⬅️宋词 Ci Poems
Yan Shu (晏殊，991-1055 AD) was a scholar, politician and poet of Song dynasty. At age of 14, as a boy prodigy, he was recommended by the prime minister Zhang Zhibai (张知白) to take the Jinshi imperial examination. He past the test and was bestowed honorary Jinshi (同进士). The third day of the examination was a test for prose writing, Yan Hu approached the official and said:"I have written on this subject when I practiced for the exam. Please give me another subject to write." The emperor was impressed by his honesty and praised him several times.
The reign of Emperor Zhenzong (宋真宗) and Renzong (宋仁宗) was peaceful and prosperous. Banquets and social engagements among official-literati were well tolerated. However, young Yan Shu was never part of any of these occasions. Instead, he studied at home with his brothers at his leisure time. One day the emperor needed to select the teacher for his princes, he named Yan Shu and explained the reason to his prime minister "When everyone is busy socializing, he spends time on reading books. He is the right person to teach princes." On another day when Yan Shu had the chance, he said to the emperor "I like the banquets just like anyone else. It is just I am so poor that I can't afford it. If I had money, I would love to enjoy it also." Indeed. Later after Yan Shu was promoted to more prominent positions, he was known for being fond of hosting banquets for scholar-officials and literati. Usually the banquet started with Yan Shu composing the first poem of the day, and as the banquet went on other guests replied with poems using the same rhyme. No wonder he composed more than ten thousand Ci poems in his lifetime. Unfortunately only about 160 of them survived.
Yan Shu's honesty won confidence of Emperor Renzong as well. He was promoted to prime minister and the minister of privy council, which was the military command of Song dynasty. Later, Yan Shu's son-in-law Fu Bi (富弼) was also appointed a minister of privy council. Yan Shu thought it was not appropriate for him to hold the highest military position together with his son-in-law, especially considering that he also held the highest civil position. Therefore he offered his resignation from the privy council. However, the Emperor Renzong rejected his resignation and asked him to stay. His son-in-law was not the only young talent that Yan Shu took under his wings, nurtured and promoted. Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹) and Wang Anshi (王安石) were his students. Han Qi (韩琦) and Si Maguang (司马光) were his recommendation to the emperor. All of them were great scholars and outstanding politicians in Chinese history. There was a saying in history :"No other reign of Song dynasty had more virtuous prime ministers than the reign of Emperor Zhenzong and Emperor Renzong (宋之贤相，莫盛于真、仁之世)." Yan Shu was certainly one of the most important figures to make that happen.
As a prime minister in times of peace, Yan Shu's political career did not suffer significant setbacks as many official-literati in history experienced. However, he was also demoted twice to some local administrative positions. One of Yan Shu's efforts at local government was to restore the school system which had been dismantled during the Five Dynasties period (907-960 AD). In 1026 AD, when he was the magistrate of Yingtian Prefecture, he invited Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹) to host the Yingtian Academy (应天书院), one of the four famous Shu Yuan (书院，Academies of Classic Learning) in ancient China. That was the start of establishment of public schools across country in Song dynasty. Due to Yan Shu and Fan Zhongyan' tireless efforts, every province, every prefecture and every county in the empire had schools supported by the government. In 1055 AD, Yan Shu died. So regretful for not paying Yan Shu a visit when he was ill, the emperor suspended the court for two days and wrote "model of the old knowledge" for Yan Shu's epitaph inscription.
