WANG CAN AND THE POETRY OF SCHOLAR-OFFICIALS DURING THE HAN Wan Can: Poet at the Fall of the Han |
| Wang Can (177-217 CE) lived during the end of the Han dynasty and, as a bureaucrat in the Han government, was forced to flee to southern China from the capital city of Chang-an (today's Xian, or Sian) in order to escape the rebellious factions that were challenging Han rule. The Han dynasty fell in 220 CE. |
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Robert Oxnam :: One of the most famous poets of this generation is Wang Can, who was born at the end of the second century and lived just at the time when the Han dynasty was crumbling. It was a period of famine and rebellions in many parts of the empire. Paul Rouzer :: Basically, the Chinese empire was in chaos. Wang Can himself during this time period was forced to flee the capital of China at this time, the city of Chang-an, which was located near the present day city of Xian, in North Central China. He had to flee the city because he was a bureaucrat of the empire, and if he was caught in the city when rebels took the city, he would probably have been executed. He was forced to leave his entire family behind and flee to far southern China, an area that at that time was still occupied by large numbers of non-Chinese people. Robert Oxnam :: Wang Can uses his poetry to express his great remorse that he cannot fulfill his Confucian responsibility to family and state. |
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