张元幹

Zhang Yuangan is a Chinese author of classical poetry, about whom public information is limited; his birth and death years, native place, and official career are not clearly recorded. All that can currently be confirmed is that two of his works survive, namely an anthology of Song poetry, the "Luchuan Guilai Ji Chao," and the "Zhang Yuangan Ci Collection." Judging from the titles and the common classification of his works, he wrote both shi and ci, with the latter being especially prominent. His ci often express personal feelings and thoughts on home and country, in a somber and indignant style, and are somewhat representative of the early Southern Song ci world; his shi appear in old-style poetry anthologies and mostly relate to his personal experience and the times. Because insufficient historical material survives, the details of his life are difficult to set out, and literary history generally regards him as one of the literati active at the transition from the Northern to the Southern Song, whose works influenced later patriotic ci writing.