Yang Jiong

[1][2] Known for his eight extant fu (rhapsody) poems, he also wrote an influential preface to the collected works of Wang Bo, in which he criticized the excessive formality of the court poetry of the preceding generation, and lauded the classical style of Wang Bo and Lu Zhaolin.

[4] A child prodigy,[2] 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.

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 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.