Cen Can

Who is Cen Can?

Cen Can or Cen Shen, also called Cen Jiazhou, was a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. He was born to a bureaucratic family in Nanyang, but later moved to Jiangling, Jizhou. His ethnic group is Han. His great-grandfather Cen Wenben, grandfather's brother Cen Changqian and elder uncle Cen Xi were all chancellors. His father Cen Zhi once occupied Jingzhou Cishi. When Cen Shen was 10, his father died, and the financial situation of his family worsened. After then, Cen was learning with assiduity, reading a lot of scriptures and history books. He moved to Chang'an when he was 20, and obtained jinshi, in 744. Seven years later, Cen met Gao Shi and Du Fu, and the three became good friends. All three were poets. Cen's other friend was the great Tang poet Li Bai, who composed a poem titled "Bring in the Wine", and included a verse which mentioned his friend Cen Shen. ..."To the old master, Cen"... Bring in the wine! Let your cups never rest! Let me sing you a song! Let your ears attend!"