Jiang Yan and Friend

After a brief look at some famous comments about friendship in Western thought and literature, we turn to early medieval China and the writings of Jiang Yan (444–505), in which are memorialized a friendship that Jiang spoke of in the most touching terms. This was the brief friendship he enjoyed with Yuan Bing when both men were in their twenties. Examination of Jiang’s writings about or to Yuan Bing, in both prose and verse, shows how deep emotion can sometimes escape the customary restraints of literary conventions. This can be seen especially in the intensely moving fu poem he composed in mourning over Yuan Bing’s unexpected and premature death.