Background
He was born near modern Beijing. After a period as a Buddhist monk, he went to Chang"an.
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Jia Dao
Edit Profile賈島, 贾岛, 浪先
Career
He became one of Han Yu"s disciples, but failed the jinshi exam several times. He wrote both discursive gushi and lyric jintishi. According to Doctor James J.Y. Liu (1926–1986), a professor of Chinese and comparative literature, Jia’s poem The Swordsman "seems..to sum up the spirit of knight errantry in four lines." The Swordsman is as follows:
Foreign ten years I have been polishing this sword;
Its frosty edge has never been put to the test.
Now I am holding it and showing it to you, sir:
Is there anyone suffering from injustice?.
