TS'EN SHEN

born 715, Nan-yang [Chiang-ling], China died 770, Ch'eng-tu, Szechwan province also called Ts'en Chia-chou, Pinyin Cen Shen, or Cen Jiazhou one of the celebrated poets of the T'ang dynasty (618907) of China. Because of the decline of his aristocratic family, Ts'en had to rely upon his literary skill to secure government appointment through the examination system. During the 750s he held several assignments in the central Asian outposts of the far-flung T'ang empire until the eruption of the An Lu-shan Rebellion of 755 forced his return to China. Having supported the loyalist cause, he succeeded to a number of provincial posts under the restoration until his retirement in 768. A member of the second generation of High T'ang poets, which included such masters as Li Po and Tu Fu, Ts'en participated in the effort to reinvigorate the l-shih, or regulated poem, through innovations in diction and metre. Contemporaries praised him for his stylistic craftsmanship, particularly his skill at creating unconventional metaphors and imaginative phrases. But he came to be best known as a frontier poet because he so frequently set his poems in the exotic central Asian locale that he had experienced firsthand in the midst of his career.