Zhang Pin was a poet of the Tang Dynasty. Very little is recorded about his life in surviving historical sources: his native place, birth and death years, and other basic information are all unknown, and publicly available material is limited. Judging from the works that have come down to us, he spent much of his life moving between the civil examinations and the staffs of regional officials, and he had firsthand experience of the frustrations of scholars and the hardships of travel. The collection here includes one work by him, "Expressing My Feelings After Failing the Examination," which belongs to the category of classic works. The poem centers on the state of mind after failure in the examinations; its emotions are somber and restrained, writing both of personal disappointment and of the pressure the examination system placed on Tang candidates generally. Zhang Pin's style tends toward the plain and concise, conveying deep feeling through unadorned language with little ornamentation yet genuine power to move. Because few of his works and few records about him survive, later attention has focused mainly on this poem, whose value lies in offering a concrete and vivid sample for understanding the psychology of failed Tang candidates and the culture of the examination system.
