Chen Zi'ang

Also known as Zi Boyu · Chen Shiyi

Chen Zi'ang, courtesy name Boyu, came from a wealthy family in Shehong, Zizhou, and spent his youth as a swaggering knight-errant, not opening a book until he was seventeen or eighteen. After passing the metropolitan examination in 684 he wrote to the throne opposing the return of Emperor Gaozong's coffin to Chang'an, was received by Empress Wu, and became a collator and later a remonstrance official. In 696, when the Khitan took Yingzhou, he joined the army of Wu Youyi as an adviser; his proposals were rejected and he was demoted, and climbing the tower north of Ji he wrote his 'Song on Ascending the Youzhou Terrace'. He later resigned to care for his father, and after his father's death the local magistrate Duan Jian had him jailed on false charges, where he died in despair. He wrote thirty-eight 'Stirred by My Encounters' (Ganyu) poems and a preface lamenting the lost vigour of Han and Wei verse; Han Yu wrote that Tang literature first rose high with him.