# Chen Yuyi
**Chen Yuyi** (陈与义, courtesy name 去非, studio name 简斋) was a [Song dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/song-dynasty) statesman and poet who rose to the office of 参知政事 (Participant in Determining Governmental Matters) under Emperor Gaozong and was ranked by the *History of Song* among the poets standing between 陶渊明, 谢灵运, 韦应物, and 柳宗元. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | 陈与义, courtesy name 去非, studio and style name 简斋 [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004) |
| Dynasty | Song (宋) [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004) |
| Examination | 上舍甲科, 政和三年 (1113) [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) |
| Highest offices | 翰林学士、知制诰 and 参知政事 [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004) • [13](https://www.shidianguji.com/book/LS0020/chapter/LS0020_1646) |
| Death | 十一月, aged 49 (sui) [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004) |
| Works | 《简斋集》三十卷, 《无住词》一卷 (15+ surviving ci poems) [3](http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/web/celebrity/details?id=14) • [4](https://www.zhonghuadiancang.com/renwu/chenyuyi/) |
| Literary standing | Named one of the "three masters" (三宗) of the Jiangxi school by 方回; given a dedicated "陈简斋体" in 严羽's 《沧浪诗话》 [5](https://thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27520246) |
## Origins and family
The *History of Song* biography states that Chen's ancestors lived in Jingzhao (京兆), and that from his great-grandfather Chen Xiliang (陈希亮) onward the family moved to Luo (洛), so the Chens counted as people of Luo. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) According to the China Biographical Database, his father was Chen Wei (陈为) and he had a son, [Chen Hong](https://www.edgepedia.org/chen-hong) (陈洪). [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004) The biography describes him as naturally gifted: as a child he could already compose prose, won a reputation, and his peers "drew in their sleeves, not daring to compete with him." [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445)
## Career
Chen passed the 上舍甲科 examination in 政和三年 (1113) and was appointed Instructor of Kaidefu (开德府). He was promoted through a series of posts, 太学博士 and then 符宝郎, but was soon demoted to supervisor of the wine tax at Chenliu (陈留). [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) The CBDB row adds several early posts the biography does not date, including 从事郎, 起居郎 (Imperial Diarist), and 尚书省右丞. [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004)
When the Jin armies entered Bian (汴) and Emperor Gaozong moved south, Chen fled the fighting through Xianghan (襄汉), crossed Huxiang (湖湘), and went beyond the Lingjiao (岭峤) ranges. After a long interval he was summoned as 兵部员外郎, and in the summer of 绍兴元年 he reached the temporary capital. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) He was then promoted to 中书舍人, concurrently in charge of internal drafting, then 拜吏部侍郎, and soon, as 徽猷阁直学士, administered Huzhou (湖州); the China Biographical Database also records the Huiyou Hall appointment and a prefectural administration. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004) Recalled as 给事中, his "remonstrances and deliberations were detailed and elegant"; he later held the 显谟阁直学士 title while superintending the Taiping Daoist temple at Jiangzhou (江州). When a chief councillor who disliked him blocked his recall, he was nevertheless re-employed as 中书舍人 and 直学士院. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445)
In the ninth month Gaozong traveled to Pingjiang (平江), and in the eleventh month Chen was made 翰林学士 and 知制诰. According to the *History of Song* (卷四百四十五), Chen became 参知政事, the deputy councillor of state. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004) Citing illness, he asked to leave office and was reappointed to Huzhou as 资政殿学士; at his farewell audience the emperor questioned and consoled him generously. He then requested an idle post and became 提举临安洞霄宫. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) The CBDB also records him as 左太中大夫 and prefect of a prefecture.[12](https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E5%AE%8B%E5%8F%B2/%E5%8D%B7213) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004)
## Political influence
As deputy councillor the biography summarizes his program in one line: he "took moral principle as his teacher to assist the court, and made it his task to honor the ruler's authority and revive the laws and discipline." [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) His most consequential intervention was on the war-or-peace question. When the chief councillor [Zhao Ding](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhao-ding) (赵鼎) urged advancing into the Central Plains for fear of later blame for missed opportunity, Gaozong replied that the imperial coffins, the Empress Dowager, and 渊圣 had not yet returned, and that without negotiating peace with the Jin there was no way to recover them. Chen answered, in the history's words: "If the peace negotiation succeeds, is it not better than using arms; if by chance it does not succeed, then the use of arms cannot be avoided." The emperor said, "So it is." [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) The exchange made him a figure in the peace-policy debate of the early 绍兴 reign. [10](https://www.lw33.cn/article/dc4c31b2c937422708526502.html)
Chen also shaped the officialdom around him. The biography notes that when he recommended men for office at court, he never mentioned it to them afterward, and scholars praised him for this. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) Chapter 385 of the *History of Song* records two such acts: as 吏部侍郎 he secretly recommended a man for the drafting examination of the institutes, and while he held executive power a candidate declined provincial appointments in his favor. The same chapter records that [Ye Mengde](https://www.edgepedia.org/ye-mengde) (叶梦得) and Chen, on first meeting the young Bi (邲), called him a vessel of state. [6](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷385)
