Writers › Writer / Poet
Zhang Han
Western Jin writer from Wu Commandery, aide to Sima Jiong, Prince of Qi, who resigned and went home pining for Wu's water-shield soup and perch, the origin of the idiom chunlu zhi si.
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 Ji Ying · Infantry Commander of Jiangdong
Zhang Han, courtesy name Jiying, was from Wu in Wu Commandery (today's Suzhou), a Western Jin writer. In 301 Sima Jiong, Prince of Qi, made him a secretary in the Grand Marshal's office; the next year, seeing the autumn wind rise, he longed for the water-shield, soup and perch of his homeland and resigned to go south, escaping the disaster that soon overtook the prince. This is the source of the idiom chunlu zhi si. Free-spirited, he was called the 'Infantry Commander of Jiangdong' and was close to Gu Rong; he wrote the Shouqiu Fu and some poems survive in anthologies such as the Wen Xuan.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; joined the Prince of Qi's staff in 301 CE and resigned for home in 302 CE