A Case Study On Shen Bin

Shen Bin was a famous hermit poet of the late Tang dynasty and the Five dynasties. His poems were elegant and full of ease,which brought him considerable fame and honor. He undertook imperial offices twice throughout his life, but the term in office was brief. Therefore, he could spend most of the time on travel in Hengshan and his hometown. Additionally, the poet were fond of fairy anecdotes and accounts, which left some extraordinary narrative about him after his death.The thesis can be divided into four parts. The first part is textual research about the life course of Shen Bin. Investigation into his birth and death as well as the biographic facts are emphasized. And this part also studied the time span of his government offices and hermit wanderings. Shen Bin occupied imperial offices for twice after his hermit experiences, which was literally rare for his peer. Indeed such a life course added some mystery to his unusual resume. By combing his life, we shed some light upon his thoughts and intellectual world with reference to the milieu that he lived in. The second part examined Shen Bin’s social life. Having a group of like-minded friends in the troubled times like Five Dynasties can be regarded as a kind of blessing. Through chronicling activities of the literati circle, we can discover a beautiful scene during the period. Shen Bin’s association with Li Jianxun and Sun Fang had important influence on the Parnassus and the later literature. This paper focuses on the time of association for textual research. The third part mainly analyzed Shen Bin’s poetry. The political, cultural backgrounds of his poetry were examined firstly. And then the content of his poems were studied by careful sorting. Thus focusing on the contemporary recluse poets group in order to understand the reason to their live in solitude, office occupation and enthusiasm for Zen philosophy, which can offer us a more comprehensive understanding of literati mentality trend during this period. The fourth part discussed Shen Bin’s immortal thoughts, Taoist activities and his influence on Shen Lin, his own second son, based on textual research of The Book of Southern Tang, Jiangnan Unofficial History, Recent Chronology of Southern Song and Records of God as well as legendary novels. Shen Lin was a fair representative of the poets who keenly pursued the Taoist easiness but end up with office occupation and chores. After a relatively thorough study of Shen Bin, a more comprehensive interpretation of such a special person, I suppose, can be achieved then.