## Death, titles, and heirs
Chen died in the eleventh month, aged forty-nine. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445) The CBDB gives his death age as 49 and lists Chen Hong as his only son. [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004) Sources differ on how the death date converts to the Western calendar: one reference work gives 绍兴八年十一月二十九日 as 1 January 1139, [7](https://www.xuoda.com/mj/c/cyy/000.htm) while poetry anthologies print his dates as 1090 to 1138. [8](https://www.shiren.org/xlib/lingshidao/gushi/chenyuyi2.htm)
## Assessment
The *History of Song* describes Chen as grave and exact in bearing, never speaking or laughing carelessly; outwardly modest in dealing with others but inwardly firm and not to be provoked. On his poetry it says he excelled above all in shi poetry, that his descriptions of things and embedded inspirations were "clear, deep, and unhurried, soaring and vigorous, standing between 陶, 谢, 韦, and 柳." It records that his poem on ink plum blossoms won Emperor Huizong's admiration, and that through it he came to the emperor's notice. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445)
Modern assessment is at least as high. 钱锺书 called him "perhaps the most outstanding poet of the transition between Northern and Southern Song." [9](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27932771) 严羽's 《沧浪诗话》 singled out a "陈简斋体" and placed it beside 杨万里's "诚斋体" as the two most distinctive styles of Southern Song poetry. [5](https://thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27520246) The critic 刘克庄 wrote that with Jianzhai's appearance poets finally took 杜甫 as their master, "sweeping away ornament with simplicity and transforming sharpness with grandeur," placing him above his contemporaries. [3](http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/web/celebrity/details?id=14)
One question divides scholars: whether Chen belongs to the Jiangxi poetry school. 方回, in 《瀛奎律髓》, named 杜甫 the single ancestor and 黄庭坚, 陈师道, and Chen Yuyi the three masters of the school. According to Zhonghua Diancang, 钱钟书 objected that 方回's flat assertion that Chen was of the Jiangxi school "confused the ears and eyes of later literary historians," since Chen in fact differed from that school. [10](https://www.lw33.cn/article/dc4c31b2c937422708526502.html) A survey of the debate concludes that scholars disagree on membership but most accept that his style was influenced by the school. A further disagreement concerns his stance on peace with the Jin: one reference work reads his counsel to Gaozong as tactful support for Zhao Ding's preference for war against the emperor's peace policy. [7](https://www.xuoda.com/mj/c/cyy/000.htm) • [10](https://www.lw33.cn/article/dc4c31b2c937422708526502.html) The history's own text records only his conditional formulation, which supports both readings. [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445)
## Legacy
Chen's works transmitted are the *Jianzhai Collection* (《简斋集》) in thirty juan and *Wuzhu ci* (《无住词》) in one juan; over a dozen of his ci poems survive, collected in the *Quan Song ci*. The Song anthologist 黄升, in 《花庵词选》, judged his ci able to "rival the rampart of坡仙" ([Su Shi](https://www.edgepedia.org/su-shi)). [3](http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/web/celebrity/details?id=14) • [4](https://www.zhonghuadiancang.com/renwu/chenyuyi/) His poems 《伤春》 and 《牡丹》 express the grief of national collapse. [11](https://www.shiwens.cn/details_29064.html) Lines such as "客子光阴诗卷里，杏花消息雨声中" have been especially loved by later readers. [4](https://www.zhonghuadiancang.com/renwu/chenyuyi/)
In his last years, while administering Huzhou, he settled at Qingdunzhen (青墩镇), living on the Furong bank behind the Shousheng monastery and naming his residence "南轩"; after the Song, his "Jianzhai reading place" at Wuzhen (乌镇) remained a noted scenic spot. [3](http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/web/celebrity/details?id=14) Modern scholarship keeps him in view: 王宇根's study of his exile poetry, *Writing Poetry, Surviving War: The Works of Refugee Scholar-official Chen Yuyi (1090–1139)*, appeared in English in 2020. [5](https://thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27520246) A modern annotated edition of his collected works was published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1982. [4](https://www.zhonghuadiancang.com/renwu/chenyuyi/)
## References
1. 《宋史》卷四百四十五 (biography), Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷445
2. China Biographical Database (CBDB), person 8004 陈与义. https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0008004
3. 陈与义 (1090–1139), 传统乌镇 (乌镇旅游官方网站). http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/web/celebrity/details?id=14
4. 陈与义人物简介, 中华典藏. https://www.zhonghuadiancang.com/renwu/chenyuyi/
5. 我读｜"近密"的陈与义研究与陈与义的"近密"诗学, 澎湃新闻. https://thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27520246
6. 《宋史》卷三百八十五 (passages naming 陈与义), Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷385
7. 陈与义简介, 学达书库. https://www.xuoda.com/mj/c/cyy/000.htm
8. 古诗库：陈与义诗全集. https://www.shiren.org/xlib/lingshidao/gushi/chenyuyi2.htm
9. 我读丨以书写重建秩序, , 评王宇根《万里江湖憔悴身》, 澎湃新闻. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27932771
10. 陈与义战乱诗研究 (论文摘要汇编). https://www.lw33.cn/article/dc4c31b2c937422708526502.html
11. 《伤春》名句、翻译及赏析, 古诗文网系. https://www.shiwens.cn/details_29064.html
12. 卷213 (zh.wikisource.org). https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E5%AE%8B%E5%8F%B2/%E5%8D%B7213
13. 陈与义-宋史全文原文及译文-识典古籍, https://www.shidianguji.com/book/LS0020/chapter/LS0020_1646
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Southern Song (1127 to 1279) › Literature and arts*
*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license