Fan Chengda

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Fan Chengda (1126-1193) was one of the best-known Chinese poets of the twelfth century. His work deals with the traditional themes of the period, including peasant life, the seasons, Buddhism, and growing old. Fan was born in Suzhou into a middle-ranking family at a time of conflict between the Southern Song and Jin dynasties. A precocious child, his early studies of classical literature prepared him for a career in the civil service - a career that was temporarily interrupted when his parents died within a few months of each other in 1143, leaving Fan Chengda in sole charge of the family estate. These studies, together with his experiences of working in the fields as a teenager and his interest in Buddhism, provided inspiration for his later poetry.

His best-known work is a series of sixty poems which he wrote in 1186, following his retirement from his position as a high official at the Southern Song Court. The poems have been translated into English under the name Stone Lake - the location of his retirement villa just outside Suzhou.

[edit] English Translations

J. D. Schmidt (1992) Stone Lake: The poetry of Fan Chengda (1126-1193). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-41782-1