Zhōu Hè 周賀 (also written 周賈; original dharma-name Qīngsāi 清塞 when a monk; fl. ca. 820s–860s). Mid-late-Táng poet associated with the Yáo Hé 姚合 / Jiǎ Dǎo 賈島 kǔyín 苦吟 (“painful chanting”) school. Originally a Buddhist monk; huánsú (returned to lay life) at the encouragement of Yáo Hé (CBDB-recorded mid-Táng poet, prefect of Hángzhōu in the 830s), who admired Zhōu’s verse and persuaded him that lay life suited the kǔyín talent better than the monastic. Once laicized, Zhōu adopted the secular name and continued in the lay-poetic community.
His poetry is preserved in the single-juǎn KR4c0113 Zhōu Hè shījí, the SBCK reprint of the late-Sòng Línān Chénzhái cutting. Approximately 90 pentasyllabic lǜshī survive, addressed predominantly to monks, recluses, examination candidates, and mùfǔ officials — including the contemporary lay poet Zhū Qìngyú 朱慶餘 and Yáo Hé himself. His style — austere, reduced, evoking the small monastic-retreat scene through precise physical detail — is paradigmatic of the kǔyín aesthetic in its mid-Táng diffusion. CBDB id 93785 confirms Táng (no specific dates).
The orthography 周賀 / 周賈 is a graphic alternation in the textual tradition; both refer to the same person. The biographical episode of his huánsú under Yáo Hé’s encouragement is one of the best-attested cases of a Buddhist monk-poet returning to lay life in the Táng poetic record.