Writers › Writer / Poet
Su Shunqin
Northern Song poet and prose writer, paired with Mei Yaochen as 'Su-Mei', who built the Canglang Pavilion in Suzhou after his dismissal.
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 Zimei · Canglang Weng
Su Shunqin, courtesy name Zimei, was a native of Kaifeng who passed the jinshi examination in the Jingyou era. Recommended by Fan Zhongyan, he served as a collator in the Academy of Worthies and supervisor of the Memorial Office, but in 1044 he was struck from the rolls for using the proceeds of sold waste paper to host a banquet, a blow to the Qingli reformers. Retiring to Suzhou, he built the Canglang Pavilion and wrote its famous record. His vigorous verse, paired with Mei Yaochen's, helped set the course of Song poetry; Ouyang Xiu's poem 'Canglang Pavilion' answers him.
Life and times
Dates 1008–1048 CE