Fang Gan

Life

Gifted from childhood, Fang Gan studied poetry with Xu Ning, who taught him prosody; he later formed close ties with the poets Yu Fu and Li Pin. Tradition says that he was born with a harelip; another story says that he split his lip while leaping for joy after composing few fine lines, and that a physician repaired it late in life. He often made three bows when meeting people, explaining that there were three forms of ritual, and was consequently known as Fang Sanbai; another tradition says that the three bows resulted from a mistake.

Other traditions give his dates as ?–c. 885, 809–c. 873, or death around 888, with some of these dates explicitly marked uncertain. During the Dazhong era he sat for the jinshi examination, repeatedly failed, and never entered official service. In the Dahe era, when Yao He served as prefect of Jinzhou and Hangzhou, Fang Gan brought his poems to him; Yao He initially looked down on his plain appearance and cleft lip, but changed his view after reading the poems, hosting him for several days and touring the hills and waters with him.

During the Xiantong era Fang Gan lived in seclusion at Mirror Lake in Kuaiji and traveled through Lingnan and Jiangxi. He counted Zheng Rengui, Li Pin, and Tao Xiang as his three close friends, and exchanged poems with Duan Chengshi, Lü Shu, Yu Xingzong, Li Qunyu, and others. At the end of Xiantong, Wang Gui, the surveillance commissioner of eastern Zhejiang, sought to recommend him, but died before the proposal could be completed. More than ten years after Fang Gan's death, the grand councillor Zhang Wenwei proposed granting an office to failed literati to console his spirit. Genealogical entries name Fang Chu as his direct ancestor, Fang Jiao as a grandson, Fang Weizheng as a seventh-generation descendant, and Fang Yanchang, Fang Gang, Fang Yi, and Fang 斵 among later direct descendants; Fang Yi is given as having died in 1328.

Poetry

Fang Gan's poetry was praised as clear, polished, and finely wrought, especially his five-character regulated verse; for the Guangming and Zhonghe periods, one assessment held that no poet south of the Yangtze matched his regulated verse. The *Poet-Host Chart* placed him among the seven poets admitted to Li Yi's hall. Other assessments described his poetry as pure and lofty in spirit and leisurely in conception, rising above the delicate and colloquial tendencies of late Tang verse. Wang Zan said that Fang Gan was renowned in Hangzhou and Yue and that his reputation reached the capital, comparing him with the school of Qian Qi; other criticism praised his meticulous diction and the warmth and purity of his five-character regulated verse while finding his seven-character verse weaker.

Works

Fang Gan's disciples Yang Yan and others compiled the ten-juan *Xuanying xiansheng ji*, which is lost. Ming editors later produced an eight-juan *Xuanying ji*; the *Complete Tang Poems* includes six juan of his poetry, while the *Complete Tang Poems: Supplements* add eight poems. A ten-juan edition of *Xuanying xiansheng shiji* is also described as the more widely circulated form. Titles listed for his works include *Fang Gan shiji*, *Xuanying xiansheng shiji*, *Xuanying ji*, and *Ji (Fang Gan)*.

Names and posthumous reception

His sobriquets and other names include Xuanying xiansheng, Xuanying chushi, Jianhu chushi, Fang chushi, Fang Sanbai, Buchun xiansheng, Quechun xiansheng, Fang Qian, and Yuan Ying; Yuan Ying xiansheng is also attested. After his death, his disciples privately gave him the posthumous title Xuanying xiansheng; Yuan Ying xiansheng is also classified as a posthumous title, while Xuanying chushi and Jianhu chushi appear among his other designations.