Li Shangyin, born around 812 and dead around 858, was one of the most brilliant, difficult, and emotionally resonant poets of the late Tang dynasty. His courtesy name was Yishan; he also used the literary sobriquets Yuxisheng, “Student of the Jade Stream,” and Fannansheng, “Student of the Southern Mountains.” In the history of Chinese poetry, he is commonly placed beside Du Mu as a defining voice of the Late Tang, th…
Compare Poets
Pick two poets who seem to have nothing to do with each other — a Gothic American and a pastoral Englishman, say — and see where the catalogue actually joins them: overlapping years, shared ground, distinctive themes, and the poems that secretly rhyme.
Poet A
Li Shangyin
Poet B
Pei Di
Compare two related contemporaries
A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.
Kindred spirits
Their work already rhymes in the catalogue. The rest of this page is the story around that rhyme.
Biography 81%
Blended 81%
Swap sides
Another related pair
Pei Di, traditionally dated 714 to about 800, lived through one of the most brilliant and one of the most traumatic periods in the history of the Tang dynasty. He is remembered principally as the intimate friend and poetic counterpart of Wang Wei, the great painter-poet whose name has come to define the contemplative landscape poetry of the age. Yet Pei Di deserves attention not merely as Wang Wei’s companion or as a…
In time
Li Shangyin
Pei Di
714
858
Their lives did not overlap.
12 years separate the earlier death from the later birth.
On the map
About 377 km separate Qinyang, Henan Province, China from Chang'an, China. Shared ground: China.
Themes they return to
Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.
Shared
Pei Di only
From the biographies
an lushan rebellion
tang
official
Li Shangyin: late tang dynasty, henei, qinyang, du mu, linghu chu, wang maoyuan, jinshi examination, seven-character lüshi. Pei Di: tang dynasty, wang wei, zhang jiuling, chang'an, guanzhong region, wangchuan, kaiyuan era, landscape poetry.
Poems that secretly rhyme
The closest poem-to-poem matches in critique space — the sort of kinship a listener hears before the catalogue admits it.
The world around them
Li Shangyin
Emotional landscapes
Li Shangyin: Longing, Sorrow, Wonder. Pei Di: Longing, Wonder, Peace.