Li Shen

Family and early life

Li Jingxuan’s relationship to Li Shen is given in two ways, as grandfather and as great-grandfather; his father was Li Wu, who died in 771. Li Shen lost his father at the age of six, and his mother, Lady Lu, taught him the classics.

His father-in-law was Pei Da; his younger brother was Li Ji; his sons were Li Jun, Li Kai, and Li Qianyou; his clan nephew was Li Yu; and his grandson was Li Hao. A brother’s wife is also identified as Cui, the daughter of Cui Wei.

Career

In 806, Li Shen passed the jinshi examination and was first appointed Assistant Professor of the Directorate of Education. He soon abandoned the post and returned south, after which Li Qi, who commanded western Zhejiang, recruited him as a staff member and secretary. The following year, when Li Qi plotted rebellion, Li Shen refused to draft the proclamation and was imprisoned; he was released after Li Qi was defeated and executed, and then joined the staff of Li Yuansu in western Zhejiang. After entering the central government, he held posts including *xiaoshu lang*, a staff judgeship in the Shannan West Circuit, *You Shiyi*, Hanlin Academician, *You Buque*, *Sixun yuanwailang*, *zhizhigao*, *Zhongshu sheren*, *chengzhi*, *Yushi zhongcheng*, an observer of the Jiangnan East Circuit, and Vice Minister of Revenue.

At the beginning of Emperor Jingzong’s reign, Li Fengji’s machinations led to Li Shen’s demotion to *sima* of Duanzhou; during the Baoli era, an amnesty transferred him to be Senior Administrator of Jiangzhou. In 828, the second year of Dahe, he became prefect of Chuzhou, and in 830, the fourth year, prefect of Shouzhou. In 833, the seventh year, he became a Palace Attendant to the Heir Apparent in the eastern capital and was promoted in the same year to observer of the Zhejiang East Circuit; in 835, the ninth year, he was again appointed to the eastern-capital post. Alternative office entries give his prefectural postings as Yongyang (828–830), Shouchun (830–833), and Kuaiji (833–835).

In 836 he became Intendant of Henan Prefecture and was transferred in the same year to military governor of Xuanwu; in 840 he went out to command Huainan. In 842 he returned to court as Zhongshu Shilang and an associate in the Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, supervised the taxation office, and advanced to Shangshu You Pushe and Menxia Shilang. He was ennobled as Duke of Zhaojun, also given as Duke of Zhao. In 844 he again became governor of Huainan; he died at his post in 846, was posthumously granted the title Grand Commandant, and received the posthumous name Wensu. After his death, the Wu Xiang case led to the removal of three official ranks and barred his descendants from entering official service.

Early in his career, Li Shen was close to Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi through poetry and prose; together with Li Deyu and Yuan Zhen he was known as one of the “Three Eminent Men.” In his later years, his political views aligned with Li Deyu’s, and the two shared their political fortunes.

Poetry and works

Li Shen excelled in poetry and song verse. His early poems often reflected social reality, and his verse was already widely recited when he was preparing for the provincial examination. During the Yuanhe era he wrote *Twenty New Yuefu Poems*, now lost; Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi later wrote imitations, respectively *Twelve Poems in Reply to Secretary Li’s New Yuefu* and *New Yuefu*, a sequence of fifty poems. The works helped open the New Yuefu mode in mid-Tang poetry, and Li Shen was one of its initiators.

The two poems titled *Gufeng* were transmitted widely and became familiar to almost everyone; the two poems of *Min Nong* also circulated widely. During the Kaicheng era, Li Shen compiled the three-volume *Zhui Xi You* (also titled *Zhui Xi You Shi*), a collection based on his life’s travels, which survives. One volume of miscellaneous poems also survives; his extant verse is arranged in four volumes, with seven additional poems and six fragments.

The *Zhui Xi You* poems combine long-line verse, pentasyllabic and mixed lines, songs, chants, and Qi–Liang-style yuefu. They follow his movements through office and travel and convey feelings about changing times, the passage of life, and the vicissitudes of his career. One assessment describes his verse as slow in cadence, spacious and tranquil, avoiding minute elaboration; it traces his pentasyllabic verse to Xie Huilian and his heptasyllabic verse to the early Tang, while calling the long song *Sutai* “bright and graceful,” the short song *Yingying* “animated,” and his seven-character folk ballads and five-character ancient poems no less effective than those of Zhang and Wang.