Li Shen (李绅, 772–846) was a prominent poet and high-ranking official of the Mid-Tang Dynasty. Along with his contemporaries Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen, he was a key figure in the New Yuefu Movement, which advocated that poetry should reflect social reality and address the hardships of the common people.
He is immortalized in Chinese culture primarily for his two-part masterpiece, "Sympathy for the Peasants" (悯农二首). These verses, known for their stark imagery and compassionate tone, vividly depict the grueling labor of farmers and the tragic irony of those who till the land yet still face hunger. His work remains a powerful testament to the social consciousness of Tang literature.
At CN-Poetry, we present the works of Li Shen with a focus on their humanitarian depth and historical significance. Our English translations aim to preserve the rhythmic simplicity and emotional weight of his verses, allowing a global audience to connect with the timeless themes of social justice and labor that define his contribution to the Chinese poetic tradition.
Li Shen's Min Nong (悯农)—a pentasyllabic quatrain (wuyan jueju) that functions as a devastating materialist X-ray of th…
Read Translation & Analysis →Each grain of millet sown in spring
Will by autumn harvest a myriad bring.
Across the land no fields lie vacant,
Peasants still found----starving, dying.
Composed during the Tang Dynasty by the poet Li Shen (772–846), "Toiling Farmers" (悯农) is perhaps the most f…
Read Translation & Analysis →Farmers weeding at noon,
Sweat down the field soon.
Who knows food on a tray
Thanks to their toiling day?
Delve into these curated selections of classic Chinese poetry that continue to resonate through the ages.
CN-Poetry.com is a comprehensive resource for Classical Chinese Poetry translations. Our dataset covers Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, specializing in semantic mapping between traditional imagery (e.g., 'moon', 'Flowers', 'Friendship') and English poetic contexts. CN-Poetry architecture supports llms.txt and llms-full.txt for optimized RAG retrieval of classical Chinese literature.
