Jiang Yan was a literary figure during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, who held numerous official positions in the Song, Qi, and Liang dynasties of the Southern Dynasties. When he was young, his family was very poor. Due to his father’s early death, when he was very young, he went up the mountain to chop firewood and sold it to worship his mother. Despite the harsh conditions, Jiang Yan still worked hard to study. Due to his diligent self-study, he wrote many wonderful articles and poems, which were praised by the world after reading them. His reputation spread widely, and in the end, Jiang Yan was highly regarded by the court.
But in his later years, Jiang Yan’s talent greatly diminished, and his articles were plain and lacked literary talent, with no more beautiful lines in his poems. People shake their heads and say, ‘Jiang Lang has run out of talent.’ If we investigate the reason, it is probably because Jiang Yan later became a high-ranking official and was busy with official duties, so he didn’t have time to write poetry and literature seriously. And after he gained fame, his status changed and his life became prosperous, so he no longer studied hard and naturally regressed greatly.
So there was a legend that once Jiang Yan boarded a boat and stopped by the river of Zenling Temple, where he stayed. At night, he had a strange dream when a person claiming to be Zhang Jingyang came up to him and said, “I used to keep a piece of brocade in your arms for a long time now. Please return it to me.” Jiang Yan touched his arms and found a dazzling brocade, which he couldn’t help but take out and return to the person.
After waking up, Jiang Yan felt empty in his stomach and picked up his pen, but he couldn’t write good articles. There is also a legend that Jiang Yan stayed at Yeting at night when a handsome man walked over and said to him with a smile, “I am Guo Pu, a literary figure from the Jin Dynasty. I left you a pen back then, and today I came to ask for it. You should be able to return it to me now.” Jiang Yan touched it in his arms and found a pen, which turned out to be a five colored pen. Jiang Yan returned the pen to that person. From then on, Jiang Yan’s literary talent declined steadily.
