Yuan Zhen (; 779 – September 2, 831), courtesy name Weizhi (), was a Chinese novelist, poet, and politician of the middle Tang dynasty. In prose literature, Yuan Zhen is particularly known for his work Yingying's Biography, which has often been adapted for other treatments, including operatic and musical ones. In poetry, he is remembered for the inclusion of some of his poems by popular anthologies, his verses on exotic topics (such as the former Liangzhou), and for being part of the group of "New Yuefu" poets, which often used poetry as a form of expression and protest, but one potentially subtle enough to avoid the likely repercussions of more direct criticism. The poetic circle in which Yuan Zhen was involved included Bai Juyi, among others. Politically Yuan Zhen was briefly chancellor, during the reign of Emperor Muzong.

A native of Luoyang, Yuan Zhen was a descendant of Northern Wei's imperial family. He lost his father at the age of seven and moved to Fengxiang (), near today's Baoji, Shaanxi with his mother Lady Zheng (). Yuan began his writings at the age of fifteen. He was a member of Bai Juyi's literary circle and a key figure in the ancient literature revival. He was a friend of Bai Juyi and also of Xue Tao, a courtesan and famous poet who might have been his lover. Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen made a "Green Mountain pact" to retire together as Taoist recluses once they had accumulated enough funds, but Yuan's untimely death kept them from achieving that dream. In 813, Yuan wrote a grave inscription for Du Fu, which contains some of the earliest known praise for his predecessor's works.

Background

Yuan Zhen was born in 779, around the time of Emperor Dezong's ascension to the throne. He was a 10th-generation descendant of Tuoba Shiyiqian, the grandfather of Northern Wei's founder Emperor Daowu, who was posthumously honored Emperor Zhaocheng after Northern Wei's founding. Yuan Zhen's male ancestor line was renamed Yuan, from Tuoba, when Emperor Xiaowen changed Xianbei names to Han names in 496. Subsequently, ancestors of Yuan Zhen's served as officials of the Sui dynasty and Tang dynasty. His grandfather Yuan Fei () served as a county secretary general, while his father Yuan Kuan () served as a low-level official at the ministry of justice, as well as secretary to an imperial prince.

Yuan had an outspoken personality, and after being put into an advisorial post, he started submitting suggestions to Emperor Xianzong. In particular, because the officials Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi, who dominated the court of Emperor Xianzong's father Emperor Shunzong — who had previously served as Emperor Shunzong's staff members while Emperor Shunzong was crown prince — were at that time denounced as frivolous and power-hungry, Yuan submitted an essay detailing what he saw as qualifications that the crown prince's and other imperial princes' staff members should have, and Emperor Xianzong was impressed upon reading it. Yuan further submitted proposals involving the defense of the northwestern borders with the Tibetan and Uyghur Empires. Emperor Xianzong, in response, summoned him and requested opinions on strategies to take there. As a result, though, the ruling officials at the time were jealous of Yuan, and they had him sent out of the capital Chang'an to serve as the sheriff of Henan County (), one of the two counties making up the eastern capital Luoyang. Yuan subsequently left governmental service for some time while observing a mourning period after his mother's death. Once the mourning period was over, he was recalled to governmental service, to serve as Jiancha Yushi (), a mid-level imperial censor. While stopping at the imperial messenger post at Fushui (敷水, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi), Yuan got into a dispute with an imperial eunuch messenger — variously reported as either Liu Shiyuan () (by the Old Book of Tang) or Qiu Shiliang (by the New Book of Tang), in which the eunuch, as a result of the dispute, hit Yuan's face and injured him — Emperor Xianzong ruled that Yuan had overstepped his authorities as censor and demoted him to serve as the logistics officer at Jiangling Municipality (江陵, in modern Jingzhou, Hubei), despite defenses submitted on his behalf by Li Jiang, Cui Qun, and Bai.

