⬅️ 唐诗 Tang Poems
Jia Dao (贾岛，779-843 AD) was a poet during mid Tang dynasty. He and Meng Jiao (孟郊), whom we introduced previously, were the representatives of so called "bitter poets (苦吟诗人)". When he was young, Jia Dao once became a Buddhist monk due to poverty. He secularized later to take the Jinshi imperial examination but did not failed the test several times until he eventually passed it in 822 AD.
The reason behind the name of "bitter poets" was not only the circumstances of the poets' life, or the contents of their poetry, but also the effort they put into the wording and phrasing of their works. The very commonly used word "推敲" was originated from this Jia Dao's poem Verse for Li Ning's Seclusive Residence. The story was that Jia Dao was put so much consideration about which character he should used in this sentence "A monk pushes (推) the door open under the moonlight" or "A monk knocks (敲) the door under the moonlight". Push (推) or knock (敲), knock (敲) or push (推), 推敲 eventually became a word to describe deep deliberation or careful elaboration. For example, "经过仔细的推敲，我们终于接受了这间大学的录取。 After the careful consideration, we finally accept the offer from this university."
