Yan Song

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yan. For Chinese footballer, See Yan Song (footballer)

Yan Song1 (Chinese: 嚴嵩; pinyin: Yán Sōng) (1481 - 1568) was a corrupt Ming Chinese prime minister who became a homeless pauper.

• courtesy name (字): Weizhong (惟中)
• pseudonym (號): Jiexi (介溪)

Born in Fenyi (分宜), Jiangsu province, Yan was skilled in poetry and whose works are in The Collection at Ling Mountain House (鈐山堂集 Lingshantang Ji).

Yan Song was the prime minister who had served under the emperor Jia Jing. He and his son Yan Shi Fan had dominated court politics with the tacit consent of the fatuous monarch who shirked his responsibilites as emperor and devoted much of his time to sensual pleasures and Taoist practices. Under Yan Song, the nation fell into an era of moral decadence and corruption, where righteous officers were sidelined and the Ming national strength fell rapidly. Yan Song's wealth is said to be so rich that it is said to be comparable to that of the emperor. However, his corruption and treachery had also raise the indignation of righteuos officers and created many political opponents. Yan Song was finally disgraced at his later years and died of poverty not long after that while his son the infamous Yan Shi Fan was executed for his crimes.

He was the subject of the Chinese opera called Beating Yan Song (打嚴嵩 Dǎ Yán Sōng).