Cen Shen or Cen Can (), 715–770, was one of the great Chinese poets of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

. His poems were included in the Three Hundred Poems anthology.

Name

He is also called Cen Jiazhou (). During the reign of Emperor Suzong he was made governor () of Jia Prefecture (''Jiazhou'' in Chinese), which earned him the name Cen Jiazhou.'' Kanjigen'' entry "Cen Can" (Shinshin/Shinjin). Gakken 2006.

Life

He was born to a bureaucratic family in Nanyang (in today's

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

), but later moved to Jiangling, Jizhou (in today's

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

). His great-grandfather

Cen Wenben Cen Wenben (595 – May 10, 645), courtesy name Jingren, posthumously known as Viscount Xian of Jiangling, was a Chinese official who served as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Taizong in the Tang dynasty. He was an assistant editor of t ...

, granduncle

Cen Changqian Cen Changqian (; died November 7, 691), briefly known as Wu Changqian (武長倩) during the reign of Wu Zetian, formally the Duke of Deng (鄧公), was a Chinese military general and politician of the Tang dynasty, Tang and Zhou dynasty (690–70 ...

and uncle

Cen Xi Cen Xi (; died July 29, 713), courtesy name Bohua (伯華), was an official of the Chinese Tang Dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Shang, Emperor Ruizong, and Emperor Xuanzong. He was k ...

were all chancellors. His father Cen Zhi was Governor (Cishi) of Jingzhou. When Cen Shen was 10, his father died, and the financial situation of his family worsened. After then, Cen learned with assiduity, reading a lot of scriptures and history books. He moved to

Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin S ...

when he was 20 and obtained

jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referr ...

in 744. In 749, Cen's ambitions lead him towards a stint of military service which would last about ten years, where he served as a subordinate to General

Gao Xianzhi Gao Xianzhi, or Go Seonji, (died January 24, 756) was a Tang dynasty general of Goguryeo descent. He was known as a great commander during his lifetime. He is most well known for taking part in multiple military expeditions to conquer the Western R ...

, and, later,

Feng Changqing Feng Changqing ( (died January 24, 756) was a general of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. Feng was described as ugly in his appearance, and when he first met Gao Xianzhi and asked to be a guard for Gao, Gao initially rejected him, but eventually agreed t ...

. In about 751, Cen met Gao Shi and Du Fu, and the three had become good friends. All three were poets. Cen's other friend was the great Tang poet Li Bai, who composed a poem titled "Bring in the Wine", and included a verse which mentioned his friend Cen Shen. ..."To the old master, Cen"... Bring in the wine! Let your cups never rest! Let me sing you a song! Let your ears attend!" Cen Shen lived through the period from 755 through 763 when the An-Shi disturbances shook the land, spreading civil war, disaster, and all sorts of turmoil throughout the northern parts of China. During this period he held several assignments in the Central Asian outposts of the far-reaching Tang empire. Having supported the loyalist cause, he succeeded to a number of provincial posts (primarily in

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

) under the restoration until his retirement in 768. Cen's early poems were always landscape poems, although this is not the case of his later ones. Cen served in the northwest frontier territories area for about ten years, his experience in this area with its harsh climate and the relentless combat of the times made a deep impact on his poetry.Davis, xi

Poems

Seven of Cen Can's poems were included in the famous anthology

Three Hundred Tang Poems The ''Three Hundred Tang Poems'' () is an anthology of poems from the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907). It was first compiled around 1763 by Sun Zhu (1722–1778Yu, 64–65), who was a Qing Dynasty scholar and was also known as Hengtang Tuishi ...

, including: * Ascending the Pagoda at the Temple of Kind Favour with Gao Shi and Xue Ju * A Song of Running-horse River in Farewell to General Feng of the Western Expedition * A Song of Wheel Tower in Farewell to General Feng of the Western Expedition * A Song of White Snow in Farewell to Field-clerk Wu Going Home * A Message to Censor Du Fu at His Office in the Left Court * An Early Audience at the Palace of Light Harmonizing Secretary Jia Zhi's Poem * On Meeting a Messenger to the Capital His collected works are in scrolls (sections) 198 through 201 of the Collected Tang Poems.

References

Bibliography

*Davis, A. R. (Albert Richard), Editor and Introduction (1970), ''The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse''. (Baltimore: Penguin Books). *Liu, Wu-chi and Irving Lo, eds., (1975). '' Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry''. Bloomington: Indiana University. *Wu, John C. H. (1972). The Four Seasons of Tang Poetry. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E.Tuttle.

External links

* *Books of the ''

Quan Tangshi (''Complete Tang Poems'') is the largest collection of Tang poetry, containing some 49,000 lyric poems by more than twenty-two hundred poets. In 1705, it was commissioned at the direction of the Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor and published unde ...

'' that include collected poems of Cen Shen at the

Chinese Text Project The Chinese Text Project (CTP; ) is a digital library project that assembles collections of early Chinese texts. The name of the project in Chinese literally means "The Chinese Philosophical Book Digitization Project", showing its focus on books ...