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Ch’en Tzu-ang (661–702) was a native of Szechuan province and served in a series of midlevel posts, including that of censor. He was regarded as one of the most innovative poets of the early T’ang and was also admired for his concern with social issues, a concern that led to his death at the hands of his political enemies. Here he offers his sympathy to a friend, Ch’iao Chih-chih, whose talents (and, no doubt, Ch’en’s own) he feels could be put to better use. Both men at one time served together on the Silk Road. Instead of criticizing the court directly, Ch’en aims his remarks at the Han court of eight hundred years earlier for allowing civil servants and sycophants to oversee military affairs along the border—while those truly capable of such service wasted their talents standing in attendance in the capital. During the Han, the walls of the palace’s Cloud Pavilion (the combined structures of Cloud Terrace and Unicorn Pavilion) were covered with paintings of those who performed meritorious service but excluded exemplars of military and civil valor, such as generals and censors. The title, “master of dapple-gray steeds” (tsung-ma-shih), Ch’en bestows on his friend (and on himself), was originally an epithet of the Han-dynasty censor Huan Tien, whose carriage was pulled by a team of gray horses.

To Vice Censor Ch’iao

CH’EN TZU-ANG

The Han court glorified clever officials

Cloud Pavilion disdained border service

pity the master of dapple-gray steeds

what good is an old man’s valor