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Cen Shen ( 岑参 718-769), a native of Jiangling of Jingzhou (now Jiangling County, Hubei),  was a famous frontier poet in the Tang Dynasty. Cen Shen was born in a bureaucratic family. He passed the imperial examination when he was 26 years old, and he served in the frontier for two times. Cen Shen died in Chengdu at the age of 51 years old.

The poetry of Cen Shen unleashed a powerful force,rich imagination and fervent passion. Unlike Gao Shi, Cen tended toheroic myths of frontier life.

Cen's poems were basically romantic, asrepresented by Song of the Horse Cantering Plain- To General Feng on His Western Expedition, Song of Luntai -To General Feng on His WesternExpedition, and Song of White Snow- To Secretary Wu Returning to the Capital In his poem Song of White Snow - To Secretary Wu Returningto the Capital, he even compares snow flakes falling down in August in North China to pear blossoms, as in the famous line "Pear trees were allin bloom-a hundred, a thousand." In Cen's poems, cold weather,reluctance at time of farewell and nostalgia are backgrounded in favorof heroism and optimism.

Some of Cen's poems which invoke grand landscapes and diverse folk customs on the frontier are also master pieces, such as Song of Glouds Glowing Red above the Volcano-A Parting Song ,To Cui-Attendant Censor-Returning to the Capital,Luntai in Mid-July and Song of General Gai at the Yumen Pass.

Cen Shen and Gao Shi , both veterans of military service, excelled at writing seven-character line verse. Their poems reflect a common desireto devote their lives to their country-but the artistic techniques adopted in their poems are widely different.