Chén Yánxiào 陳巖肖 (fl. 1138–1166)
Zì Zǐxiàng 子象. Native of Jīnhuá 金華 (in modern Zhèjiāng). His father Chén Dégù 陳德固 died in the catastrophe of Jìngkāng 靖康 (1126–1127). On the strength of his father’s record (rènzǐ 任子, hereditary preferment), Chén Yánxiào sat the Cíkē 詞科 (composition examination) in Shàoxīng 8 (1138) and rose in office to Bīngbù shìláng 兵部侍郎 (Vice-Minister of War). He styled himself “Xījiāo yěsǒu” 西郊野叟 (“Old man of the western suburb”), under which name his Gēngxī shīhuà 庚溪詩話 was first transmitted in Zuǒ Guī’s 左圭 Bǎichuān xuéhǎi 百川學海, the author’s name being lost. Hú Yìnglín 胡應麟’s Bǐcóng 筆叢 later restored the authorship on the basis of an internal entry where Chén refers to his own son’s poem; Wú Shīdào 吳師道’s Jìngxiāng lù 敬郷錄 had however already named him.
Chén lived through the Jìngkāng catastrophe — his book records his youthful travel in the capital and a visit to the Tiānqīng monastery 天淸寺 there — and his career extended into the Chúnxī 淳熙 reign (1174–1189) of Xiàozōng. Internal references in the Gēngxī shīhuà call Gāozōng “the retired emperor” (Tàishàng huángdì), Xiàozōng “the present emperor”, and Guāngzōng “the present heir-apparent”, placing the writing of the book in the Chúnxī era. His one surviving work is the Gēngxī shīhuà (KR4i0022).