While at Jiangling, Yuan wrote many poems, and his style and Bai's were both popular and referred by the populace as Yuanhe Style () — Yuanhe being Emperor Xianzong's era name. The eunuch monitor of Jingnan Circuit (荊南, headquartered at Jiangling), Cui Tanjun (), was impressed by Yuan's talents and did not treat him as a subordinate, but rather with great respect; he also often collected Yuan's poems and recited them. Meanwhile, sometime thereafter, Yuan was made the military advisor to the prefect of Tong Prefecture (通州, in modern Nantong, Jiangsu), while Bai was made the military governor of Jiang Prefecture (江州, in modern Nanchang, Jiangxi). Despite the distance between the two, they often wrote poems to each other, which often ran 30 to 50 lines, sometimes up to 100 lines. The people of the Yangtze River region became impressed by their poems and often read and studied them. Many of Yuan's poems showed his sadness at being exiled from the capital.

During Emperor Muzong's and Emperor Jingzong's reigns

In 820, by which time Li Heng was emperor (as Emperor Muzong), Cui Tanjun was recalled to Chang'an, and he offered to Emperor Muzong, as a gift, a collection of over 100 poems by Yuan Zhen. Emperor Muzong was pleased, and asked Cui where Yuan was at that point, and Cui replied that Yuan was serving in an office lacking authority. That same day, Emperor Muzong promoted Yuan to be Cibu Langzhong (), a supervisorial official at the ministry of rites, and further put him in charge of drafting edicts for Emperor Muzong.

Meanwhile, during the campaign against Zhu and Wang, Wang had put Niu Yuanyi (), a general loyal to the imperial government, under siege at Shen Prefecture (深州, in modern Hengshui, Hebei). Yu Fang (), an advisor to an imperial prince, who wanted to submit an extraordinary suggestion to gain a promotion, suggested to Yuan that Yu's friends Wang Zhao () and Yu Youming () be sent to Wang Tingcou's Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei) to try to persuade Wang Tingcou's officers to lift the siege on Shen Prefecture. Yuan accepted the idea, and, as part of the plan, gave Wang Zhao and Yuan Youming some 20 commission certificates to give them to Wang Tingcou's officers. A man named Li Shang () heard of the plan, but misinterpreted this as a plot by Yuan and Yu Fang to assassinate Pei. He reported this to Pei, but Pei took no action. He then reported it to the Left Shence Army (). After Emperor Muzong received report of this, he had Han Gao investigate the matter. After the investigation was complete, it was concluded that there was no evidence that Yuan intended to assassinate Pei, but as a result, both Pei (who by this point had returned to Chang'an and was again serving as chancellor) and Yuan were relieved of their chancellor posts, less than four months after Yuan was made chancellor. Yuan was sent out of the capital to serve as the prefect of Tong Prefecture (同州, in modern Weinan). When a number of advisorial officials subsequently submitted objections that Yuan's punishment was too light, Emperor Muzong stripped Yuan of one of his ceremonial posts as the director of Changchun Palace (長春宮, in Tong Prefecture). It has been translated by James Hightower ("Yüan Chen and 'The Story of YIng-ying'" HJAS 33 (1973): 90–123), Arthur Waley (available in the Anthology of Chinese Literature by Cyril Birch, vol. I. (). An online translation by Patrick Moran includes the Chinese text. here.

See also

  • Classical Chinese poetry

Notes

Works cited

  • Yuan Zhen 2005 Encyclopædia Britannica, copyrighted 1994-2005
  • Bian, Xiaoxuan, "Yuan Zhen". Encyclopedia of China (Chinese Literature Edition), 1st ed.
  • Old Book of Tang, vol. 166.
  • New Book of Tang, vol. 174.
  • Zizhi Tongjian, 237, 238, 241, 242.
  • Books of the Quan Tangshi that include collected poems of Yuan Zhen at the Chinese Text Project:
  • Book 396, Book 397, Book 398, Book 399, Book 400, Book 401, Book 402,

::Book 403, Book 404, Book 405, Book 406, Book 407, Book 408, Book 409,

::Book 410, Book 411, Book 412, Book 413, Book 414, Book 415, Book 416,

::Book 417, Book 418, Book 419, Book 420, Book 421, Book 422, Book 423