Writers › Writer / Poet
Chen Zi'ang
Tang poet from Shehong and remonstrance official under Empress Wu who called for a return to the vigour of Han and Wei verse in his thirty-eight Stirred by My Encounters poems
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 Boyu · Chen Shiyi
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
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.
Life and times
- c. 661 CEBorn
Tang - c. 696Wu Youyi's Campaign Against the Khitans
After the Khitan rising at Yingzhou, the Wu Zhou court sent Wu Youyi north with Chen Zi'ang on his staff, whose repeated advice was refused before the revolt collapsed the next year. - c. 702 CEDied
Works
Literature · Poetry4- Song on Ascending the Youzhou TerraceTangChen Zi'ang's song on an ancient terrace during a campaign against the Khitan, alone with time
- For Attendant QiaoTangChen Zi'ang, in the guise of Han history, protests a friend's unrewarded frontier service
- Parting from a Friend on a Spring NightTangChen Zi'ang's regulated verse for a friend leaving by night, asking when they will meet again
- Seeing Off Editor Cui on the Eastern CampaignTangChen Zi'ang sends a friend off to war, urging restraint in arms and no greed for frontier glory
- Literature · Sayings2
- No Ancients Before, No Successors AfterTangFamous line from Chen Zi'ang's Youzhou Terrace song: the solitude of unrecognized talent
- No Ancients Before Me in SightTangLine from Chen Zi'ang's Song on Climbing the Youzhou Tower: alone between past and future
Connections
- Shared events1
