Life

Yang Jiong was born in Huayin in today's Shaanxi province. A child prodigy, Yang Jiong passed the special civil service examination for boys and was awarded with an official appointment to the prestigious Hongwen College in 659, when he was only nine years old. Unlike the other three "paragons", He spent most of his life serving at the imperial court in the capital Chang'an. He later served as the magistrate of Yingchuan County, and became commonly known as Yang Yingchuan. He died under unremarkable circumstances while in office, the only one of the "Four Paragons" to do so.

Works

The imperial bibliographies of the Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang both recorded 30 juan (volumes) of Yang Jiong's collected works. However, the Chongwen Catalog of the Northern Song dynasty recorded 20 juan.

Yang Jiong's shi poems are not exceptional, but he is best known for his eight extant fu poems, most prominently "The Enveloping Sky", "The Old Man Star", and "Ullambana". His fu are described as "rich confections of scholarly lore and wordplay", some of which provide insight into the astral beliefs of the Tang dynasty.

Yang Jiong also wrote the preface for the collected works of Wang Bo, published after Wang's premature death. Yang criticized the "aberrant style" of the preceding generation of poetry, which became widely accepted by traditional scholars. In contrast, he lauded Wang Bo's classical style and praised Lu Zhaolin for checking the excessive formality of the court poetry.

生平

楊炯家世不詳，伯父輩多任州縣地方行政長官，楊炯自己的父親和祖父則史無記載，其自稱小時窮賤。

唐高宗顯慶四年（659年），十歲被舉為神童，顯慶五年待制弘文館。上元三年（676年）應制舉及第，授校書郎。

永淳元年(682年)，被中書令薛元超舉薦為崇文館學士，及太子詹事司直。在此期間，楊炯寫作了不少文章，還為王勃編集並作序。在序中藉以對王勃文學方面的評價，對當時盛行的上官體詩風進行了批判。

武后垂拱元年（685年），因從祖弟楊神讓參與徐敬業起兵失敗而受到牽連，降官為梓州司法參軍。天授元年（690年），與宋之問任教于洛陽宮中習藝館。

如意元年（692年）後改任盈川縣令，吏治以嚴酷著稱。後死於盈川任所，歸葬洛陽。因此後人稱他為「楊盈川」。

卒年

楊炯卒年不可確考。楊炯詩文可系年的最後一篇作于長壽二年(693年)。聞一多《唐詩大系》系其卒年為695年左右，並不確定，但不知定為該年依據。另一說卒年為692年，均是以任盈川令之年為其卒年。

文學評價

楊炯恃才傲物，他聽說自己為四傑之一後說：「吾愧在盧前，恥居王後。」還傳言他嘲笑朝廷中的官員是「麒麟楦」，意即披著麒麟皮的驢。

楊炯擅長寫邊塞詩，氣勢軒昂，風格豪放。明胡應麟《詩藪·內編》謂「盈川近體，雖神俊輸王，而整肅渾雄。究其體裁，實為正始。」張說曰：「楊盈川文思如懸河注水，酌之不竭，既優于盧，亦不減王也。」

家庭

楊炯無子女。有侄女楊容華善詩。

著作

詩文集有《楊盈川集》。《全唐詩》存詩一卷，共33首。另存賦、序、表、碑、銘、志、狀等50篇。

注釋