Writers › Writer / Poet
Jiang Yan
Southern Dynasties writer who served the Song, Qi and Liang courts, known for the Rhapsody on Regret and the Rhapsody on Parting, and the source of the phrase 'Jiang's talent has run dry'
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Wentong
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Jiang Yan, courtesy name Wentong, came from Kaocheng in Jiyang and grew up fatherless and poor. Under the Liu Song he served on the staff of Liu Jingsu, Prince of Jianping, was jailed, and won release with a letter of self-defence written in prison; his repeated warnings to the prince later got him sent off to be magistrate of Wuxing in Jian'an. When Xiao Daocheng took power he made Jiang Yan an adjutant and had him draft military dispatches, and under the Qi he served as palace censor, impeaching powerful officials so firmly that he was called unmatched in recent times. The Liang made him Count of Linju and later Marquis of Liling, and he died in 505 at sixty-two sui. Xiao Tong's Selections of Refined Literature (Wenxuan) includes his Rhapsody on Regret, Rhapsody on Parting and thirty imitations of earlier poets. The Book of Liang (Liangshu) says his inspiration faded in later years, which gave rise to the phrase 'Jiang's talent has run dry'.
Life and times
Dates 444 CE–505 CE