Chen Zao

Life

In the second year of the Chunxi era (1175), he passed the jinshi examination; at age forty-three, he entered the second category. He began as a Fanchang county commandant in Taiping Prefecture with the rank of Digonglang, and was later assigned the rank of Congshilang. He served as professor at the Pingjiang Prefecture school, magistrate of Dinghai County in Mingzhou, assistant prefect of Fangzhou, and acting prefectural administrator; after completing his term at Fangzhou, he first served as a consultant to the Zhejiang-West Route Pacification Office and ultimately reached the same post in the Huainan-West Route Pacification Office.

He was often at odds with the world and considered himself of no benefit to it; in later life, he deemed the rivers and lakes the proper place for him and adopted Jianghu Changweng as his sobriquet. He died in the third year of the Jiatai era under Emperor Ningzong (1203), at age seventy-one. He was a friend of Jiang Kui; in 1203, Zheng Xingyi recommended him. He studied under Fan Chengda. He also composed a sacrificial text for Fan Chengda.

Works and transmission

He was skilled in prose and wrote 《江湖長翁集》; his works are also represented by the titles 《江湖長翁詩鈔》, 《江湖長翁詞》, and 《江湖長翁文集》. The forty-fascicle 《江湖長翁文集》 was printed by his son Shiwen and was later lost; Lu You wrote its preface.

In 1618, in the forty-sixth year of the Wanli era under the Ming emperor Shenzong, Li Zhizao of Renhe obtained a manuscript and published it at Gaoyou together with 《秦觀集》. The edition of Chen Zao’s poetry uses Li Zhizao’s Ming printing as its base, collated against the Wenyuange edition of 《四庫全書》; works outside the poetry collection were compiled in a separate fascicle.