Jiangxi School of poetry

Overview

During the 1070's Su Shi created a group of young writers who associated themselves with him. This group included Huang Tingjian, Qin Guan, Chao Buzhi, Zhang lei, and Chen Shidao. From this small group two figures emerged that left a very distinct stamp on Chinese poetry. Huang Tingjian and Chen Shidao unexpectedly formed what came to be known as the Jiangxi School of poetry. While the Jinagzi School seems to have some roots with writers like Wang Anshi or Ouyang Xiu, Chen Shidao and Huang Tingjian are the ones given credit for really bringing this type of poetry into the limelight.

The Jiangxi school is named after the area that it is most often associated with, but in total only a handful of poets who wrote int he Jiangxi style were actually from the Jiangxi area. As stated before the Jiangxi school was not created on purpose. "there is little evidence that the men credited with starting it had any intention of creating a poetic school. It is only in retrospect that critics and later poets, eager to give a name to the new approach to poetry ... posited the existence of this school" (Owen 419). Although the main creators did die the influence of this style of poetry lasted as long as into the end of the Song dynasty.