, Wang Wei, Wang Zhihuan, Cen Shen and others. His poems are famous for Qijue, especially his poems on frontier fortresses. He is known as the "Poet Master" and the "Sage of Qijue".
Wang Changling composed nearly 200 poems in his life, of which 181 remain. Among his few poems, there are fifty-two farewell poems, accounting for about a quarter. The seventy-four quatrains of Qijue account for one-sixth of the quatrains in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. There is "Wang Changling Collection" left in the world, consisting of six volumes and four volumes of poems today.
Artistic Features
1. Poetry's artistic conception
In terms of artistic style, Wang Changling's Qijue is mainly characterized by euphemism and implicitness, with twists and turns and profound artistic conception. Many of them use metaphors and sustenance techniques to express the poet's revelation and resentment of reality.
2. Language style
Wang Changling's poetry reflects the poet's pursuit of an elegant and vigorous language art style in terms of the choice of language images, the use of sentence patterns and the combination of sentences. In terms of language selection, Wang Changling often uses large numerals, powerful verbs, and accurate adjectives to express powerful scenes or ambitious big thoughts, which reflects the power and beauty of language.
In terms of noun selection, Wang Changling chose elegant and typical language images. Wang Changling often uses short sentences, modified sentence patterns, and condensed complex sentences in his poems to make the language powerful, economical and concise.