Yuán-period 元 blind autodidact poet, Yì-scholar, and innovator in formal verse. Zì Zhèngqīng 正卿; hào Gěnzhāi 艮齋 (“Stopping-Studio”). Native of Zhēndìng 真定 (modern Héběi). CBDB 35408 lists him but without firm lifedates; lived to over 90 suì.
Biography (per [Yuán Juè]‘s preface preserved in KR4d0473). Blind from childhood. Possessed extraordinary auditory-and-memory faculty: by day’s end memorized everything he heard children recite. In adulthood practiced verse-composition as autodidact. Later abandoned this for serious Yì (Classic of Changes) study; composed the Dà Yì tōngyì 大易通義 commentary in his ninetieth year (now lost).
Poetic innovation. Inventor of the Xiéyīn gé 諧音格 (Phonetic-Harmony Style) — a verse-form using only homophonic-but-graphemically-different rhyme-words throughout each poem. Juàn 8 of his collection contains 31 7-syllable and 21 5-syllable poems in this form. The Sìkù editors register it as gǔ suǒ wèi yǒu (something the ancients did not have).
Comparison. The Sìkù editors compare Hóu favorably to the late-Míng blind poet Táng Rǔxún 唐汝詢: Hóu is the Yuán-period precedent; Hóu’s classical-commentarial scope surpassed Táng’s narrower Táng-poetry focus.
Within the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0482 Gěnzhāi shījí 艮齋詩集 (撰).
Reference. Yuán Juè’s preface in Qīngróng jūshì jí KR4d0473.